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OFFICE DEPOT UNVEILS COMPANY’S FIRST “GREEN” STORE
New Retail Location Incorporates Sustainable Building Design and Innovative Green Visual Merchandising
Delray Beach, Fla., July 10, 2008 – Office Depot® (NYSE: ODP), a leading global
provider of office products and services, today will celebrate the grand opening of its first
“Green” store, located at 2620 W. Anderson Lane in Austin, TX, with a Ribbon Cutting
Ceremony scheduled for 2:00 pm. The event will be attended by Office Depot
executives, Texas dignitaries, including City of Austin Mayor Will Wynn, local
environmental organizations and representatives from the U.S. Green Building Council
(USGBC).
Office Depot’s “Green” store, which is pre-certified to Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) standards by the USGBC, will use less energy and water
in its daily operations, increase recycling and leave a much smaller overall
environmental footprint than the typical store of its size.
“The City of Austin is the birthplace of the USGBC and a leader in our nation’s fight
against climate change,” said City of Austin Mayor Will Wynn. “We are proud that Office
Depot chose to select Austin as the site of its green retail prototype. We think what they
are doing shows real leadership – and paves the path for more retailers to invest in
green building.”
Office Depot is the only office supply retailer participating in the USGBC’s prestigious
Retail Volume Certification Portfolio Program, a pilot group formed to help retailers
achieve LEED-Certification at numerous locations and to facilitate the certification
process for a company’s prototype. Office Depot is the first Company to have its
prototype pre-certified under the USGBC's LEED for New Construction Volume
Certification Program.
“We are looking forward to taking care of business for our Austin customers at our first
pre-certified ‘Green’ store,” said Chuck Rubin, President of North American Retail for
Office Depot. “Not only can customers choose from thousands of greener office
products within Office Depot's industry-leading assortment but they will also have a
better understanding of why a particular product is green and how they can make
sustainable products a part of their home office or business environment.”
"We took a series of innovative green design elements used in Office Depot store
locations across the country and brought them together in our new store prototype,"
added Ed Costa, Vice President of Construction for Office Depot. "Through the
construction phase of this prototype design we used a wide range of greener building
products and practices.”
Office Depot Green Store Highlights
Features of the new Office Depot “Green” store in Austin include:
- T5 energy-efficient lighting, which is over 30 percent more efficient than traditional, incandescent lighting.
- Over 50 active skylights that adjust with the path of the sun and provide natural light to over 90 percent of the store.
- Solar panels on the roof, which generate about 10 percent of the store’s energy needs and power the exterior Office Depot signage.
- Reflective roof which features a membrane that helps to prevent absorption of the heat from the sun and keeps the interior of the store much cooler.
- Steel decking and joists made of over 85 percent recycled steel and recycled concrete partitions composed of more than 95 percent recycled materials.
- Water conservation interior fixtures, including dual flush toilets, low flow urinals, and automatic shutoff sensors in restrooms that will use over 40 percent less water than the typical facility.
- Exterior Landscaping system featuring xeriscaping, a water-efficient technique.
- Native plants that require no additional irrigation for sustenance.
- Energy Management System that allows tracking of energy usage and trends from one central location.
- Office supplies, technology and furniture options featuring a wide range of green attributes such as recycled content, remanufactured, EnergyStar certified and non-toxic.
- In-store Recycling Center with environmental solutions including Office Depot Ink and Toner Cartridge Recycling, Tech Recycling Service and Cell Phone and Rechargeable Battery Recycling.
Another innovative aspect of the Office Depot green store is a new approach to visual
merchandising. The interior walls feature educational vignettes about how the store and
product assortment are both greener; customers will be welcomed by an informational
board containing interesting facts and details on what makes the store green; and store
associates will be armed with tips and recommendations to help customers learn how to
green their own business.
Yalmaz Siddiqui, Director of Environmental Strategy for Office Depot added: “Office
Depot has an environmental vision to increasingly buy green, be green and sell green.
While we have already achieved dramatic reductions in carbon emissions from our
existing facilities, this new store takes us to a completely new level of energy efficiency,
carbon reduction and waste reduction. The pre-certification of our prototype further
establishes Office Depot as the green leader in the office products industry."
Supporting The Austin Community
At today’s Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Office Depot will also celebrate its commitment to
helping to green the City of Austin by having the Office Depot Foundation make a $2,000
donation to Keep Austin Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful which inspires
and educates individuals and our community towards greater environmental
stewardship. The goals of the organization are to clean, beautify and protect the Austin
environment through physical improvements and hands-on education.
For more information on Office Depot’s environmental initiatives please visit:
http://mediarelations.officedepot.cc/environment. To view the Company’s assortment of
greener office products, visit www.officedepot.com/buygreen.
About Office Depot
Every day, Office Depot is Taking Care of Business for millions of customers around the
globe. For the local corner store as well as Fortune 500 companies, Office Depot
provides products and services to its customers through 1,670 worldwide retail stores, a
dedicated sales force, top-rated catalogs and a $4.9 billion e-commerce operation.
Office Depot has annual sales of approximately $15.5 billion, and employs about 49,000
associates around the world. The Company provides more office products and services
to more customers in more countries than any other company, and currently sells to
customers directly or through affiliates in 43 countries.
Office Depot’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the
symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index. Additional press information can be
found at: http://mediarelations.officedepot.com.
About USGBC
The U.S. Green Building Council is a nonprofit membership organization whose vision is
a sustainable built environment within a generation. Its membership includes
corporations, builders, universities, government agencies, and other nonprofit
organizations. Since UGSBC’s founding in 1993, the Council has grown to include more
than 13,500 member companies and organizations, a comprehensive family of LEED®
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building rating systems, an
expansive educational offering, the industry’s popular Greenbuild International
Conference and Expo (www.greenbuildexpo.org), and a network of 72 local chapters,
affiliates, and organizing groups. For more information, visit www.usgbc.org. The LEED
Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of
sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and
implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.
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