Giving Green Grades to Office Supply Sector

As the back to school shopping season comes to a close, environmental groups ForestEthics and Dogwood Alliance released a "report card" today on the forest-related paper practices of the five major office supply companies: Staples, Office Depot, Corporate Express, FedEx Kinko's and OfficeMax. Each of the five companies has been engaged in discussions with two environmental groups, which have resulted in several new advances: a new environmental policy and increased recycled paper use (Corporate Express), a committment to sustainable logging (Staples), and the elimination of sourcing from endangered mountain caribou habitat (FedEx Kinko's)

"The office supply sector has finally begun to make its paper supply more environmentally friendly," said Andrew Goldberg, Director of Corporate Engagement at the Dogwood Alliance. "Where just a few years ago you could not find paper with recycled content, now it is readily available. This is a good first step, but these companies must sharpen their pencils and use their purchasing power to reform business as usual industrial logging and bring about improved managament practices on the ground in the Endangered Forests of the Southern US, Canada's Great Boreal Forest and other parts of the world."

Dogwood Alliance and ForestEthics have been working to reform the environmental practices of the office supply industry since 2000, and their successful campaigns have resulted in record high production at recycled pulp mills in 2005, and increased demand for environmentally preferable papers. The new report, titled, Green Grades: A Report Card on the Paper Practices of the Office Supply Sector, updates the progress made by the industry according to five categories, each of which is crucial to forest protection.