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Environmentally Preferable Products

At the end of fiscal year 2007, we were offering more than 3,000 active eco–preferable products across all of our sales channels. We seek to develop or source new products that incorporate other environmental attributes beyond recycled content, including products using eco–friendly raw materials such as certified sustainable wood fibers and products that use less energy to operate.

Product Offerings

Many environmentally preferable products currently offered at Staples can be found at our new Staples EcoEasy® web site. Products offered across sales channels at Staples include:

• More than 2,200 active paper products with post–consumer recycled content (find recycled content paper) by the end of 2007

• Staples® brand remanufactured ink and toner cartridges and remanufactured carrtridges from other brands

• ENERGY STAR® certified energy–efficient office products

• Paper products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council to come from responsibly managed forests

• Furniture with post–consumer recycled content steel

• Binders and organizers containing post–consumer recycled content plastic

• Nontoxic and bio–based cleaning products.

Paper Products

Our efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of our paper sourcing have been guided by our Environmental Paper Procurement Policy, established in November 2002 with the collaborative input of a diverse group of stakeholders. The overall goals established in this policy include:

• Reducing demand for virgin wood fiber

• Protecting forests of high conservation value

• Promoting well–managed forests

Staples is committed to taking a leadership role on initiatives around sustainable paper and annually reporting on our progress. Our achievements include the following:

• Increasing the average amount of post–consumer recycled content across all of our paper products sold by weight from less than 20% in 2003 to 30% by 2007

• Offering nine Staples brand® products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

• In March of 2008, established a goal of moving the majority of paper products we offer to FSC–certified paper by the end of 2010, based upon availability of supply and market conditions

• Requiring vendors bidding to supply large–volume paper products (copy and print paper, notebook filler paper, etc.) to complete an environmental survey to help us select responsible paper suppliers.

Staples has been a member of the Paper Working Group, a group of major companies committed to conserving forests and increasing the availability of environmentally preferable paper products, since April of 2003. Organized and facilitated by the nonprofit organization Metafore, the PWG is developing methods for evaluating the environmental performance of paper suppliers to help guide sourcing decisions.

Staples is participating with Georgia–Pacific and the Forest Stewardship Council in an ongoing project to explore achieving certification for small landowners in the southeastern U.S. We are actively engaged with a diverse group of stakeholders in projects to protect high conservation value forests and encourage sustainable forestry in several other areas globally, including the Canadian boreal forest and Indonesia.

Beyond Paper

We're working to expand our selection of environmentally preferable products beyond paper. This includes designing more eco–preferable Staples® brand products that use plastics or other raw materials and sourcing more environmentally preferable products from outside vendors. For example, through our recent partnership with U.S. EPA's ENERGY STAR® program, we're working to increase the availability and visibility of the ENERGY STAR® compliant office products we offer.