Staples, the national office supply superstore chain, announced its new Environmental Paper Procurement Policy on Tuesday, which will move the company toward forest-friendly paper sales.
The new policy focuses on purchasing and promoting products with recycled content, implementing chainwide recycling initiatives, establishing energy conservation programs and creating educational initiatives for customers and associates.
“We are proud of our solid history of dedication to the environment that has brought us to this important milestone,” Staples vice-chairman Joseph Vassalluzzo said. “We now embrace the work ahead toward realizing our environmental goals.”
The national Paper Campaign coalition, a mix of dozens of groups dedicated to moving the marketplace toward recycled paper, has been pressuring Staples for the past two years to adopt this sort of policy. The coalition targeted Staples because it is the largest and fastest growing superstore chain in the world, making it the market leader and lead consumer of forest products.
“Staples’ new policy is the beginning of the end of the practice of destroying endangered forests to make disposable paper products,” said Rebecca O’Malley, program advocate for ecopledge.com, one of the groups involved in the Paper Campaign.
The company will also create an environmental affairs division to report annually on its environmental results, as it is dedicated to the continuous efforts of learning, analysis, action and measurement.
Staples Public Relations Manager Owen Davis said that formalizing this policy continues efforts that have already been underway as a part of Staples’ commitment to the environment. Davis said consumer education is important because there must be a demand for the products they are trying to promote. One of the newer products being offered is paper from the Living Tree Paper Company, a Eugene-based company, which makes paper from non-wood products and post-consumer waste.
Efforts of the Paper Campaign included more than 600 protests at Staples stores nationwide, tens of thousands of letters and calls to the companies’ CEOs and national news coverage.
Staples invented the office superstore concept and now has more than 1,400 stores. Ross Hammersley, pacific coast field organizer for ecopledge.com, said they are optimistic that other companies will follow Staples’ lead. In the past, ecopledge.com has been able to convince one company to commit to a certain issue, then pressure their competitors to follow suit.
“We can target one market leader and hope the dominoes fall,” Hammersley said.