OPI focuses on sustainability, the environment and the latest news shaping the green agenda within the office products industry.

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US recycling
If you recycle your old electronics, you are in the minority, according to a new survey that shows only 23 percent of Americans recycle eWaste, even though it is getting more convenient to do so.

The US Environmental Protection Agency says that Americans throw out two million tons of eWaste each year. These electronic devices contain hazardous materials such as mercury, cadmium, lead and brominated flame retardants.

"Every day in the US, an estimated 133,000 computers and office machines are discarded and not recycled or reused, which causes mounting trash and toxicity in landfills," says Kate Krebs, executive director of the National Recycling Coalition, which coordinates America Recycles Day on 15 November each year.

Now in its tenth year, America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognised day set aside to encourage Americans to recycle and to buy recycled products.

"The recycling of electronic products at their end of life fuels economic activity, creates jobs and diverts hazardous materials from landfills," says Krebs.

Still, only 23 percent of respondents to a national survey told interviewers that they recycle old or unused electronic items, while 41 percent said they either throw unwanted consumer electronics in the trash or do not dispose of them at all.

In May, Staples became the first US retailer to launch an in-store, every day computer and office technology recycling programme at its 1,400 stores.

"Between 2000 and 2007, an estimated 500 million computers became obsolete in the US," says Mark Buckley, VP of environmental affairs at Staples. "Providing options for technology recycling is an important way that Staples makes it easy to make a difference to the environment."

The chain accepts all brands of items, regardless of whether or not they were purchased at Staples, and recycles them for a $10 fee. Free in-store recycling is offered for mobile phones, PDAs, pagers, digital cameras, chargers and rechargeable batteries. They are sent to Collective Good, which refurbishes products where feasible or recycles them and donates a portion of the proceeds to charity.

Big-box rivals Office Depot marked this year's America Recycles Day by focusing on its growing array of 3,500 green products and services, while offering customers more ways to recycle in the workplace.

Office Depot offers a new nationwide Tech Recycling Service for a small fee, plus the recyling of ink and toner cartridges, batteries and mobile phones.

"Office Depot's environmental strategy is structured around a vision to increasingly buy green, be green and sell green," says Yalmaz Siddiqui, environmental strategy advisor for Office Depot. "It's important that we continually improve Office Depot's own sustainability as well as that of our suppliers and customers.

"The best way to accomplish this is by providing our stakeholders with innovative products and services that are also green."

Xerox diverts two billion pounds of waste
Xerox Corporation has announced that it has surpassed a major sustainability milestone by diverting more than two billion pounds of electronic waste from landfills around the world through waste-free initiatives that create sustainability benefits for the company and its customers.

Launched in 1991, long before sustainability was on most companies' radar screens, Xerox's environmental programme achieved the two-billion-pound milestone by waste avoidance in two areas: reuse and recycling in imaging supplies and product take-back and recycling and parts reuse. In addition, Xerox integrates innovative environmental priorities into manufacturing operations to add to its recycling efforts.

"Xerox's experience with reuse, recycling and remanufacturing has not only kept waste out of landfills, but saved the company more than $2 billion as it did so," says Patricia Calkins, Xerox VP for the environment, health and safety. "If that amount of waste were loaded into garbage trucks, it would fill more than 160,000 trucks, stretching more than 1,000 miles, from Seattle to the Mexican border. We believe sustainability is an integral part of developing products, serving customers and posting profits."

Central to the company's commitment to waste-free products is the Xerox Green World Alliance, a reuse and recycling programme for printer cartridges and toner. The programme kept more than 2.7 million cartridges and toner containers and nearly 11 million pounds of waste out of landfills last year alone.

Spicers helps business get 'climatised'
For this year's Synergy dealers' conference, Spicers is putting climate change centre stage and is hoping to inspire dealers to take the green agenda seriously, enabling them to develop both sustainable and profitable businesses for the future.

"Climate change is a very serious challenge for all of us, but there are ways to reduce our commercial carbon footprint in the UK and green our businesses that can also be profitable for dealers. We hope that this conference will help dealers to be 'box clever' as consumer demand moves towards environmentally friendly products by promoting themselves as suppliers of green products," explains Nick Wilkinson, Spicers' Synergy business manager.

Synergy will be presenting three influential speakers. For an update on the latest climate change science, Dr Paul Williams, a climate science expert from the University of Reading, will address the conference. Eco-auditor Donnachadh McCarthy will speak on steps we can all take to a more eco-friendly lifestyle. The third speaker, management accountant Anthony Day, will talk on the practical effects of climate change not only on society but on business too. Dealers will also be given an update on Spicers' initiatives within its own business as it moves towards ISO14001 accreditation.The conference will be held on 11 December at the Hilton Metropole, Birmingham, UK.

OyezStraker launches Carboncare
Leading UK independent dealer OyezStraker has marked the launch of its new Carboncare initiative, aimed at making office supplies as environmentally friendly as possible, with an exhibition and customer seminar in London.

Customers from a wide range of UK organisations heard speakers from Hewlett-Packard, Robert Horne Group, File and Data, Infotec, OyezStraker Carboncare Services and OyezStraker Office Environments talk on reducing environmental impact.

Keynote speaker Andrew Borrill, regional development director of OyezStraker's Carboncare Services, told the audience: "Planting trees is a step in the right direction but British industry has to do much more to satisfy the widespread demand for environmentally conscious products and services. That's why we have responded with a set of concrete measures that we believe will both satisfy our customers' concerns and also put us in the forefront of the effort to cut carbon emissions to a minimum."

The audience also heard presentations on a wide range of specific issues from paper and packaging and print cartridge recycling to managing records efficiently, and office design that is environmentally friendly.

Depot rewarded for green efforts
Office Depot has received the environmental excellence award from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Depot was recognised by the agency's SmartWay Transport Partnership for its leadership in conserving energy and lowering greenhouse gas emissions from its transportation and freight activities. In one year, Depot reduced its greenhouse gas emissions from the transport of products to customers and stores by 9.4 percent.

Some of the initiatives employed by Depot to achieve this included the addition of more than 400 ultra low-emission Sprinter vans to its fleet of delivery vehicles and saving approximately 1.25 million gallons of fuel by using inter-modal transportation - combining ships, railroads and trucks - instead of strictly utilising over-the-road transportation.

Mark Cartwright, VP of transportation for Depot, says: "Our partnership with SmartWay Transport demonstrates that companies do have the opportunity to implement initiatives that are both environmentally and financially beneficial. Through our introduction of a wide range of environmental initiatives, including our fuel-efficient delivery fleet, Office Depot has secured a leadership role in the industry."

John Dickinson maintains its green credentials
John Dickinson Stationery, one of the UK's leading office products companies, is to launch a raft of new and innovative products and ranges for 2008 at this month's Spicers SOS exhibition, all of which demonstrate its ongoing commitment to providing environmentally responsible stationery products.

One Chance is Basildon Bond's new range of notebooks focusing on the plight of a number of endangered species. With high-impact photographic covers, the notebooks include a factual information sheet inside the front cover detailing the reason for the creature's risk of extinction, statistics on UK recycling and 20 tips to help consumers address their own impact on the environment.

John Dickinson is also relaunching New Guardian and Plus Fabric, two premium ranges of business envelopes. These are made from paper awarded the EU Eco-label, which ensures that the paper comes from a sustainable source and that emissions during manufacture are reduced to a minimum, lessening the overall environmental impact.

Earlier in the year, the iconic stationery brand Basildon Bond for the office relaunched a range of environmentally responsible business envelopes. The envelopes use 100 percent recycled paper and also incorporate a corn-based window film that is 100 percent biodegradable.

Jane Rowe, marketing director, says: "It is a priority for us to ensure that businesses are able to purchase responsibly, with as little impact on the environment as possible. Our product development is constantly driving towards supplying stationery items including notebooks, pads and envelopes with improved sustainability credentials, helping companies comply with the need for responsible procurement practices."

Herman Miller showcases at Greenbuild
Office furniture-maker Herman Miller showcased the advances the company has made in sustainable design across its facilities, product range and working practices at the sixth annual Greenbuild Conference and Expo last month.

Paul Murray, director of environmental health and safety, said: "Our comprehensive approach to environmental stewardship starts with our buildings. Through our understanding of green building design and related issues we're able to significantly reduce operating costs, decrease waste, and develop complementary technologies and products that can help us and our customers reduce our environmental impact."

Conqueror boosts eco credentials
Arjowiggins, one of the world's leading manufacturers of creative high-tech materials and papers, has announced that Conqueror is now Europe's first carbon neutral fine paper brand and that it will only use pulp sourced from FSC-certified sources across the entire product range.

The announcement marks the latest stage in Arjowiggins' implementation of industry-leading, environmental best practice, which includes the use of elemental chlorine-free pulp, certifying its mills to ISO14001, and constantly expanding its recycled range. Following the success of the Conqueror Recycled FSC-certified range, which was first to market when it launched more than two years ago, Conqueror will now be FSC-certified across all items, and as a result, promotes the use of well-managed forests.

David Cook, UK and Ireland sales and marketing director at Arjowiggins, says: "Conqueror is the market-leading paper brand for business communications in the UK. In response to growing environmental concerns we are committing to a significant investment of over €500,000 ($740,000) in the brand's environmental credentials.

"As well as going carbon neutral, FSC-certification for the full range is an important step, as this is the standard recognised by both end users and specialists within the paper industry. For many businesses, using eco-friendly sound products is integral to their company culture or larger corporate social responsibilities."

Bisley calculates carbon footprint
Following the recent launch of its Communicating Carbon campaign, furniture-maker Bisley now claims it can calculate the carbon footprint of every one of its range of steel storage units.

Surveying a selection of architects, specifiers and dealers, Bisley asked a number of thought-provoking questions to see just how environmentally aware we actually are.

When asked to prioritise by product selection criteria, only 19 percent of people questioned rated 'green' as a top priority. Not surprisingly, 'function' and 'price' were favourites with joint results of 31 percent.

However, the survey then went on to ask: Are green issues raised by your customers?, 54 percent of respondents said 'yes'; and to the question: Do green issues affect their product selection?, 62 percent replied 'yes' – a significant indication of the growing appreciation in the office furniture sector for reducing carbon footprinting and the importance placed on this as an influential purchasing criteria.

Gary Carr, marketing manager at Bisley, comments: "The whole environmental message is a powerful one in today's corporate environment. Carbon footprint is the phrase of the moment and many large corporates are putting into place an environmental policy to drastically reduce the size of their carbon footprint. The effect of this on tendering processes has to be considered by specifiers of office furniture."

The British Contract Furnishing Association's Carbon Footprint Calculator spreadsheet is in line with guidance from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and expresses the carbon that is inherent in a product by virtue of its raw materials and manufacturing and distribution processes.

Sustainable future
The commitment to creating and maintaining a more sustainable environment is the focus of Wausau Paper's latest report, Imprinting Your Vision for Sustainability on Paper. It explores how the establishment of environmental partnerships can further advance sustainable business practices.

"This piece is not just another print promotion. It's a dialogue to introduce a new way of looking at sustainability," says Jeff Fox, marketing director for Wausau's printing and writing sector.

The new vision from Wausau Paper identifies two distinct audiences; the influencers and the stewards. The company defines influencers as the art directors who are responsible for selecting paper for a company's creative communications. And stewards are defined as the chief sustainability officers, a company's ultimate environmental steward responsible for evaluating business decisions from a sustainability perspective.

Fox says: "Stewards and influencers typically don't interact with one another when making paper-buying decisions... until now. Throughout our Imprinting Your Vision report, we help the creative director and the sustainability executive understand each other better so that both can be more effective in their roles. Most companies know that sustainable business practices are the right thing to do. They just need the right partnership to do it with."