Doing business with tomorrow in mind.

As the leader in office products and technology, Staples is equally
committed to being an industry leader in preserving the earth’s
resources. By pursuing a wide range of initiatives that promote
environmental responsibility and sustainable business practices, we
help make it easy for you to make a difference for the environment.

Staples environmental programs focus on four major
areas. These program areas include:

1. Developing and sourcing a large selection of environmentally preferable products.
2. Providing easy recycling services for our customers and employees.
3. Implementing energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.
4. Educating customers and employees about environmental issues.

Broad Offering of Environmentally Preferable Products

We offer thousands of items containing post-consumer recycled content, including a wide assortment of paper and remanufactured ink and toner cartridges. Beyond recycled content, we also offer ENERGY STAR™ certified office technology products, refillable pens and pencils, nontoxic items and other eco-conscious choices.

We can help you customize a program that will direct or require end users to choose environmentally preferable products. We can also track and report on your environmental purchases over time, providing a list of all of your products with post-consumer content, the average post-consumer content by weight across all of your purchases and the environmental benefits of your recycled content paper purchases. Bottom line: We will help you reach your environmental goals.

You can also feel confident that you’re purchasing paper that was sourced in an environmentally sensitive manner. As part of our commitment to sustainable forestry and protecting endangered forests, we require paper suppliers to provide us with environmental information about their operations to use in our paper procurement process.

Promoting recycling inside and out.

Staples encourages you to get with the program — actually several
programs — and reduce waste by recycling office supplies.

• Convenient recycling services — recycle your inkjet and toner cartridges
  and your cell phones, pagers and PDAs through Staples. We provide
• Providing environmental resources and education — learn how you
  can “green” your office by visiting the Staples-sponsored Web site
  Earth 911 Business (www.earth911.com/Staples). Earth 911 provides
  helpful waste reduction, recycling and “green” purchasing information
  to companies nationally.

Energy conservation and renewable energy. Good for everyone.

Staples is serious about reducing energy use and investing in sources of
renewable energy. These initiatives help keep our operating costs down and
reduce our impacts on global warming. Recent accomplishments include:

• Hosting four operating rooftop solar systems, with five systems under construction and even more in the works. The four active solar projects alone should reduce green house gas emissions by more than 1.2 million pounds annually, equivalent to removing more than 580 cars from the road each year.
• Reducing our electricity use per square foot by more than 13% since 2001.
• Increasing our renewable electricity procurement to an industry-leading 20% of our total annual U.S. electricity consumption, or more than 121 million kilowatt-hours. This is equivalent to the electricity consumed by approximately 10,780 homes annually.

Strength in numbers. Joining forces and educating with
environmentally conscious partners.

Staples has formed collaborative relationships with environmental organizations
that share our commitment to preserving the earth’s natural resources.
And we continue to seek out and form new relationships with like-minded
groups that are dedicated to all areas of conservation. Some of our
relationships include:

• Climate Northeast Partner
• CollectiveGood
• Earth 911 Business Sponsor
• Green Power Market
• Development Group
• Paper Working Group Member
• U.S. EPA Climate Leaders Partner
• U.S. EPA Green Power Partner
• U.S. EPA Energy Star Partner
• U.S. EPA WasteWise Partner
• U.S. EPA Plug-In to eCycling Partner
• World Resource Institute (WRI)