Feb 23 2010
Office Depot® (NYSE: ODP), a leading global provider of office products and services, today announced that the Company will pursue Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Commercial Interiors (CI) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for all new Office Depot retail stores, beginning in June 2010.
LEED CI is the recognized system for certifying high-performance green interiors that are healthy, productive places to work; are less costly to operate and maintain; and have a reduced environmental footprint. Realizing that the Company does not always have control of the building – especially when occupying an existing site – Office Depot will make sustainable choices wherever possible and seek LEED CI certification.
“As a retailer with store locations opening around the country, we have a great opportunity to make a difference on the overall environmental footprint of today’s businesses,” said Chuck Rubin, President of North American Retail for Office Depot. “Office Depot takes that role very seriously and have therefore decided to LEED CI certify all of our new store locations going forward. We are confident that this initiative will benefit our customers, associates, suppliers and other stakeholders.”
According to Rubin, 14 new Office Depot store locations will be LEED CI certified, starting with the Company’s newest location in Austin, TX, which is scheduled to open in June 2010. At each of these locations, Office Depot will look to mirror the impressive energy and monetary savings seen at Office Depot’s first LEED Gold-Certified store in Austin, TX, which opened in April 2008.
“The energy savings realized at our first Austin store location has been even greater than what we had originally expected,” said Edward Costa, Vice President of Construction for Office Depot. “We intend to continue to make our stores as energy efficient, water efficient and cost efficient as possible. With LEED CI we are now able to ‘green’ all of our store locations – regardless of whether we build it ourselves or take over an existing building.”
Office Depot LEED CI Green Store Highlights
Features of all new Office Depot LEED CI certified stores will include:
- Preferred parking designated for low-emitting, fuel efficient vehicles and carpooling.
- Skylights (where applicable) will be used to harvest daylight for 90% of the store.
- Reflective roof which features a membrane that helps to prevent absorption of the heat from the sun and keeps the interior of the store much cooler.
- Energy Star rated HVAC equipment that exceeds ASHRAE standards.
- T5 energy-efficient lighting, which is over 30% more efficient than typical retail lighting and will contribute to over 20% reduction in energy use.
- Daylight and occupancy sensors which reduce energy use.
- Water conservation interior fixtures, including tankless instant hot water heaters, low flush toilets, low flow urinals, and automatic shutoff sensors in restrooms that will use over 30% less water than the typical facility.
- Construction waste that will be recycled when waste recycling is available.
- Construction materials that consist of at least 10% recycled content.
- Wood, 50% of which will come from well managed forests verified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
- All interior finishes are made up low VOC emitting materials and finishes.
- Green Power purchases supplementing electrical use.
- An Energy Management System that allows tracking of energy usage and trends from one central location.
- 100% Energy Star rated building equipment and appliances.
- Office supplies, technology and furniture featuring a range of green attributes, including recycled content, remanufactured, Energy Star rated and non-toxic.
- An in-store Recycling Center with environmental solutions including Office Depot Ink and Toner Cartridge Recycling, Tech Recycling Service and Cell Phone and Rechargeable Battery Recycling.
Yalmaz Siddiqui, Director of Environmental Strategy for Office Depot added: “Office Depot has an environmental strategy to increasingly buy green, be green and sell green. By incorporating a leading green building commitment to this strategy, we will continue to lead our industry, and deliver environmental and economic benefits to our company."
Source: www.officedepot.com