Office Depot, Inc. (NASDAQ:ODP), a leading provider of office supplies, business products and services delivered through an omnichannel platform, today announced that it is recognizing forward-thinking companies from across the country for their leadership in greener purchasing.

"One of the unique ways Office Depot promotes sustainability is by celebrating our customers who buy greener,” said Steve Calkins, president, business solutions division for Office Depot. “By recognizing these organizations for achieving their sustainability goals, they’ll continue to make greener purchasing decisions in the future and we believe that other organizations will follow.”

Leadership in Greener Purchasing award winners include private sector organizations American Electric Power (Columbus, OH), Best Buy Co., Inc. (Richfield, MN), DaVita (Denver, CO), Oracle (Redwood City, CA), Rush Enterprises, Inc. (New Braunfels, TX), Marsh & McLennan Companies (New York City), and Ogletree Deakins; and public sector customers City of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, Los Angeles City College, University of California, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania and Washington State Department of Licensing.

In addition, University of Pennsylvania (Penn) received the Office Depot Special Recognition for Greener Spend Analysis Award. This award recognizes the exemplary efforts specific to analyzing green spend data. Office Depot and University of Pennsylvania also worked together on the ‘Power Down Challenge’ energy savings initiative, which allowed Office Depot to identify top technology items that could both improve energy efficiency and lower the environmental footprint for the campus community.

“Penn Purchasing Services works with its suppliers and the Penn community to actively identify and promote products and processes that make a positive sustainability impact,” said Mark Mills, Penn’s director of purchasing. “We are pleased to work with a company such as Office Depot, which gives us access to the kinds of detailed data we need to make intelligent and practical decisions related to sustainability. Office Depot has been instrumental in helping Penn green its office supplies spend, and we look forward to continued collaboration moving forward.”

Award winners were selected from among Office Depot’s largest customers based on their expenditure on products with eco-attributes such as recycled content, energy-efficiency, non-toxicity, etc., and/or ecolabels such as FSC®, EPEAT, GREENGUARD Certification, GreenSeal® and EcoLogo. Customer purchases with the highest level of meaningful eco-attributes and ecolabels were given extra weight in the selection process.

Office Depot uses a wide range of approaches to increase customer uptake of greener products, including The Green Book® digital catalog to simplify the green shopping experience for contract customers, a GreenerOffice™ web store with over 14,000 products with environmental attributes, and regular promotions on greener products. Last year, sales of greener products accounted for 30 percent of the company’s total product assortment. Office Depot also has one of the industry’s leading sets of Green Solutions and reporting tools, many of which were developed in collaboration with specific customers.

For more information about Office Depot’s sustainability initiatives, please see Office Depot's Corporate Sustainability Report.

About Office Depot, Inc.

Office Depot, Inc. is a leading provider of office supplies, business products and services delivered through an omnichannel platform.

The company had 2016 annual sales of approximately $11 billion, employed approximately 38,000 associates, and served consumers and businesses in North America and abroad with approximately 1,400 retail stores, award-winning e-commerce sites and a dedicated business-to-business sales organization – with a global network of wholly owned operations, franchisees, licensees and alliance partners. The company operates under several banner brands including Office Depot, OfficeMax and Grand & Toy. The company’s portfolio of exclusive product brands include TUL, Foray, Brenton Studio, Ativa, WorkPro, Realspace and Highmark.

Office Depot, Inc.’s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “ODP.”

Office Depot is a trademark of The Office Club, Inc. OfficeMax is a trademark of OMX, Inc. ©2017 Office Depot, Inc. All rights reserved. Any other product or company names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.