Office Depot Says LEED Store Yielding Results

Office Depot says its LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certified store, which opened in Austin, Texas, in May of 2008, has lowered its carbon intensity by 23 percent due to programs implemented at the store.

Office Depot, based in Boca Raton, Fla., tracked a variety of environmental impact factors at the store during a 12-month span, including energy usage, carbon dioxide emissions and water efficiency, and compared it to other Office Depot retail stores in the same area.

“The energy savings realized at our first Austin store location has been even greater than what we had originally expected,” says Edward Costa, vice president of construction for Office Depot. “The Austin location allowed us to test a variety of new and innovative initiatives and solutions that resulted in both environmental and economic benefits.”

In addition to lowering its carbon emissions, the Office Depot Gold Certified LEED retail store has achieved numerous benefits, according to the company, including:

• a recycling program for the collection of corrugated cardboard, paper, plastics, ink/toner cartridges and electronics;
• the use of recycled content carpet; and
• the implementation of an number of energy-saving devices and techniques, resulting in the use of about 14 percent less electricity.

“Our Austin experience shows that a LEED-certified store is dramatically more energy efficient than a non-certified store,” says Yalmaz Siddiqui, director of environmental strategy for Office Depot. “The results prove how beneficial a green building can be from both an environmental and economic perspective.”

More information on the company’s green building and environmental efforts can be found at www.officedepot.com/environment.