Green workplace: Office Depot's green catalog

This week's eco-topic: Green workplace

If your workplace has an account with Office Depot, going green's gotten easier. As part of its environmental initiatives, the office supplies company revamped its business catalog (the Nov. 07-Aug. 08 edition) to make it "The Green Book."

When I first saw Office Depot's his new catalog -- printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with chlorine-free processing -- I was rather skeptical. After all, I'd made fun of them before for their barely-green efforts.

And in fact, this catalog does have some issues that make me raise an eyebrow. For example, some products are labeled green simply for not being totally toxic. Then again, many office supplies are still unabashedly toxic, so perhaps highlighting those that aren't is still a step in the right direction.

Overall, I was very impressed with Office Depot's efforts both to highlight green products AND to educate the consumer -- or in this case, whoever orders the office supplies at work. Office Depot doesn't just slap a green label on anything with a could-be-construed-as-eco component, as Home Depot tends to do. Instead, Office Depot uses dark green and light green labels to help distinguish between products, pointing consumers towards the greenest choice. Copy paper with higher post-consumer recycled content gets a dark green label, while the paper with just a teensy bit of recycled content gets a light green label, for example.

In fact, it looks like Office Depot's really expanded its eco-product line, offering everything from the Zebra Jimnie Clip Retractable Ballpoint Pens (made of recycled headlights with a minimum of 75% post-consumer content!) to Voltaic solar-charging bags (made with recycled PET from soda bottles).

So -- for those of you who wish your office would stop using paper made from clear-cut forests: Ask your office manager if Office Depot's your workplace's vendor. If so, getting your office to go greener may be as simple as getting your office manager to take a look at the catalog before simply hitting the usual reorder button.

Photos by Siel