Clarifying Q & A

Q. Who are Office Depot's Stakeholders?

Office Depot is committed to working with its stakeholders - our suppliers, employees, customers, shareholders and the conservation science community - to promote and advance environmental stewardship. This said, Office Depot will maintain an open communication channel with other organizations that wish to contribute to our process of continual improvement - a communications channel and process in which contributions are considered within the framework of conservation science, so that we may continue to strengthen our environmental performance by internalizing appropriate, scientifically based improvements to our environmental policies and programs. Office Depot's work with the conservation science community reflects our desire for a collaborative, scientific approach to identifying and addressing the issues of environmental stewardship.

Q. Why Does Office Depot engage its Stakeholders and what is Office Depot's approach to stakeholder involvement?

Office Depot's approach is one of inclusion and consultation for the mutual benefit of the environment and our stakeholders. Office Depot actively promotes the responsible use of our natural resources by working with these stakeholders in the ongoing pursuit of improvements and innovation that promote and advance the principles of environmental stewardship in ways that:

• Produce solutions with integrity and purpose;
• Are responsible, transparent, accountable, realistic and actionable;
• Produce results that are tangible, measurable and reportable; and,
• Reward innovation and leadership.

Q. What is "environmental stewardship"?

Environmental stewardship is characterized by the following principles or objectives:

• Responsible management of renewable resources;
• Reduce pollution and wasteful consumption of natural resources and energy;
• Conservation of biological diversity; and,
• Economic sustainability - creating economic benefits from improved environmental outcomes.

These principles guide Office Depot's in its mission to create economic benefits from improved environmental outcomes.

Q. What is the purpose of Office Depot's Environmental Policy?

Office Depot's environmental policy is a planning framework to promote environmental stewardship. The policy is a set of guiding principles - a course of action - that provides leadership and direction to the business and its stakeholders.

Q. What is an "environmentally preferable product"?

Environmentally preferable products include products made from recycled material, those that are more energy or resource efficient, and those that are manufactured using process that result in fewer toxic chemicals compared to traditional products. In general, environmentally preferable products are those that have a more benign effect on human health and the environment compared to similar products.

For example: compared to traditional copy paper, Office Depot's premium 35% Post-consumer waste (PCW) content EnviroCopy paper:

• Requires 17% fewer trees to produce
• Is 15% more energy efficient
• Results in 13% fewer greenhouse gas emissions
• Produces 32% fewer hazardous air pollutants
• Releases 17% less solid waste and water pollution.

To put just one of these benefits into perspective - using five cases of EnviroCopy in place of virgin paper conserves the fiber from one mature tree.

Another good example is paper products that are made with wood fiber sourced from well-managed forests and operations that have been certified as such by an independent, third party. Since paper may be only be recycled a few times, depending on the type and use of the paper product, society will always require a source of virgin fiber and thus it is equally important that this fiber comes from forests that are managed responsibly.

Q: What is a "preferred source" - how does supplier preference promote environmental stewardship?

The concept of preferred products and suppliers is central to Office Depot's approach to environmental stewardship. Office Depot will identify preferred products and suppliers based on their congruence with the various principles presented in the Environmental Paper Procurement Policy in addition to traditional product and supplier attributes such as price, quality, service, and customer demand. While environmental attributes alone will not qualify a supplier or a product, congruence with one or more aspects of Office Depot's environmental policy points will differentiate a product or a supplier from those that are not in accordance with Office Depot's environmental policies. Since the long-term objective of Office Depot is to include as many environmentally preferable products in our assortment as possible, we believe that this process provides suppliers with strong motivation to promote and advance environmental stewardship, both in-term of product composition and collaborative engagement with Office Depot and the conservation science community.

Q: Why is overall recovery rate so critical to increasing the amount of recycled fiber in paper products?

Currently about 48% of all paper used is recovered and utilized in recycled content products across all product sectors (recovery rate). Office Depot is committed to working with our customers, suppliers and the environmental community to increase the total volume of paper recovered for recycling. This will increase opportunities for Office Depot to offer higher recycled content in the paper products we sell. Without increasing the overall recovery rate, the percent-recycled content will only shift between the varieties of paper products - for example, from newspapers to copy paper.

Q: What are the environmental issues associated with using chlorine?

Traditional papermaking technology commonly used chlorine gas (elemental chlorine) in the paper making process. Chlorinated compounds are used to bleach the wood fibers during the bleaching stage, to whiten or brighten the paper. The process results in a toxic by-product known as dioxin. In 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report that stated that dioxins are known to cause cancer in animals, and probably cause cancer in people. Using unbleached or brown paper eliminates the bleaching process and thus the production of toxic compounds.

Q: What are some examples of advanced technologies that reduce or eliminate the use of chlorine compounds?

Advances in paper making processes or technologies that reduce or eliminate the use of chlorine compounds are also effective in reducing pollution while enabling the production of bright, white paper. Some examples include:

• ECF (Elemental Chlorine-Free) processes, which indicates that virgin or recycled fiber is bleached with chlorine dioxide or other chlorine compounds. This is a much cleaner process than chlorine gas bleaching, and its widespread adoption has virtually eliminated dioxin from mill wastewaters.
• PCF (Process Chlorine-Free) processes, which indicates that fiber is recycled and is unbleached or bleached without the use of additional chlorine or chlorine derivatives.
• TCF (Totally Chlorine-Free) processes, which indicates that virgin fiber (including virgin tree-free fiber) is unbleached or bleached without chlorine or chlorine derivatives. In both cases, all new bleaching is done with elements such as oxygen, ozone, or hydrogen peroxide. The recycled fiber in PCF paper may have been bleached with chlorine or chlorine derivatives in a previous incarnation.

Q: What is a "production forest"?

A production forest is a forest that is managed primarily for the production of forest and paper products made of wood fiber.

Q: What are examples of "measurable conservation outcomes"?

Measurable conservation outcomes are tangible results that are quantitatively or qualitatively measurable or verifiable. For example: the development of information, tools, methods or standards that facilitate the conservation of species or ecological communities - and the results of using this conservation information, tools and methodologies, such as the identification of conservation priorities and implementation of management practices, such as habitat corridors and the expansion of protected or special management areas.

Q: What is the geographic scope of Office Depot's Environmental Paper Procurement Policy and focus of its application?

Initially, we are focusing on the North American business unit and the global sourcing of Office Depot Brand products for that business; however, in the future - as we engage and work with our stakeholders - we intend to apply these policies, or regional derivations of them, as a company-wide initiative.

To this end, Office Depot will engage suppliers and other stakeholders to focus resources on the development of collaborative solutions to environmental issues as they are identified. Due to the nature of our business and the business of our suppliers, we can best promote well-managed forests and the conservation of biodiversity in regions where wood fiber production is central to land and natural resource management. Thus, Office Depot's policy will be applied to our global sourcing for our North American operations, focusing initially on Office Depot brand products, and in time will include a variety of forest types and ecological systems from around the world, including:

• Boreal forests, such as those in northern Canada, Russia and the far east;
• Temperate forests, such as the coastal temperate rainforests of western Canada and the US Pacific Northwest, right across to the US south eastern forests; and,
• Tropical forests, with a particular emphasis on the areas in or around Biodiversity Hotspots¹, Key Biodiversity Areas² and High Biodiversity Wilderness Areas³ as they are identified and mapped.

Notwithstanding this initial geographic scope and focus, Office Depot has eliminated products from its global supply chain when exceptional biodiversity values are identified as being at extreme risk and the supplier is committed to an unsustainable fiber source without an alternate sustainable fiber supply available within the foreseeable future.

Q: What is an integrated landscape-level approach to sustainable management and conservation?

Biodiversity -- the diversity of life in the form of genes, species and ecosystems - exists at various spatial scales, for example: a specific place in the forest - a "forest stand" - and the greater context of a valley, watershed or geographic region. Long-term sustainable management of biological diversity requires consideration of these values within a stand as well as the overall forest landscape. An integrated approach is one in with the stand-level biodiversity values are explicitly considered as well as their broader distribution over space and time. And so, we have to think about how society manages our natural forests for wood fiber and biodiversity values at these two spatial scales, and how our tree farms and plantations fit within the greater landscape or regional context.

Q: What is the "conservation science community"?

Conservation science may be described as the scientific study of the phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biological diversity (biodiversity) - the diversity of life, including genes, species, ecosystems, and the processes that sustain them. The conservation science community is the community of individuals and organizations unified by a commitment and ability to develop and implement scientific and technical means for the protecting, maintaining, and restoring life.

While conservation scientists may work for academic institutions, corporations or non-profit organizations such Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, or NatureServe, the common defining aspect is an approach to sustainable forest management and conservation that is rooted in science.

Q: Can you provide some examples of the best scientific information, technology priority setting, mapping and planning approaches to advance forest and biodiversity conservation?

We encourage our suppliers to demonstrate a genuine and meaningful involvement or application of:

• The NatureServe and State Natural Heritage Program databases and conservation status ranking systems used to identify and protect imperiled and vulnerable species and ecological communities and align management practices with the conservation of vulnerable species and ecological communities as well as outstanding examples of common forest types;⁴
• Integrated landscape-level conservation mapping, priority-setting and planning approaches such as the Nature Conservancy's Conservation by Design⁵ approach, and supporting information provided by the World Resources Institute⁶;
• The eco-regional characterization and assessment methods that describe areas of distinctive climate, topographical features, plants and animals, such as the World Wildlife Fund's Global 200 Ecoregions⁷;
• Government processes designed to expand protected area networks to ensure adequate representation of the full range of terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity; and,
• Cooperative projects with non-industrial landowners and operators to promote biodiversity conservation, including the protection or conservation of imperiled and vulnerable species or ecological communities.

Q: Why is illegal logging a problem and why is it happening?

According to US government representatives,⁸ illegal logging destroys forest ecosystems, robs national governments and local communities of needed revenues, undercuts prices of legally harvested forest products on the world market, finances regional conflict and acts as a disincentive to responsible forest management.

International trade in illegally harvested timber and timber traded in violation of Parties' obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) exacerbates the problem. Illegal logging is also a primary factor in the escalating African bush meat crisis, opening up vast areas to illicit hunting to feed loggers and for commercial sale in urban centers.

Underlying causes of illegal logging and related corruption are rooted in a lack of strong institutions based on democratic principles: rule of law, participatory and transparent decision-making, public accountability, clear land tenure and property rights and due process for dispute settlement.

Q: What is a monoculture plantation?

A monoculture plantation is a managed forest that composed of trees primarily of one species and managed as an even-aged forest.

Q: How does your policy on the conversion of natural forests to monoculture plantations apply to the extensive natural forests that are composed primarily of one species? Are such forests, once harvested and then planted with the same predominant species, considered to be monoculture plantations?

There are many examples of extensive forests that are naturally divers in terms their in the stand and landscape structure, but are predominantly composed of trees of one species. Once harvested these forests are left to regenerate naturally or are planted back to their original species composition; that is, a forest composed predominantly of one species. The objective of the policy is to counter the conversion of natural forests from one species to another, where the planted forest is not similar to the original species composition. Forests that are naturally composed of one dominant tree species are not considered to be monoculture plantations once reforested because the second-growth forest is similar to the species composition of the original, natural forest.

¹Identified and used by Conservation International, biodiversity hotspots are regions with an exceptional level of endemic species diversity and have been significantly impacted and altered by human activities. Plant diversity is the biological basis for hotspot designation; to qualify as a hotspot, a region must support 1,500 endemic plant species, 0.5 percent of the global total. Existing primary vegetation is the basis for assessing human impact in a region; to qualify as a hotspot, a region must have lost more than 70 percent of its original habitat. Plants have been used as qualifiers because they are the basis for diversity in other taxonomic groups and are well known to researchers. Typically, the diversity of endemic vertebrates in hotspot regions is also extraordinarily high. See http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/Hotspots

²Adopted by Conservation International, BirdLife International and PlantLife International, Key Biodiversity Areas are places of international importance for the conservation of biodiversity that are managed as protected areas or other governance mechanisms. Identification is based on the following criteria: (1) Globally Threatened Species that have been assessed following the IUCN Red List criteria as having a high risk of extinction; (2) Restricted Range Species with small global distributions; (3) Assemblages of Species confined to a particular broad habitat type or biome; and (4) congregations of Species that gather in large numbers at specific sites during some stage in their life cycle.

³Identified and used by Conservation International, High biodiversity wilderness areas are at least 1 million hectares and have at least 70 percent of their natural habitat intact, at least 1,500 endemic plant species, and low population densities of less than 5 persons per square kilometer. High biodiversity wilderness areas include Amazonia, the Congo Forests of Central Africa, New Guinea, the Miombo-Mopane Woodlands and Savannas of Southern Africa, and the North American Deserts complex of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Between them, these five wilderness areas contain more than 17 percent of all plants and 8 percent of vertebrates in just over 6 percent of Earth's land surface.

⁴See definitions of rank for G1 to G5 species and ecological communities: http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/ranking.htm#mean

⁵See http://nature.org/aboutus/howwework/about/.

⁶See http://www.wri.org/.

⁷See http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/ecoregions/global200/pages/home.htm.

⁸See http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/illegal-logging/