Office Depot Sustainability Report Outlines Store Brands Compliance

SHARE:

Email

Print

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

February 7, 2012

Office Depot’s Corporate Citizen Report highlights the company's commitment to business, ethics, diversity, environmental sustainability and community, including its own store brands.

The report highlights results for the 2010 calendar year, tracks progress and sets goals for the future. It also outlines vendor compliance in regards to both private label and CPG. The chain’s multi-layered strategy is also discussed in the report.

“Tackling environmental challenges requires solutions that address our suppliers, our operations and our customers. As such, our global environmental strategy is embodied in three commitments: we work to Buy Greener, Be Greener and Sell Greener,” the company wrote in the report. “By implementing a range of initiatives under this strategy, we have measurably improved our own environmental performance, and have helped our suppliers and customers to do the same. Our environmental policy builds directly from our strategy and is strongly focused on implementation.”

Store Brands Standards
The section, Private Brand/Supplier Compliance, is meant to ensure that vendors and suppliers maintain safe, healthy and legally compliant work environments free from forced labor or child labor. The Office Depot Supplier Guiding Principles outline, in multiple languages, outlines expectations and requirements for social accountability, environmental practices and global supply chain security. “

Strong standards are essential, as are training programs that clearly communicate requirements, according to the report. There’s a robust regimen of inspections and audits to monitor compliance with those standards. In 2010 Office Depot compliance specialists integrated a training module, conducted a training session in Shanghai, China, and led training sessions with merchants and agents in both the U.S. and China.

Office Depot increased the number of factory inspections in 2010 by 26 percent over the prior year. The retailer added another U.S.-based analyst and an additional auditor in China in 2010.

The vendor compliance team works with the global team to implement inspection programs and to educate suppliers and factory managers on local laws, regulations and quality of life issues for their employees. A new Continuous Improvement Program (CIP) is targeted to the company’s top 20 vendors. “The CIP has already contributed to improved compliance scores in 2010. This initiative will continue through 2011 as our teams work to achieve ongoing improvements in compliance performance,” according to the report.

The report also highlights the chain’s multi-layered strategy of tackling corporate responsibility. "In 2010, Office Depot remained steadfast in all aspects of our corporate social responsibility commitments despite economic conditions that remained challenging for the office supply business," said Neil Austrian, chairman and CEO for Office Depot. "I am confident that we will continue to make progress in this area as we are committed to the task at every level of our global operations."

Most Read

Guest Columns

Grocery Aisle Innovation Key to Retailer and Consumer Cost Savings

Retailers are redesigning the aisle, appealing to environmentally friendly consumers and capitalizing on market trends to make their private label brands more competitive.

Source: Tetra Pak Inc.

How to Develop a Private Label Expression Aligned with Retail Brand Strategy

By creating private label as a marketing tool rather than just a price alternative, retailers gain the opportunity to tell a complete brand story while simultaneously boosting customer loyalty.

Source: CBX

Using the Store Banner to Endorse Private Label Architecture

Although the economic downturn accelerated private label growth in Europe, there was another key driver -- retailers started to brand their stores.

Source: IPLC

See All Guest Columns »

Press Releases