The retailer has congratulated Eastman with two awards for its “leadership” in sustainability and innovation.
Justmeans reported that Office Depot awarded Eastman for greener purchasing in its supply chain, and that the company’s indirect procurement team has worked over several years to “increase the availability of sustainability-focused office supplies, including recycled paper, remanufactured toner cartridges, and refillable printer ink”.
Working with Office Depot, Eastman has “encouraged and recognised employee efforts to purchase green office products”, and was awarded the ‘Workplace Recycling Efforts’ award by Office Depot in 2014, and the two companies co-hosted a Green Summit in 2015. Office Depot chose its award winners from its 1,000 customers and based it on how much they spent on “green”, with Eastman coming out on top for their commitment to respecting the environment when buying indirect materials such as recycled content, energy efficiency, non-toxicity and using ecolabels like FSC, EPEAT, GREENGUARD, GreenSeal and EcoLogo.
Willie Frye, Global Sourcing Manager at Eastman, commented: “Being one of the 22 companies to be recognised for leadership in greener purchasing out of thousands of Office Depot’s customers validates Eastman’s corporate commitment to respecting our environment when procuring indirect materials. We continuously challenge ourselves and our supplier base to identify innovative ideas that protect our environment while allowing Eastman to remain competitive in the marketplace.”
Office Depot hopes that the awards will “spark a greener trend” among their customers, and Molly Ray, Senior Manager of Sustainability for Office Depot, said that “by recognising our customers for achieving their sustainability goals, they’ll continue to make greener purchasing decisions in the future and we believe that other organisations will follow”.