Office Depot Announces Its Top-Selling Recycled Copy Paper is Now Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified

FSC Certification is Considered by Many Influential Environmental Groups to be the Gold Standard of Forest Management

BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Office Depot (NYSE:ODP), a leading global provider of office products and services, announced today that its top-selling recycled content paper, Office Depot® Green™ 30% Recycled EnviroCopy™ Paper, will also be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified. The first FSC-labeled packages arrived in December and will be available in Office Depot stores in the U.S. and online at www.officedepot.com/yourgreeneroffice during the first quarter of 2010.

“Office Depot is a major customer of Domtar's and the Company’s request for FSC-certified fiber for their EnviroCopy product definitely influenced our decision to further develop FSC-certified fiber sources in the southern United States.”

FSC certification is significant because many leading environmental groups consider it the gold standard of forest management - helping ensure forests are managed in the most environmentally and socially responsible way, including improved protection of high conservation value forests; greater consideration for threatened and endangered species; and a wider focus on overall healthier forest ecosystems.

By using FSC-certified fiber for the virgin component of its most popular recycled paper, Office Depot continues to demonstrate its environmental leadership while also simplifying the choice for the many customers who find it difficult to choose between recycled content and FSC certification as their primary criterion for copy paper purchasing. Office Depot retail and contract customers will now get both environmental benefits in the same product.

Office Depot currently sells, on average, over 1.4 million cases of its Office Depot Green 30% Recycled EnviroCopy Paper each year. As a result, obtaining FSC certification for the paper will dramatically and immediately increase the availability of FSC-certified copy paper in the U.S. marketplace.

EnviroCopy 30% is also unique in that it is the only high-volume selling copy paper among the office supply superstores that is FSC-certified, Green Seal certified, and sold to Office Depot customers via a Historically Underutilized Business (HUB). Green Seal is a third party certifier that validates environmental claims and focuses on multiple environmental attributes. For more information on Office Depot’s Supplier Diversity and Tier One programs related to the HUB designation, visit www.officedepot.com/diversity.

“By adding FSC-certified virgin fiber to EnviroCopy 30%, Office Depot has dramatically simplified the selection process for sustainable papers," said Yalmaz Siddiqui, Director of Environmental Strategy for Office Depot. "Many papers claim to be sustainable, but only Office Depot Green 30% Recycled EnviroCopy Paper addresses the key aspects of sustainability: recycled content, responsible forestry at the FSC standard, Green Seal™ certification, and social benefits from HUB sourcing – all at an economical price.”

Since 2008 Office Depot has sold 100% Post-Consumer Recycled Paper, which is FSC-certified for its recycled content, online at www.officedepot.com/yourgreeneroffice and in its retail stores. The paper is sourced by the Company through green business pioneer New Leaf Paper.

Office Depot’s switch to FSC for its 30% Recycled grade follows numerous years of diligent work with the Company’s primary paper supplier, Domtar. The now FSC-certified Office Depot Green 30% Recycled EnviroCopy Paper will be made at Domtar’s mills located in Ashdown, Arkansas; Kingsport, Tennessee; Marlboro, South Carolina and Hawesville, Kentucky.

“Domtar and Office Depot teamed together to combine FSC Certification and recycled content into one copy paper,” said Lewis Fix, Vice President of Sustainable Product Development of Domtar. “Office Depot is a major customer of Domtar's and the Company’s request for FSC-certified fiber for their EnviroCopy product definitely influenced our decision to further develop FSC-certified fiber sources in the southern United States.”

Office Depot's effort to pursue FSC certification for its most popular 30% Recycled EnviroCopy Paper was supported through Office Depot's long-standing relationship with The Nature Conservancy, as part of the Company's five-year, $2.2 million Forest & Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

“The Nature Conservancy has been pleased to work with Office Depot, a long-standing partner in forest conservation, to facilitate better management of working forests,” said Mark Tercek, President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. “FSC certification is a meaningful way to demonstrate a commitment to responsible forestry and sourcing practices. This is a major milestone for Office Depot, Domtar, FSC, and greener office products in general.”

Office Depot also engaged Dogwood Alliance and ForestEthics, publishers of the annual Green Grades Report, in making the decision to switch to FSC-certified paper. In communications with these stakeholders, Office Depot stated its intention to pursue FSC certification for its 30% Recycled EnviroCopy Paper as early as 2007.

“Office Depot’s new paper delivers the key components necessary for protecting forests in the Southern U.S. and around the world – high post-consumer recycled content and responsible forest management associated with FSC fiber,” said Andrew Goldberg, Director of Corporate Engagement at Dogwood Alliance. “We are pleased to see the Company honor its environmental commitments and embrace these attributes in a high volume product and wish them success in the marketplace.”

“We applaud Office Depot’s choice,” added Daniel Hall, Associate Director of Market Solutions at ForestEthics. “We understand FSC to be the only certification system that prohibits replacing forests with plantations, gives meaningful protection to Endangered Forests, and helps restore forests in the U.S. South. Office Depot’s shift to FSC is exactly the type of leadership that consumers should reward.”

EnviroCopy 30% meets or exceeds the specifications of most third party environmentally preferable purchasing policies including the Federal Government CPG guidelines; the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education's STARS guidelines for environmentally preferable paper purchasing; SABRC guidelines in California; and the U.S. Green Building Council’s Sustainable Purchasing Guidelines under Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Existing Buildings.

To learn more about Office Depot’s environmental initiatives, please visit www.officedepot.com/environment. For a complete assortment of Office Depot’s greener products and services, go to www.officedepot.com/yourgreeneroffice.

About Office Depot

Every day, Office Depot is Taking Care of Business for millions of customers around the globe. For the local corner store as well as Fortune 500 companies, Office Depot provides products and services to its customers through 1,585 worldwide retail stores, a dedicated sales force, top-rated catalogs and a $4.2 billion e-commerce operation. Office Depot has annual sales of approximately $14.5 billion, and employs about 42,000 associates around the world. The Company provides more office products and services to more customers in more countries than any other company, and currently sells to customers directly or through affiliates in 49 countries.

Office Depot’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index. Additional press information can be found at: http://mediarelations.officedepot.com.

Media materials specific to Office Depot’s environmental efforts are available at http://mediarelations.officedepot.cc/environment.

About Domtar

Domtar Corporation (NYSE/TSX:UFS) is the largest integrated manufacturer and marketer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America and the second largest in the world based on production capacity, and is also a manufacturer of paper grade, fluff and specialty pulp. The Company designs, manufactures, markets and distributes a wide range of business, commercial printing and publication as well as converting and specialty papers including recognized brands such as Cougar®, Lynx® Opaque, Husky® Offset, First Choice® and Domtar EarthChoice® Office Paper, part of a family of environmentally and socially responsible papers. Domtar also produces lumber and other specialty and industrial wood products. The Company employs nearly 11,000 people. To learn more, visit www.domtar.com.