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Living Values

2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Report

 

Natural Environment

 

Facility Energy Management

Facility Energy ManagementWith more than 1,000 retail stores within our U.S. Operations, OfficeMax has identified better facility energy management as a way to significantly reduce our carbon footprint, overall environmental impact and energy costs.

Energy Management Initiative Helps Reduce CO2 Emissions by Nearly 20 Percent in Two Years

In 2008, OfficeMax completed the second successful year of a major effort to achieve a guaranteed reduction in energy consumption at our retail stores. This entailed outsourcing heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) services to a third-party contractor and establishing energy management systems (EMS) at all stores in our U.S. Operations. The EMS gives our vendor centralized, around-the-clock monitoring and control of the HVAC and lighting systems at our stores.

Despite opening a net 32 new stores, the EMS and other aspects of the initiative helped reduce the amount of electricity we used by 9 percent in 2008, from 2007 levels. This, and a similar reduction in 2007, contributed greatly to our 19.7 percent decrease in CO2 emissions since the program’s inception. The decrease in CO2 emissions was also significantly aided by changes in our transportation operations.

We are currently reviewing opportunities for implementing the EMS at our distribution facilities, as well.

Multi-Million Dollar Lighting Retrofit Launched

In 2008, our Strategic Sourcing, Store Operations and Corporate Management functions partnered to launch a $2 million project to retrofit 100 stores in our U.S. Operations with energy-efficient lighting. The program replaced T-12 fluorescent lamps and existing ballasts with energy-efficient T-8 fluorescent lamps and state-of-the-art electronic ballasts. As of December 2008, 101 stores have completed the process.

Besides being more efficient, T-8 lamps last longer than T-12s, thus helping to reduce maintenance costs associated with replacing lamps. T-8 lamps also feature a quality of light that is warmer and more pleasant to the eyes than T-12s, heightening the atmosphere for our customers and associates.

This project is expected to keep more than 18,000 metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere on a continual basis and save the company $3 million annually in energy costs alone (maintenance-cost reductions are not included in the estimated annual cost savings).