OFFICEMAX
MAXIMISING SUSTAINABILITY
“Doing the right thing around sustainability leads to good business decisions.” Photo: Julie Roberts and Kevin Obern
“Making sure we behave in the right way and the commerciality of that is important,” says Managing Director Kevin Obern. He calls the feel- good factor of being socially responsible and the commercial benefit a double win, asking, “Why wouldn’t you do it?” Traditionally an office products provider with roots in New Zealand tracing back to as early as 1871, OfficeMax has evolved into a provider of business needs. With paper products being a large part of the business, it became important to the company to do the right thing and be seen doing the right thing to lead change in sustainable behaviour in the business community.
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FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY A U T U M N 2 0 1 9
Standards and certification Eager to become an industry leader, OfficeMax worked with the Ministry for the Environment to decide what were the important criteria for indicating a product is eco-friendly as there are no single or universally accepted standards. They decided that paper materials needed to come from managed sources and having a credible chain of custody was important. They soon developed their EcoMax sustainable products catalogue to help customers make better choices. Products for this range were selected if they had either a minimum of 30%
recycled content, were made from recyclable plastics or included at least one of the many environmental labels such as PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification. Commitment to sustainability goes beyond selling eco-friendly products. OfficeMax has committed to running the company as sustainably as possible. They obtained Enviro-Mark NZ Gold certification in 2007 which was subsequently upgraded to Enviro-Mark NZ Diamond in 2009. In 2011 they gained ISO 14001 Environmental accreditation which they have maintained. They developed their own unique Environmental Management System (EMS) designed to control documentation and help understand the impact operations and activities have on the environment. A Sustainability Report was produced for the 2015 -17 period, focusing on their people, communication, dealing with waste, freight efficiency, delivery of an ethical supply chain, and customer service. Their 2018 Sustainability Report is soon to be released.
Championing sustainability “It’s a progressive journey, you don’t just go from zero to hero in one leap,” says Kevin. He believes it needs to be led from the top. They formalised a Health, Safety & Environment work programme in 2001 and appointed a Sustainability Manager, Julie Roberts. Each member of the executive leadership team approves strategic plans to enable their business to achieve its sustainability objectives and
