Staples Inc. Global Sustainability Policy

Statement of commitment

Staples seeks to help businesses and consumers make more happen every day while also protecting the planet and driving positive change in the global community. To that end, we as a global company are committed to achieving our long-term vision of offering more sustainable choices and offering convenient environmental services to our customers; eliminating operational waste; and maximizing energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy. We recognize that implementation of this vision is a process of continuous improvement, and will vary by market depending on local opportunities and constraints. We will use a foundation of collaboration, integrity and transparency to achieve our vision.

Offering more sustainable choices

Across our entire assortment, Staples seeks to offer products that meet our customers’ needs for quality, features and value while delivering reduced environmental and social impacts. To support this commitment, we will:

• Ensure we understand the key environmental and social impacts of the product categories we source and sell to customers, using the best available science.
• Work with our suppliers to help them design, source, manufacture, and deliver products and packaging that comply with legal requirements and have reduced environmental and social impacts.
• Expand our portfolio of products with design features that help minimize impacts on the planet and human health.
• Continue to implement and enforce policies and programs that support goals related to supplier environmental and social responsibility performance.

Offering convenient environmental services for our customers

Staples is committed to helping customers responsibly recycle items we sell that they cannot easily recycle otherwise and to offering other services that help them run their business more sustainably. To that end, we will:

• Offer recycling services for our customers to help them run their business more sustainably and partner with recycling vendors who are third-party certified or audited for responsible management of materials.
• Offer other services for customers that help them run more sustainable businesses and home offices.

Eliminating operational waste

Staples is dedicated to minimizing waste in our own operations. To that end, we will:

• Seek out ways to reduce waste generation in our store, distribution and delivery operations.
• Increase the volume and types of materials diverted for reuse and recycling.
• Dispose of all waste materials, non-hazardous and hazardous, in a responsible manner.

Maximizing energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy

The goals of Staples’ energy management programs are to advance energy reduction and the use of renewable and clean energy to reduce our carbon impact. To that end, we will:

• Pursue new and innovative means to reduce our energy use and increase use of renewable energy in our energy portfolio (buildings and fleet).
• Increase the percentage of our buildings meeting green building or energy efficient certification programs.
• Reduce the greenhouse gas impacts of our operations.

Fulfilling Staples’ commitment to our environmental vision and goals requires a foundation of collaboration, integrity and transparency. To that end:

• We will ensure that we are in compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations and support pollution prevention efforts to protect the health of the environment and our associates.
• We will engage our stakeholders—including customers, associates, suppliers, shareholders, and non- profit organizations—to inform the implementation and ongoing development of our policy and programs. We expect our associates to do their jobs with the environment in mind, and will actively educate them about our sustainability programs and opportunities. We will continue to work with our supply chain to drive environmental improvements in the products and services we offer our customers. We will engage with stakeholders and collaborative groups to move the needle on sustainability issues in our industry. We will collaborate with and solicit feedback from our customers to best meet their needs for sustainable products and services.
• We will set goals to help implement our sustainability strategy and continue decreasing our environmental impacts. Goals can be set at the global, national and/or local level, as relevant to the environmental impact. We will measure and monitor our progress against these goals, and report this progress in a transparent fashion.
• As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we will review our policy and goals on a regular basis to ensure that our goals and supporting programs are in line with trends in our business and industry.