Office Supplies

Material Composition Assumptions

Office supplies represent a heterogeneous category. The CCI score is expressed per kilogram of a weighted-average basket reflecting the typical composition of an office supply purchase:

• Paper and cardboard products (~45% of basket by mass): A4 copy paper, notebooks, sticky notes, cardboard folders, envelopes. Paper is produced via kraft pulping from virgin wood fibre or recycled fibre and energy-intensive drying processes. Emission factors range from ~0.7 kgCO2e/kg (certified recycled fibre, Nordic hydro grid) to ~2.5 kgCO2e/kg (virgin pulp, coal-heavy grid).
• Plastic items (~25% of basket by mass): Polypropylene ring binders, ABS pen barrels, polystyrene rulers, PVC document wallets, nylon-tipped markers. Virgin PP: ~2.5 kgCO2e/kg; virgin ABS: ~3.5 kgCO2e/kg.
• Metal items (~15% of basket by mass): Steel staples and staple remover heads, steel paperclips, aluminium rulers, steel scissors blades. Cold-rolled steel wire: ~1.2-1.8 kgCO2e/kg; aluminium: ~8-12 kgCO2e/kg (primary) or ~0.5-1.0 kgCO2e/kg (secondary/recycled).
• Packaging (~10% of basket by mass): Corrugated cardboard outers, shrink wrap, blister packs. Cardboard: ~0.8-1.0 kgCO2e/kg.
• Inks and toners (~5% of basket by mass): Pen ink, marker fluid, correction fluid. Estimated at ~3-5 kgCO2e/kg based on petrochemical solvent content.

The blended average across this basket yields approximately 2 kgCO2e/kg, reflecting the dominance of paper (relatively lower intensity per kg) in offsetting the higher-intensity plastics and metals.

Manufacturing Geography

Office supplies are manufactured globally, with no single dominant region at the category level.

• Paper: Major production in EU (Finland, Sweden, Germany), North America (USA, Canada), Brazil, and China. Nordic paper carries the lowest grid-related Scope 2 due to hydropower.
• Plastic items: Predominantly manufactured in China, with some EU production (pens: BIC in France and Spain; binders: Leitz in Germany).
• Metal items: Steel staples and clips are primarily manufactured in China and EU (ACCO Brands, Novus). Aluminium products predominantly from China.
• Grid intensity: A global average of ~450 gCO2e/kWh is applied as the default for this category given the highly distributed supply chain. No single manufacturing grid dominates.
• Rationale: The diversity of the office supplies category makes a single manufacturing region assignment misleading. The score reflects a trade-weighted average across source regions.

Regional Variation

Supply Region	Grid Intensity	Estimated Score Adjustment
Global average (default)	~450 gCO2e/kWh	Baseline (0%)
EU (paper-heavy basket)	~300 gCO2e/kWh	-10% on Scope 2 (saves ~0.1 kgCO2e/kg)
Nordic (paper from Sweden/Finland)	~30 gCO2e/kWh	-40% on Scope 2 (saves ~0.4 kgCO2e/kg)
China-sourced (plastics/metals)	~565 gCO2e/kWh	+5% on Scope 2 (adds ~0.05 kgCO2e/kg)
USA average	~390 gCO2e/kWh	-5% on Scope 2 (saves ~0.05 kgCO2e/kg)

Note: Scope 2 represents approximately 25% of the total footprint at this scale. Material choices — particularly recycled versus virgin paper and plastics — have a larger impact on the total score than manufacturing grid intensity.

Provenance Override Guidance

A supplier or manufacturer may override the default CCI score by submitting:

1. Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) per ISO 14067 or an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) per ISO 14025, covering at minimum cradle-to-gate emissions for individual SKUs or product families.
2. Recycled content certificates for paper (e.g., FSC Recycled, EU Ecolabel) or plastics, enabling a material-level recalculation. Switching from virgin to 100% recycled office paper can reduce the paper sub-score by 30-50%.
3. Sustainable forestry certification (FSC, PEFC) for wood-pulp-based paper, which may affect biogenic carbon accounting depending on the methodology applied.
4. Supplier-specific steel or aluminium emission factors, particularly for EAF-sourced steel or secondary aluminium, which carry significantly lower emission factors than primary production.
5. Basket composition data specifying the actual ratio of paper, plastic, and metal products, enabling a weighted recalculation rather than the default blended average.

Major stationery manufacturers including ACCO Brands, Avery, BIC, Leitz, and 3M publish partial environmental data that may serve as supporting evidence for category-level adjustments.

Methodology Notes

• CCI score of 2 kgCO2e/kg is a weighted-average estimate across a representative office supply basket. Individual product categories within “office supplies” vary widely: office paper alone ranges from ~0.7-2.5 kgCO2e/kg; plastic binders and folders range from ~2.0-4.0 kgCO2e/kg; aluminium products may exceed ~8 kgCO2e/kg (primary) or fall below 1 kgCO2e/kg (secondary).
• Scope breakdown: Scope 3 dominates at ~70% from upstream material production (paper pulping, plastics, metal smelting). Scope 2 (factory electricity) is ~25%. Scope 1 is effectively zero for most office supply manufacturing processes.
• Confidence: low — This category lacks a consistent product boundary or representative LCA dataset. The score is constructed from material-level LCI data (Ecoinvent) weighted by an assumed basket composition. No widely-cited category-level EPD exists for “office supplies” as a whole.
• Functional unit: One kilogram of office supplies, cradle-to-gate (manufacturing and transport). Use-phase impacts are negligible for passive office supplies (paper, pens, clips); active devices (calculators, staplers with batteries) are excluded from this category.
• Category boundary: This page covers passive office consumables and stationery. Electronic office equipment (printers, calculators, label makers) and printer consumables (toner cartridges, ink) are excluded and should be assessed under relevant electronics categories.
• Data gaps: Ink and correction fluid formulations are poorly characterised in public LCI databases. Blister pack and mixed-material packaging is estimated using generic plastics and cardboard data. The basket composition assumption (45% paper, 25% plastic, 15% metal, 10% packaging, 5% inks) is illustrative and will vary by procurement context.
• Recycled content opportunity: This is one of the categories with the greatest potential for score reduction through procurement choices. Specifying 100% recycled paper, recycled-content binders, and secondary-metal staples and clips could reduce the blended score by 20-40% without supplier verification beyond standard certifications.