Since 1950, Octopus has been providing the design and woodworking industries with specialty decorative finishes and materials. As an organization we have always made it a priority to reduce the environmental impact of our actions through any available avenue.

Packaging and distribution of materials is a large part of our operations, thus we find that we work with significant amounts of packaging. Octopus has dedicated itself to creating and implementing a comprehensive waste diversion plan that ensures the reuse of packaging wherever possible and the responsible recycling of packaging that cannot be reused. We have further extended our waste diversion initiatives to include the composting of organic waste and recycling of ongoing consumables such as paper and printer cartridges for our offices.

To demonstrate our commitment to the environment further, Octopus has taken dedicated steps to reduce the energy consumption of our facilities. In our Toronto facility we have reduced our thermostats by 3oC resulting in an overall energy saving and reduction in carbon emissions In 2007 we implemented a lighting retrofit program in our warehouse that reduced our power consumption for each bulb from 12 watts to 8 watts resulting in an overall further energy savings of 25% per bulb.

In regard to our social environment, we have made a commitment to continual education and sustainable practice. 40% of our employees use alternative transportation such as public transportation and carpooling when commuting to work each day. We have also instituted regular education sessions for our employees to help them understand how they can help produce positive environmental change within the organization.

Moving forward Octopus has made the commitment to continual improvement of environmental efficiencies by creating more efficient processes and placing pressure on the market to produce products that have a reduced environmental impact. We are continually adding more products to our line that contain rapidly renewable materials, high recycled contents and environmentally certified components to make it easy for our consumers to make smart environmental choices while maintaining a high design aesthetic.

We hope that you, our consumer, will help us on our journey to helping the environment by contributing ideas and selecting the most environmentally friendly products."