Staples Scours the Globe for Eco-Friendly Office Supplies

Like many design types, we enjoy office supplies—the practical, tax-paying sibling of art supplies—more than the average person. We have considered moving to Tokyo for the superior variety of writing utensils. And so we were intrigued to learn that Staples, home of our favorite sheet protectors and the easy button (fun to hack!), is in the midst of a global design contest to discover eco-friendly office products. The inaugural Staples Global EcoEasy Challenge, a partnership with the Rochester Institute of Technology, has winnowed the entries down to seven finalists representing student teams from five universities around the world.