United States : Staples, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLS), the world’s largest office products company, and the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), today launched the 2nd Annual Global EcoEasy Challenge to find the world’s most ingenious concepts for environmentally preferable office products. The 2011 Challenge is open to all undergraduate or graduate student teams enrolled at universities located within 16 select countries.

Staples and RIT have made it easy for students to submit their ideas and become the next great inventor of an EcoEasy office product. Interested students need to simply submit a 1,000 word description of their unique idea for a new, more environmentally preferable design of an office product. Designs may use environmentally preferable material or present a new product promoting sustainability. Staples will invite up to eight finalist teams to Washington, D.C. in April, 2011, to present their product idea to a panel of judges. The judges will award the grand-prize winning team with $25,000 and two runners-up will receive $5,000 each.

“We were incredibly impressed with the level of creativity and talent displayed at the 2010 competition. The leading entries included concepts such as a desk chair that controlled office power consumption and a 100 percent recyclable writing instrument,” said Mark Buckley, vice president of environmental affairs for Staples.

This year, for the first time, the public will be able to act as a judge and help determine the winning submission. Anyone can visit the site once a day from March 8, 2011, through March 22, 2011, to cast their ballot for the best office product at https://ecoeasychallenge.com.

The contest is open to teams of up to four undergraduate or graduate students, 18 years or older, that are enrolled at universities based in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada (excluding Quebec), China, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States. Interested students can register for the contest at https://ecoeasychallenge.com. All teams must submit their final concepts no later than Dec. 23, 2010.

For additional information on how to take part in the Staples Global EcoEasy Challenge, visit https://ecoeasychallenge.com.