Home Depot Environmental Sustainability Audit The Home Depot is a company built under the principle of creating value for their stockholders while never forgetting the company’s main values: “Taking care of our people, giving back, doing the right thing, creating shareholder value, respect for all people, entrepreneurial spirit, building strong relationships, and excellent customer service”. These values were presented by Francis S. Blake (The Home Depot C. E. O. ) on the company’s 2007 annual report. Mr.
Blake presented The Home Depot as a “values based business” using what he called “The Values Wheel”. He used this concept in order to present the company’s business responsibility approach as a full cycle, starting at one point and coming back to the area where they started. While keeping their employees perspective open and alert for changes and improvement throughout the process. He can be seen as a great example of what Father Byron mention on page 214 a “principled person with the principled vision” guiding others “into a more ethical future”.
Environmental sustainability has become a hot topic in the last couple of decades because of global warming and other weather related changes. In today’s business world, environmental sustainability is an essential part of corporate social responsibility (CSR); therefore, very important to stockholders, owners, as well as to the public in general. Everybody wants to know how businesses are run and how their operations affect their communities for generations to come.
The Home Depot as a corporation is continuously seeking to fulfill all levels of CSR by the following basic fundamentals as their guide: be profitable, comply with all government laws and regulations, established themselves as a corporation with high ethical values, and discretionary levels within the company’s core values. They also pursue to keep the organization’s operations responsible and in balance with local community needs. The Home Depot Environmental Sustainability Approach
The company’s environmental sustainability approach can be found ingrained in every single area of their business (Business mission, future plans, and government structure), as well as in their day by day operations. These include but are not limited to: store construction and maintenance of their facilities, energy consumption, suppliers’ product selection, and customer education programs. All these environmental sustainability approaches are a true reflection of the company’s commitment to a more efficient and environmental friendly business operation.
The Home Depot stated in their 2007 annual report that they “budgeted approximately $50 million for energy efficiency related projects”. They attacked environmental problems by replacing about 200 heating ventilation air conditioning (HVAC) units in more than 200 stores. They also changed their existing lighting system in approximately 600 of their facilities and counting. With these simple changes the company estimates a savings of approximately $20 million in energy cost alone, and believe this financial goal can be achieve in only 2 years.
Moreover, they have implemented more rigorous operational standards, establishing energy efficient practices in their stores worldwide. These include HVAC unit temperature regulation and adherence to strict lighting schedules, which combined are the largest sources of energy consumption in their facilities. In addition to these organizational actions the company is implementing a new innovating energy management/alarm system. This system monitors the store energy use and efficiency, reports areas of high consumption, and assists store managers in this field.
By adopting these three changes, The Home Depot is eliminating about “907 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions” (an equivalent of removing 75,000 cars from the road). Thus minimizing potential environmental damage produced by the company’s operation from the daily store operations. The Home Depot recognized the long-term risks in the day-by-day operations that pose a threat to the environment. In addition to the corrective actions mentioned before, the company established partnership agreements as well as joint ventures with other non-profit organizations like “the U.
S. Green Building Council”. With the financial support of The Home Depot, this organization plants thousands of trees every year in order to offset carbon emissions generated by the company’s facilities and their business travel emissions. These include decreasing carbon emissions during transportation of products and supplies, mitigating to some extend their negative impact in the environment. These trees are planted in community areas around the nation providing beauty to the landscape, as well as umerous environmental and economic benefits such as: improved air and water quality; energy conservation; noise reduction; erosion control; and the preservation of wildlife habitat. Other Environmental Programs The Home Depot doesn’t stop with their financial support to other environmental organizations. Throughout their “Eco Options SM Program” the company has created various product categories that assist their consumers in identifying environmentally friendly products in their stores easily.
The company has also implemented what they called a “Supplier Social and Environmental Responsibility Program” in order to ensure that their suppliers and contractors implement similar social and environmental responsibility standards. These implementantions include their production process, business operations, and services, creating a chain of environmental responsible organizations that works together for a better global sustainable operation.
The Home Depot also invites communities around the nation into their stores to participate in practical and educational programs to achieve an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. This is accomplished by simply using more energy efficient and sustainable products, actively participation in recycling practices, and adopting basic energy conservation tips. The company has other sustainability programs like: The Home Depot Foundation, the Community Impact Grants, as well as their Associates Volunteer Time program.
With these programs the company strives to have a positive impact (similar to the ones obtained throughout their practical and educational programs) on communities across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, changing communities and their people leading by example. Stop Doing this—> Lets study more in detail The Home Depot Foundation in order to evaluate the company’s environmental responsibility more closer. The Home Depot Foundation The Home Depot Foundation works to build affordable, efficient, healthy homes.
All the while promoting sustainability through their support to worldwide non-profit organizations in the construction of these houses through funding and volunteers. The Home Depot Foundation’s also supports other non-profit organizations by creating, rehabilitating, and financing the construction of pre-existing homes for low-to-moderate income families. They accomplish this by implementing construction and operating guidelines that ensure the efficient use of resources, improve indoor air quality and minimal environmental impact during the process.
Their joint venture with The Enterprise Foundation had a goal of launching the Green Communities Initiative. This became an alliance of housing health and environmental organizations, and is a good example of how this partnership program works. This organization was created with a simple task in mind improve the quality of affordable housing across the nation by adopting more efficient practices and using eco-friendly products in the construction process. To further promote a healthy environment and more livable community, the foundation also supports programs working to restore and sustain urban and forests wild life habitats nationwide.
The sustainable management of rural and forests natural areas also ensures that lumbers, and other forest products, are harvested in a responsible manner in order to help guarantee their existence for the use and enjoyment of future generations. The Home Depot foundation supports volunteer work and services from their associates and suppliers. This links them with community and various project opportunities, as well as working with grant recipients in their communities, assisting them with the utilization of their funds and reducing their environmental impact.
A good example of this effort can be found back in 2005 when The Home Depot Foundation became the exclusive Home Improvement sponsor of the National Neighbor Works Week. During the week, associates and suppliers of The Home Depot partnered with local neighboring work organizations. They assisted them with home repairs, restoration of landscape properties, and with the construction of playgrounds to help revitalize communities, create jobs, and transform lives throughout the process.
Benefits from Their Environmental Actions As we can see in the attached J. D. Power and Associates 2008 report, the Home Depot is been rated as the second highest levels of volume and positive mentions regarding environmental sustainability among retail brands. J. D. Power and Associates based their ratings on a 40 million blogs analysis they conducted during the past six months. J. D. Power and associates Web division is an organization that specializes in research of internet blogs and other consumer generated media.
The company researches the consumers point of view and perspectives about environmental sustainability, global warming, and conservation practices amount other trends. J. D. Power and Associates state that this report “is designed to provide executives in the retail and consumer packaged goods industries with ongoing measures of the extent of consumer engagement on the topic of sustainability, and how that engagement is influencing the buying habits and preferences of their customers and other consumers within their targeted demographics”.
The Home Depot benefits from their environmental actions (as we can see by been rated the second highest organization). This report was generated directly from consumers input around the nation; therefore, the Home Depots’ increased in sales is obviously a direct result of their environmental actions. Financial and Environmental Impact Reports The Home Depot is an organization that recognizes the importance of “timely and accurate information” regarding their businesses social and environmental actions.
It is for these reasons that the organization reported in the company’s webpage their actions, involvement, and corrective plans pursuing environmental excellence and presents their dedication “making communities a better place for generations to come”. As we can see The Home Depot openly shows to their customers and their stockholders their carbon footprint, corrective actions, and future plans regarding this matter in their webpage in order to demonstrate their commitment and dedication to the environment.
The Home Depot Environmental-Sustainability Policies and Practices The Home Depot established a complete database of their environmental sustainability policies, practices, and accomplishments showing their commitment and desire for success. Here are two of the most relevant reports founded in their online database: Environmental Principles The Home Depot recognized the importance of saving or planet for future generations. It is for that reason that the company created the following list of principles [available online in the company’s website].
The organization’s goal is to aid their associates walk their way “down the path of sustainability”. 1We are committed to improving the environment by selling products that are manufactured, packaged and labeled in a responsible manner, that take the environment into consideration and that provide greater value to our customers. 2We will support efforts to provide accurate, informative product labeling of environmental marketing claims. 3We will strive to eliminate unnecessary packaging. 4We will recycle and encourage the use of materials and products with recycled content. We will conserve natural resources by using energy and water wisely and seek further opportunities to improve the resource efficiency of our stores. 6We will comply with environmental laws and will maintain programs and procedures to ensure compliance. 7We are committed to minimizing the environmental health and safety risk for our associates and our customers. 8We will train our employees to enhance understanding of environmental issues and policies and to promote excellence in job performance and all environmental matters. We will encourage our customers to become environmentally conscious shoppers. Environmental Accomplishments After they announced their commitment to the environment about 20 years ago, The Home Depot is proud of their achievements. They have presented a detailed list of accomplishments on their webpage, demonstrating their progress in this area. Here is a snapshot of some of their achieved goals and progress throughout the years. In 1990, The Home Depot becomes the first hardware store in the nation with a department dedicated to deal with environmental problems.
A year later the company made public their environmental principles and started using recycled office supplies. The Home Depot, in Partnership with the U. S. EPA’s Green Lights Program, in 1992, became the first hardware store committed to continue the improvement of their state-of-the-art computerized store lighting system. The Company Donated $100,000 to several environmental groups as part of the company’s ongoing social responsibility commitment and received the “prestigious Honor Roll Award from National Environmental Development Association” in 1993.
A strong start in the environmental sustainability area moved the company to increase their donation funds 130% over the previous year; donating $230,000 to various environmental groups, including “Affordable Environmental Green Print® with Habitat for Humanity International”. Throughout the next five years, The Home Depot received several awards including the “President’s Council for Sustainable Development” and the “Vision for America”. Their success fueled their commitment making them increase their donations to environmental non-profit groups, giving more than $750,000 by the end of1999.
The Home Depot included a philanthropic budget of over $25 million in their annual report. Just a few months later the company was ranked 6th by the Fortune magazine in their top ten most admired companies. After the terrorist attacks of September 2001 the United States economy suffer a tremendous down fall. Regardless of the nations financial situation, the company gave more than $1. 5 million to environmental nonprofit organizations maintaining their support and commitment to these organizations.
Following these actions the company started a partnership program promoting “sustainable timber harvesting in Indonesia” and improved the company’s overall operation process and energy use, reducing their greenhouse gases and carbon foot print word wide. In 2006 and 2007 The Home Depot was named ENERGY STAR® partner of the year. Moreover, they commitment moved them to invest more than $100 million in the construction of more than “100,000 green affordable homes” and the reforestation of three million trees over the next ten years.
As we all know there is always room for improvement in any organization. The Home Depot can maintain their commitment to the environment and take advantage of their environmental sustainability vision, increasing their net profit at the same time by simply improving and/or adopting the following areas: 1New Supplies and material transportation techniques If the company use reusable transportation containers (like Wal-Mart and other retail organizations) and change their transportation current practices rerouting their delivery trucks (like the UPS) in order to use fuel more efficiently.
The company can reduce their carbon foot print close to eliminating 227,000 trucks off the roads in only 6 years. 2Establishing recycling collection center in their stores. Customers will visit their recycling centers just to drop recycling items like power tools cordless batteries once a customer drops a battery in their recycling center they can offer a discount in a replacement battery, Also the recycled battery will be sold to companies that fix these items and put them back in the market making more profit out of an item previously sold. Offer discounts to customers that use reusable shopping bags in their stores. These bags are a great alternative for the traditional plastic bags. The environmental and social benefits of this product (reusable shopping bags) when compared side by side with the traditional plastic shopping bag are tremendous, plus it will reduce the company’s expenses, increase their profits and at the same time promotes a healthy environmental perspective. . After evaluating all their policies, practices, and possible new changes we can conclude that The Home Depot is a leader in environmental sustainability field.
Having several aggressive environmental plans, The Home Depot shows an honest interest in how they can operate their business in a profitable way, minimizing environmental consequences as a result of their daily business operation. References Home Depot Corporate Responsibility http://corporate. homedepot. com/wps/portal/Corporate_Responsibility The Home Depot and the Environment http://corporate. homedepot. com/wps/portal/Environment The Home Depot 2007 Financial Report http://ir. homedepot. com/reports. cfm J. D. Power and Associates 2008 http://www. jdpower. com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease. aspx? ID=2008194
