ATLANTA, July 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Home
Depot®, the world's largest home improvement retailer,
today announced companywide sustainability progress in its 2020
Responsibility Report, which outlines the company's 2019 progress
on its corporate responsibility strategic pillars: focus on people,
operate sustainably and strengthen communities. The report also
introduces several new goals and provides an update on the
company's recent response to COVID-19 and social equality
issues.
New goals include a commitment to produce and procure energy
from 335 megawatts of renewable and alternative energy projects by
2025 – equivalent to the amount of energy it takes to power more
than 90,000 homes. Additionally, the company pledged to eliminate
expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film
from its private brand packaging by 2023.
As part of its existing pledge to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions by 50 percent by 2035, The Home Depot reduced its
greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent in 2019, driven primarily by
energy reductions and supply chain efficiencies. The company
reduced its electricity consumption in U.S. stores by 383 million
kilowatt hours, tripling its 2018 reduction while at the same time
adding three new U.S. stores to its footprint.
"We believe our commitment to continuing progress on
environmental, social and governance issues has made our company
stronger, had a lasting positive impact on the environment,
deepened our relationships with associates and customers, and
created long-term shareholder value," said Craig Menear, chairman, CEO and president of The
Home Depot. "I want to thank our associates and suppliers for the
significant progress we made last year and look forward to making
meaningful progress in the future."
The Home Depot's Corporate Responsibility strategy is centered
on three key pillars: focusing on people, operating sustainably,
strengthening communities.
Focus on People
- The Home Depot continued to make strides in improving its
diversity and inclusion in 2019. Last year, more than 33 percent of
new hires were female and more than 50 percent were ethnically
diverse. In 2020, in support of its commitment to racial equality
and social justice, the company established an executive-led task
force to further expand its ongoing work to strengthen African
American and other minority communities, combat discrimination and
deepen its diversity.
- In 2019, The Homer Fund – The Home Depot's associate-funded
assistance fund – provided more than 8,200 associates with more
than $16 million in grants. Since its
inception in 1999, The Homer Fund has awarded associates in need
more than $200 million in
grants.
- To support associates during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Home
Depot has provided more than $1
billion in expanded benefits to-date. These benefits include
expanded paid time off for all hourly associates (and additional
time for associates who are 65 and older or in higher-risk
categories as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention), weekly bonuses for full-time and part-time hourly
associates, and extended backup dependent care with no copays.
Operating Sustainably
- In 2019, The Home Depot's U.S. stores used 35 percent less
electricity than they did in 2010. The company's substantial
energy-saving progress in 2019 was led by the rolling installation
of LED lighting across its U.S. stores. About 60 percent of its
U.S. stores had LED lighting installed by the end of 2019, and the
upgrades continue. Overall, U.S. store energy consumption dropped
12 percent last year.
- As The Home Depot commits to produce or procure energy from 335
megawatts of renewable and alternative energy projects by 2025, the
company plans to nearly double the number of stores with on-site
solar panels and continue to leverage on-site fuel cells and
offsite wind and solar energy.
- By partnering with suppliers to improve products and packaging,
1.44 million pounds of plastic were eliminated, and another 7.73
million pounds of virgin plastic were replaced with recycled
plastic in 2019.
- A more efficient supply chain means reduced business costs and
less impact on the environment. By packing trailers to maximize
space, the company was able to avoid approximately 10,500 truck
trips traveling 15 million miles. The Home Depot is also partnering
with other companies to fill underloaded trucks by buying and
selling trailer space. And by using artificial intelligence (AI) to
leverage data on optimal truck performance based on weight, the
company is enabling fuller trucks to use fuel more
efficiently.
Strengthening Communities
- The Home Depot Foundation continued its efforts to improve the
homes and lives of U.S. veterans, assist communities affected by
natural disasters and train skilled tradespeople to fill the labor
gap. Since 2011, the Foundation's total investment in veterans
causes surpassed $335 million – part
of its $500 million pledge by
2025.
- The Foundation has established trades training programs for
military members and high school students in more than 15 states,
as well as an innovative K12 program in Georgia, all part of its $50 million commitment to train 20,000
tradespeople by 2028 to address the skilled labor shortage and
provide a path to quality jobs.
- In 2019, the Foundation gave $3.5
million to help communities recover from natural disasters
and partnered with nonprofits like Operation Blessing, the American
Red Cross, Team Rubicon and Convoy of Hope.
- Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, The Home Depot has prioritized
the safety and well-being of associates and customers, while
remaining open to provide essential products and services to its
communities. The company has contributed more than $50 million to support communities, including
donations of personal protective equipment (PPE) to first
responders, hospitals and healthcare workers, with more than 95
percent of its stores contributing PPE and other supplies in their
local communities.
New to the report this year is the inclusion of disclosures
aligned with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)
and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
frameworks. The company also continues to apply the Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standards as an
identification and cross reference tool, which it has done for the
last 5 years, and highlights 10 United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals that align within The Home Depot's sphere of
influence. In addition to these disclosure frameworks, the report
includes charts on materiality touchpoints, progress on stated
goals and an ESG transparency chart that highlights The Home
Depot's key environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics from
2017 through 2019.
For more information on The Home Depot's commitment to
environmental, social, and governance issues, please view the 2020
Responsibility Report on The Home Depot's corporate newsroom, Built
from Scratch.
About The Home Depot
The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty
retailer, with 2,293 retail stores in all 50 states, the
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S.
Virgin Islands, Guam, 10
Canadian provinces and Mexico. In
fiscal 2019, The Home Depot had sales of $110.2 billion and earnings of $11.2 billion. The company employs more than
400,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New
York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones
industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.
Certain statements contained herein constitute
"forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements may
relate to, among other things, our goals, commitments
and programs and projections of future results; the impact on our
business, operations and financial results of the COVID-19
pandemic; our business plans, strategies, initiatives and
objectives and their expected execution and impact; management of
relationships with our associates, suppliers and vendors; and our
assumptions and expectations regarding any of the foregoing.
Forward-looking statements are based on currently available
information and our current assumptions, expectations and
projections about future events. These statements are not
guarantees of future performance and are subject to future events,
risks and uncertainties – many of which are beyond our control,
dependent on the actions of third parties, or currently unknown to
us – as well as potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause
actual results to differ materially from our expectations and
projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not
limited to, those described in Item 1A, "Risk Factors," and
elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year
ended February 2, 2020 and in our
subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are
made, and we do not undertake to update these statements other than
as required by law. You are advised, however, to review any further
disclosures we make on related subjects in our periodic filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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SOURCE The Home Depot