RATING
Outlook
Positive
SECTOR
Home Furnishing Merchant Wholesalers
Chief Sustainability Officer
T: N/A
E-mail: N/A
Stock Exchange and Ticker
NYSE: HD
Website
Contact
T: 1-770-433-8211
E.mail: public_relations@homedepot.com
Listing
- Corporate Social Responsibility Award for Labor Equality & Nondiscrimination in Mexico
- Forbes
- No. 22 – World’s Best Employers
- No. 69 – Best Employers for Veterans
- Human Rights Campaign
- Best Places to Work for LGTBQ Equality
- No. 90 -Corporate Equality Index (USA)
- No. 82 – Corporate Equality Index (Mexico)
- Military Friendly
- Employer
- Spouse employer
- Company & Brand
- Comparably
- No. 25 – Best Company Work-Life Balance
- No. 50 – Best Sales team
- No. 8 – Best Places to Work in Atlanta
- Atlanta Business Chronicles
- HR Excellence Award for Most People-Focused CEO (Craig Menear)
- Canada’s Best Diversity Employers – 12th Consecutive year
Awards
- A- score on CDP. Rating is based on 2020 data regarding action on climate change
- Low Risk score on Sustainalytics that analyses corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) progress
- 3.1 score on FTSE Russell that measures ESG risk and performance of publicly traded companies
- AA score on MSCI which measures resilience to long-terms financially relevant ESG risks
- B score on Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, that grades retailers’ progress in selling products with safer chemicals
- Energy Start Retail Partner of the Year
- No. 4 on Top Retailers by the National Retail Federation
- No. 38 on Top Supply Chains by Gartner
- No. 19 World’s Most Admired Companies by Fortune
- EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
- SmartWay Excellence Award
- WaterSense Partner of the Year Award
- Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award
Revenue
Market Capitalisation
Employees
Content source
The Home Depot Sustainability Report
Evaluation of The Home Depot
The Home Depot Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report does not provide clear measurements of the progress towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relevant for their business. The report is rather written around the ESG indicators, where goals are defined, but the information on progress is spread throughout the report.
One first observation regarding the report is that rarely one finds numerical data in both the goals and in the progress, in order to track the level of accomplishment towards that goal. For example, the goal to procure/produce 335 megawatts of renewable or alternative energy by 2035 is well defined, as well as the progress, a total of 243.9 MWac was recorded from renewable sources in 2021. But, on the contrary, regarding the elimination of ‘certain’ chemicals from cleaning products by 2022, The Home Depot simply states “Making progress’, with the supporting argument that ‘The Home Depot offers environmentally preferred cleaners that carry third-party certifications validating their eco-friendly claims’.
Overall, The Home Depot report on environmental, social and governance has plenty of initiatives that are yet to be quantified, in order to properly measure their sustainability efforts. The goals the company currently have in place, there are still hard to evaluate the progress, and for the above reasons, the company has been rated with C, but with a positive outlook.
Sustainability Scorecard
The Home Depot Company Activity
The Home Depot, Inc. operates as a home improvement retailer and sells various building materials, home improvement products, lawn and garden products, and décor products, as well as facilities maintenance, repair, and operations products The company also offers installation services for flooring, cabinets and cabinet makeovers, countertops, furnaces and central air systems, and windows. In addition, it provides tool and equipment rental services. The company primarily serves homeowners; and professional renovators/remodelers, general contractors, maintenance professionals, handymen, property managers, building service contractors, and specialty tradesmen, such as electricians, plumbers, and painters. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 2,317 stores in the United States. The Home Depot, Inc. was incorporated in 1978 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. (Source: Yahoo Finance)
The Home Depot Sustainability Activity - As per company declarations
Home Depot, as the largest home improvement retailer, the overall sustainability goal is to create positive impact across a broad number of stakeholders, identified as associates, customers, academia, suppliers, communities, NGOs, investors and the Government. As sustainability areas, The Home Depot focuses on people, communities, climate change, energy reduction, waste and recycling, chemical concern, natural resources, responsible sourcing and corporate governance.
In the sense of progress since 2019, customers’ purchases of Energy Star products help to lowe carbon emissions by 4.9 million metric tons. Water-saving products sold at The Home Depot helped customers reduce water consumption by over 66 billion gallons in 2021. Moreover, 1.1 million square feet of PVC film were eliminated by redesigning private label packaging. Lastly, completed a multi-year project to convert U.S. stores to LED overhead lighting.
Certificate & Labels, Standards and Frameworks
- DECLARE® Label or Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)
- Cradle to Cradle™ Products Innovation Institute
- CRI Green Label Plus®
- GREENGUARD Gold
- FloorScore®
- Energy Star®
The Home Depot in the news: Press Reviews and Social Media
- Newsweek (April 28, 2022) : Home Depot Facing Boycott Calls After Donating to Some Jan. 6 Apologists
Data compiled by Accountable.US reveals that at the time the article was published, Home Depot has donated $360,000 to at least 60 recipients among other Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY), many of whom were lawmakers that objected to the 2020 US election results.
- Mongabay (Maxwell Radwin, 23 May 2022): Investors force Home Depot to review wood-sourcing policy over logging concerns.
At the Home Depot’s annual shareholders’ meeting in May 2022, it has been proposed a reevaluation of the plywood sourcing policies, which has been in effect since 1999. The proposal has been submitted by Green Century Funds, an environmental focused investment fund which owns shares in the Home Depot Stock. According to Green Funds, only products from some parts of the world receive deforestation-risk certifications from third party evaluators, while others such as Ecuador’s Chocó, Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and Cerrado and Paraguay’s Gran Chaco aren’t listed on the company’s “endangered regions” list. The proposal comes after a campaign to save Chocó region of Western Ecuador has put pressure on Home Depot to change its wood sourcing policies. Despite the fact that the Home Depot board has recommended that shareholders vote against the proposal arguing that the reevaluation will “create additional administrative burden”, rather than “boost forest protection”, 65% of the shareholders approved the Green Fund’s proposal.
- The Natural Resources Defense Council (April 27, 2022 Jennifer Skene): Home Depot: Sourcing Wood Products Like It’s 1999
The article exposes Home Depot outdated wood policies, the threats the company is currently exposed to and also future implications if it takes no immediate action. The Home Depot’s Wood Sourcing Policy from over 23 years ago makes the company ‘complicit’ in the destruction of some of the world’s most climate-critical forests, such as Canada’s boreal forest.
According to Jennifer Skene, the Wood purchasing Policy from Home Depot does not reflect any meaningful substance about Home Depot avoiding sourcing wood climate-critical primary forests or violating human rights. Furthermore, the company lacks commitment to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, ensuring the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and is yet to complete the CDP Forest Questionnaire.
Highlights from The Home Depot Sustainability Report
Achievements
- Nearly $18.8 million was awarded through Homer Fund grants to 8,800+ associate for financial assistance linked to the pandemic, hurricanes, wildfires and more
- Approximately 36% of US new hires were women
- Over 35% of new hires in Canada were women
- More than 57% of US new hires were ethnically/racially diverse
- In 2021 updated the Responsible Sourcing Standards to prohibit all prison labour, removing the provision that previously permitted voluntary prison labour
- In 2021 Home Depot joined RE100 committing to source 100 percent renewable electricity for its entire operations by 2030
- Completed the multi-year project to convert US Stores to LED lighting and to 19 stores in Canada (over 10%) were converted to LED lighting to a total of 182 in 2021
- 326,000 pounds of household electronics, power tools, cellphones and other rechargeable batteries for responsible recycling via a customer take-back program
- 286 private-brand packages redesigned to reduce size and materials which help eliminate 1,119,700 square feet of PVC film
- Commitment to participate in the CDP forests questionnaire, but no questionnaire was filled for the year 2021
- The Home Depot Foundation:
- Committed more than $7 million to help communities impacted by natural disasters in 2021
- Awarded $1,020,000 in grants in 2021 through The Home Depot’s Retool Your School campus improvement grant program
- $100 million invested to help address the issue of veteran homlessness at the national and local level
- The Home Depot Canada Foundation achieved the pledge to invest $36.61M to help prevent and end youth homelesness, one year earlier than planned
- Home Depot Canada recycled 15,100 metric tons of cardboard in 2021 from stores and distribution centres
- Home Depot Canada provided over 260,000 pounds of paper for recycling in 2021
- In 2021 Home Depot spent $3.3 billions on the supplier diversity program
Weaknesses and Setbacks
- Investigations regarding the Home Depot plywood source in Ecuador uncovered unethical practices and shareholders proposed reevaluation of the wood sourcing policies
Targets vs Progress Reported
| Target | Results reported |
|---|---|
| Invest more than 1 million hours per year over five years in training and development to help our front-line associates grow their careers | - In 2021 The Home Depot introduced an additional Voice of the Associates survey, Census where made it possible collect information from associate’s regarding engagement and satisfaction with their job, with the highest engagement in a few years - More than 450,000 associates across U.S. and Canada have had access to the engagement platform, Yammer, with more than 650 active - Through Onboarding and Exit, as well as “Lifecycle Listening” survey, The Home Depot connects with associates at specific moments within their career at company |
| Create career advancement opportunities for 50,000 front-line associates over a five-year period by 2023 | - Goal achieved in 2021 where through Home Depot University, in its 12th year, is critical to the development of values-based leaders who take care of our associates, customers, and communities |
| ExpandAssociate Resource Group (ARGs) to include more associates and increase engagement and participation by 2021 | - Goal achieved through an expansion of the Associate Resource Group (ARGs) to engage directly with hourly front-line associates to share DEI-related information and Resources - Hosted more than 70 ARGs events virtually in 2021 to celebrate diversity, raise cultural awareness and foster professional developmen |
| Contribute half of a billion dollars to veteran causes by 2025 | - Achieved a milestone of ten years and over $400 million invested in support of veteran causess |
| Procure/produce 335 megawatts of renewable or alternative energy by 2035 | - Fuel cell energy capacity 41.2 MWac - Solar energy capacity company 141.7 MWac, a big increase from 44.6mWac since 2019 - Wind energy capacity 62 MWac - A total of 243.9 Mwac in 2021 |
| Produce/procure 100% renewable electricity for all Home Depot facilities worldwide by 2030 | - ust getting started, currently 204 out of 1988 stores in the US (over 10%) use fuel cell energy sources - In 2021, 10% reduction in energy in US stores |
| Using science-based targets reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions 2.1% per year, a total of 40% by 2030, 50% by 2035 | - In 2021 carbon dioxide emitted was reduced by 21% compared to 2020 to a total of 1,649,000 metric ton |
| Eliminate certain chemicals from cleaning products by 2022 | - ‘Making progress’ and that The Home Depot offers environmentally preferred cleaners that carry third-party certifications validating their eco-friendly claims |
| Exclude expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film from private-brand packaging by 2023 | - 274,600 cubic feet of EPS eliminated a decrease of almost 70% since 2020 - 1,119,700 square feet of PVC film eliminated, a decrease by 80% since 2019 and an increase of 15% since 2020 |
| Redesigned packaging to help reducing the plastic usage and space | - AEliminate 133,000 pounds of plastic and reduce the shipping space by 20% |
| Achieve $5 billion in direct annual spend with diverse suppliers | - In 2021 direct spend with supplier was at $3.3 billion - 1,487 factory audits and 1,632 follow-up visits conducted in 2021, focusing on worker health, safety and well-being in suppliers’ operation |
| Launch a Tier II supplier diversity program | - Goal achieved in 2022 and this program will measure and encourages the Tier I suppliers’ spending with diverse suppliers |
