Change That Builds
The Home Depot’s sustainability and human capital management strategy is centered on three key pillars: Focus on Our People, Operate Sustainably and Strengthen Our Communities.
OPERATE SUSTAINABLY
We strive to reduce our carbon footprint by improving the efficiency of our operations and by investing in alternative energy solutions. We partner with suppliers focused on social and environmental responsibility, and we help our customers reduce their environmental impact by offering products and packaging created with sustainability in mind.
We have a long-standing commitment to reduce the impact that our operations and products have on the environment, which we believe helps make our business stronger, more agile, and more resilient. This approach extends from the products and services we offer to our customers; to our store construction, maintenance and operations; to our supply chain and packaging initiatives; to our responsible sourcing program. As we strive to operate sustainably, we focus on sourcing products responsibly, protecting our business operations from climate-related risks, and reducing our environmental impact.
Carbon Footprint
We use widely adopted standards to track our greenhouse gas emissions and our efforts to reduce them. For all THD in fiscal 2022:
Direct emissions from combustible sources and refrigerants totaled approximately 597,500 metric tons.
Indirect emissions from purchased electricity totaled approximately 959,800 metric tons.
We estimate that emissions from our relevant supply chain categories were approximately 3,696,500 metric tons.
We reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by over 92,000 metric tons in 2022, achieving a 5.5% year-over-year reduction in carbon dioxide emitted per dollar of revenue earned.
Under our science-based target goal linked to our annual CDP reporting, we have committed to reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon dioxide emissions 2.1% per year to achieve a 40% reduction by 2030 and a 50% reduction by 2035.
Store Operations
The simplest way to reduce emissions from energy use is to use less energy, and The Home Depot has made significant progress. Over the last ten years electricity consumption by our Canadian stores has dropped 45%.
Our substantial energy-saving progress in recent years has been led by the installation of LED lighting in all store interiors, which was completed in 2021. Many of our stores now have exterior LED lighting and right-sized heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems which further contribute to our overall building efficiency. In addition, all stores across Canada have a building automation system that is used to ensure our stores are operated as comfortably and efficiently as possible.
Ethical Sourcing
We support suppliers that take action toward maintaining our collective commitment to human rights and safety in our supply chain. We purchase products made in factories that adhere to our Responsible Sourcing Standards, which mandate that suppliers and factories abide by all applicable international and local laws, rules and regulations in the manufacturing and distribution of merchandise or services provided to us. We conduct audits of factories around the world to ensure compliance with these standards. Our annual Responsible Sourcing Report details our progress.
Suppliers must keep on-site documentation that demonstrates compliance with our standards. They also must allow The Home Depot associates and/or representatives full access to production facilities, worker records, production records and workers for confidential interviews in connection with monitoring visits. We expect our suppliers to promptly correct any noncompliance, and we check their progress. If suppliers fail to improve, we may terminate our business relationships with them. Equally important, we support factories that take action to create lasting social and environmental compliance programs. We encourage suppliers and factory workers to communicate concerns via processes outlined in our Business Code of Conduct & Ethics.
Sustainable Forestry
We strive to create transparency in how global forest resources are used in our products. To help protect endangered forests and to ensure that there will be timber for future generations, The Home Depot first issued our Wood Purchasing Policy in 1999. Since then, we have worked to lead our suppliers toward understanding and practicing sustainable forestry throughout the world. The policy outlines our commitment to practice and promote the efficient and responsible use of wood and wood products.
Canadian Supply Chains Act Report
Greener Products
The Home Depot’s greatest environmental impact comes from the products we sell, and our biggest opportunity to create change is by helping customers live more sustainably. We work with suppliers to encourage the production of greener products, which we, in turn, offer to our customers.
Eco Options
The Home Depot’s greatest environmental impact comes from the products we sell, and our biggest opportunity to create change is by helping customers live more sustainably. We work with suppliers to encourage the production of greener products, which we, in turn, offer to our customers. The Home Depot Canada’s Eco Options® program helps our customers identify products that have less of an impact on the environment. It also encourages our suppliers to provide more sustainable offerings. For a product to receive Eco Options classification, the supplier must document attributes that prove it has less of an impact on the environment than comparable products in the same category.
Chemical Strategy
Our Chemical Strategy, first published in 2017, is an important part of our commitment to offer greener products. It guides our efforts to work with suppliers to reduce the indoor air quality impact of chemicals used in the products we sell. Its publication was a milestone made possible by what we had learned over a decade of focusing on sustainability.
Honey Bees & Insecticides
In 2016, we set a goal to eliminate neonicotinoids in our live goods. Our local growers have risen to the challenge and they do not apply neonicotinoids across our local supply chain. We are almost at 100% elimination, but the challenge is in nuances like pest infestation, citrus tree regulations, and shrub regulation where some state regulations may prevent the complete elimination of this pesticide. Thank you to all of our local growers across Canada and live goods merchants who worked hard to help eliminate neonicotinoids in our supply chain and continue to assist in facilitating this change!
To further support pollinator friendly practices, The Home Depot Canada has had a partnership with the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) to offers pollinator-friendly plants at our stores. A portion of the sales go to CWF to fund programs that help pollinators and other Canadian species. We also have our Nature’s Nutrients line of 75 to 100 pollinator friendly annual and perennials. We continue to expand the Nature’s Nutrients program each year.
Energy & Water Efficiency
We partner with our suppliers and the ENERGY STAR® and WaterSense® programs to sell more efficient products. We have over 1000’s of WaterSense® and ENERGY STAR® items in-store and online helping our customers save water and energy throughout their home.
Our dedication to helping customers make the switch to ENEGY STAR® is evident in our ENERGY STAR® retailer of the year award, which we have won for the last number of years.
Sustainable Packaging
Our packaging innovations reduce waste, increase shipping efficiency, and decrease product damage. We work with our private-label product suppliers to apply science to creating better packages.
We continue to look for substitutes for expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film in our private-label packaging. Both EPS and PVC are difficult to recycle and can take a long time to biodegrade. We’ve committed to eliminating EPS and PVC from our private-label packages by the end of 2023. We’re scouting out even small amounts and replacing EPS and PVC with easier-to-recycle materials like molded pulp and paper.
Habitat for Humanity ReStore
The Home Depot Canada supports the Habit for Humanity ReStores program with donation of product from stores across the country. These donations provide quality items for sale at 109 Habitat ReStores across Canada. These ReStores are innovative social enterprises, and the funds generated are used to fund local Habitat for Humanity homebuilding projects.
This partnership with Habitat is not just about donating product to this great organization, it also supports The Home Depot Canada's sustainability objective to sustainably manage all waste materials at the store level. Donating materials to Habitat for Humanity keeps them in use rather than recycling the materials or landfilling the materials.
Resources and Reports
To find out more about the details of various sustainability policies please take a look at the resource and reports below.
Forest Stewardship Council Certification
Responsible Sourcing Standards
Responsible Sourcing Supplier Manual
Corporate Responsibility
People
Products
Operations
People
Products
Operations
Operations
FOCUS ON OUR PEOPLE
When The Home Depot was founded in 1978, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank had no idea how revolutionary this new “hardware store” would be for home improvement and the retail industry.
Our founders' vision of one-stop shopping for the do-it-yourselfer came to fruition when they opened the first two Home Depot stores on June 22, 1979, in Atlanta, Georgia. The first stores, at around 60,000 square feet each, were cavernous warehouses that overshadowed the competition and stocked 25,000 products, much more than the average hardware store at that time.
Today, we’re proud to be the world’s largest home improvement retailer. In 2,300 stores across North America (182 in Canada), we aspire to excel in service – to our customers, associates, communities and shareholders. That’s what leadership means to us. That's The Home Depot difference.
We focus on our people by striving for a culture that is centered on The Home Depot’s Core Value of Respect for All People and that welcomes everyone. We believe this approach helps us achieve our business goals by driving excellent customer service and innovation, empowering our associates to thrive and excel, and enriching the communities in which we operate. This includes creating an environment where our associates feel valued and respected and providing equal opportunity for all of our associates.
Benefits
Our people make The Home Depot successful, and it’s our responsibility and privilege to take care of them. The Home Depot associates are at different life stages, and our Benefits program guides them to the right resources. With one click, associates can find support for wherever they are on life’s journey.
We also provide support for life’s unexpected challenges. Through our Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) our associates have 24/7 access to counselling services. In addition, our associates and their families have access to a mobile app that provides instant access to Canadian healthcare practitioners specializing in family medicine.
Success Sharing
Our philosophy of taking care of our people and motivating them to deliver a superior customer experience shapes our profit-sharing program for non-management associates. Success Sharing provides semi-annual cash awards for performance against our business plan, including sales and productivity goals. The outstanding performance of our associates in fiscal 2022 enabled 100% of stores to qualify for Success Sharing in both the first and second half of the year.
Associate Safety
The Home Depot strives to provide the safest working and shopping environment for our associates and customers. A major component in our strategy is raising awareness of risks among both frontline associates and leaders. When our people are trained to recognize and correct hazards, our workplace is primed for continual improvement.
Homer Fund
The Homer Fund was created to support The Home Depot associates and their families facing an unexpected difficulty or tragedy through two types of grants. The Direct Grant can help associates pay for basic living expenses such as rent, mortgage etc. Matching Grants is the “pass the hat” concept where associates collect money to help another associate in need. The Homer Fund will match the collection efforts of the associates.
Taking Care of Our People is a core value at The Home Depot. Since 1999 more than 2,400 Canadian associates have been supported by the Fund in grants totaling over $3.5M. Every dollar donated by associates goes directly to supporting associates.
Learning and Development
The Home Depot’s learning and development programs expand skills and capabilities so associates can master their current roles and prepare for future ones. We strive to build a learning-rich workplace where associates and leaders are prepared to succeed, motivated to serve our customers well and given opportunities to grow. We see results from our approach to turning front-line jobs into careers. We support associate training at all levels of the career journey. As a result of our efforts, in fiscal 2022 1,982,000+ courses were taken by associates.
Associate engagement is the emotional connection associates have to our company and our goals. It is vital to The Home Depot’s culture and success.
Voice of the Associate
Highly engaged associates care about their work and the performance of The Home Depot. Our passion is to create an engaging and inclusive workplace; we do so by proactively listening and responding to associate feedback.
We are committed to ensuring our associates have regular opportunities to share their thoughts, opinions and feedback through our Voice of the Associate surveys. Our larger census survey is an annual in-depth look at our associate’s engagement and satisfaction with their job and with the Home Depot Canada, while our smaller and more targeted pulse surveys seek feedback on specific topics. In 2023 we saw very high levels of participation in our Voice of the Associate census and pulse surveys. In addition, we have additional surveys that allow us to intentionally connect with associates at specific moments within their career at The Home Depot, including during their onboarding.
Engagement Platform
The Home Depot’s new associate engagement platform Viva Engage, which was launched at the end of 2020, helped create new collaboration spaces and opportunities for reaching associates across the business.
Whether through on-site desktops or on-the-go mobile devices, more than 30,000 associates across the U.S. and Canada have access to Viva Engage. The digital hub links associates to both their local co-workers and corporate support across North America. It serves as a central hub to recognize associates for living our values, promote company news, cultivate connections between front-line and corporate associates and fuel the orange-blooded entrepreneurial spirit that’s part of what drives our business every day.
Our culture and our associates provide intangible and hard-to-replicate competitive advantages, which have been key to helping us navigate challenging market conditions. Our associates are essential to providing the experience and service that our customers demand. To preserve and protect that customer experience, we focus on cultivating a compelling associate experience, which we believe supports our ability to attract and retain our associates. This includes investing in competitive wages and benefits while also providing the culture, tools, training, and development opportunities that make working at The Home Depot an enjoyable and rewarding experience. These actions are the foundation of our core values of taking care of our people, entrepreneurial spirit, building strong relationships, and respect for all people.
Hear from VP, Human Resources, The Home Depot Canada, Vinod Nalajala about how The Home Depot is expanding our DEI mission.
Associate Resource Groups
The Home Depot Canada’s associate resource groups (ARGs) drive associate engagement and promote inclusion through fostering development, raising cultural awareness, and celebrating community outreach. Our ARGs are open to all associates, are led by associates and sponsored by executive leaders. They drive associate engagement and promote inclusion at our Store Support Center and across all locations through:
- Professional development
- Cultural awareness
- Community outreach
We have five ARGs, each of which support the company’s business objectives and policies. The Home Depot’s commitment to Doing the Right Thing and Taking Care of Our People extends to fairness in our pay practices.
We are excited to further the engagement and access of our associate resource groups.
STRENGTHEN OUR COMMUNITIES
Our core values shape our commitment to making the communities we serve stronger and more resilient. Our Community Investment work focuses on; Team DepotDisaster Response and The Home Depot Canada Foundation. It is through the work of these pillars The Home Depot strives to positively impact the communities we serve across Canada.
Learn more about The Home Depot Canada Foundation’s commitment to preventing and ending youth homelessness.
Our core values shape our commitment to making the communities we serve stronger and more resilient. Our Community Investment work focuses on; Team Depot, Disaster Response, and The Home Depot Canada Foundation. It is through the work of these pillars The Home Depot strives to positively impact the communities we serve across Canada.
Learn more about The Home Depot Canada Foundation’s commitment to preventing and ending youth homelessness.
Team Depot
Giving Back to our communities is a value that The Home Depot is founded on, and one that’s important to all associates, as it allows us to establish strong, local relationships with our communities.
Team Depot is The Home Depot's associate volunteer force designed to empower all associates to take an active role in supporting their communities through hands-on service. Each year our associates donate their time and sweat equity to help the community through small scale renovation and repairs projects, such as gardening, painting, and other projects that help strengthen the community by building greater capacity for those most in need.
Follow #TeamDepotCA for more information.
The Home Depot Canada Foundation
The Home Depot Canada Foundation is committed to preventing and ending youth homelessness in Canada. Together with community partners across the country we work to remove barriers, break cycles of inequity, and enable youth at-risk of facing homelessness to achieve positive development outcomes and realize their full potential.
Disaster Response
When nature unleashes its worst, we’re ready. We work to be the last stores to close and the first to reopen to help communities prepare and recover, and when it's time to help repair the damage, Team Depot volunteers are among the first on the scene.
Rebuilding after a natural disaster takes time, money and energy that many victims simply don’t have to spare. That’s where we come in. From making sure emergency supplies are on hand to helping repair and rebuild, Team Depot, our associate-led volunteer force, instinctively goes into to action to make sure our communities have the support they need to recover.