Home Depot 2009 Annual Report Download - page 11

Environmental. The Home Depot is committed to conducting business in an environmentally responsible
manner. This commitment impacts all areas of our business, including store construction and maintenance,
energy usage, supply chain, product selection and delivery of product knowledge to our customers.
In fiscal 2009, we spent approximately $22 million for energy efficiency-related projects and saved over
114 million kilowatt hours (kWh) compared to fiscal 2008, enough to power over 10,000 U.S. homes for one
year. We continued to implement strict operational standards that establish energy efficient practices in all of
our facilities. These include HVAC unit temperature regulation and adherence to strict lighting schedules,
which are the largest sources of energy consumption in our stores, as well as utilizing the Novar Energy
Management and Alarm System in each store to monitor energy efficiency. We estimate that by implementing
and utilizing these energy saving programs, we have saved over 2.6 billion kWh since 2004, enough to power
approximately 203,000 U.S. homes for one year. We have achieved a 16 percent reduction in kWh per square
foot of energy consumption in our U.S. stores since 2004, and our goal is to achieve a 20 percent reduction in
our U.S. stores by 2015, through our energy conservation initiatives. We have also partnered with the
U.S. Green Building Council and have built seven Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (“LEED”)
green certified and equivalent stores.
Through our supply chain efficiencies created by the actions described above under “Logistics,” we are also
targeting a 20 percent reduction in our domestic supply chain greenhouse gas emissions from 2008 to 2015,
which would equate to annual fuel savings of approximately 25 million gallons or approximately 8,000 trips
around the earth’s circumference. We received the 2009 Environmental Excellence Award from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency SmartWaySM Transport Partnership for our leadership in conserving energy
and lowering greenhouse gas emission from our supply chain activities.
As the world’s largest home improvement retailer, we are in a unique position to enable our customers to
achieve energy savings through our products and services. Through our Eco OptionsSM Program introduced in
2007, we have created product categories that allow consumers to easily identify environmentally preferred
product selections in our stores. Our Eco OptionsSM Program has certified approximately 4,000 products that
meet specifications for energy efficiency, water conservation, healthy home, clean air and sustainable forestry.
During 2009, we sold more than 90 million Energy Star®refrigerators, dishwashers, compact fluorescent light
bulbs, programmable thermostats, water heaters and other products, which are capable of saving our customers
approximately $740 million on their utility bills. We also sold more than six million WaterSense®-labeled bath
faucets, aerators and toilets, giving our customers the potential to save at least 1.8 billion gallons of water. In
2009, we also upgraded our Eco OptionsSM page on our website, which offers consumer education on
environmental impacts of various products as well as identifying easy “green” D-I-Y projects. This online
experience, coupled with our D-I-Y in-store how-to clinics on “green” projects and our continual enhancement
of our Eco OptionsSM product categories, helps us to meet a growing customer demand for environmentally
responsible and cost-saving products and projects.
We continue to offer our nationwide, in-store compact fluorescent light bulb recycling program launched in
June 2008. This service is offered to customers free of charge and is available in all U.S. stores. We also
maintain an in-store rechargeable battery recycling program. Launched in 2001 in partnership with the
Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, this program is also available to customers free of charge in all
U.S. and Canada stores.
Seasonality. Our business is seasonal to a certain extent. Generally, our highest volume of sales occurs in our
second fiscal quarter, and the lowest volume occurs during our fourth fiscal quarter.
Competition. Our business is highly competitive, based primarily on customer service, price, store location
and assortment of merchandise. In each of the markets we serve, there are a number of other home
improvement stores, electrical, plumbing and building materials supply houses and lumber yards. With respect
to some products, we also compete with specialty design stores, showrooms, discount stores, local, regional and
national hardware stores, mail order firms, warehouse clubs, independent building supply stores and, to a lesser
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