Building Greener, Cleaner and Healthier Homes: The Home Depot Says, “You Can Do It, We Can Help” through its Eco Options Label Program

On the eve of Earth Day 2007, the world’s largest home improvement retailer The Home Depot announced a major long-term initiative to allow customers to easily identify products that have less environmental and energy impact. Known as the Home Depot Eco Options program, the company has launched this major initiative in the U.S., and plans to make it accessible to its base of 1 billion customers worldwide. That is a major initiative from a firm that has annual sales in excess of $90 billion and employs 345,000 people worldwide. To help create excitement around the initiative the Home Depot said it would give away 1 million energy saving compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs at its stores on Earth Day, April 22nd as well as launch an interactive web-site for the Eco Options program.

In preparing for the initiative launch, The Home Depot said it had identified more than 2,500 Eco Options products that fall into one of five categories: clean air, water conservation, energy efficiency, healthy home and sustainable forestry. Examples of products in these categories that The Home Depot carries in its stores include: all-natural insect repellents, cellulose insulation, front-load washing machines, solar lights that use natural power, CFL’s, programmable thermostats, certified wood products and organic plant food and vegetables in biodegradable pots.

To provide some perspective, The Home Depot sells approximately 45,000 different products. The 2,500 Eco Options products represents about 5 ½ percent of its total product portfolio. While seemingly small, the firm is seeing some immediate and large energy and environmental benefits. At the time of this blog posting, The Home Depot web-site stated that the Eco Options program had sold more than 354 million Eco Options products resulting in more than 3.7 billion kWh of electricity saved and 7.7 billion pounds of CO2 prevented from entering the atmosphere. In addition the firm had planted 90.1 million trees.

In his new book, World Inc., Dr. Bruce Piasecki examines how globally competitive firms are innovating products that meet quality, technical performance, price and social response requirements. Companies like HP, LP, Toyota and The Home Depot fall into the new economy space Dr. Piasecki refers to as social response capitalism. By offering better products - ones that compete on price, performance and social attributes - competitive firms of the 21st Century are creating a better, more ecologically and economically sustainable world.

We see this unfolding at The Home Depot, in part by their own initiative to screen 2,500 consumer products through their Eco Options program. By helping consumers identify and evaluate better (more energy-efficient and environmentally benign) product choices The Home Depot is helping drive the market for greener building products - ones that embrace energy and environmental attributes. Homeowners and builders that are seeking to find ways to reduce their energy costs, reduce indoor air pollution and emissions, and limit pollutants into the environment are driving this burgeoning market for greener products. The Home Depot is answering customer need and demand through its Eco Options program. In addition they are tangentially supporting and securing future growth of social response products from building product manufacturers.

The Home Depot is not only making it easier for customers to identify better products, it is spending its own money to help communities implement them. Through the The Home Depot Foundation, the company is promoting the development of “healthy, livable communities” by “supporting the development of affordable, healthy homes for working families”. To help achieve this goal the Home Depot Foundation is investing $100 million in the next decade to help build 100,000 affordable and environmentally responsible homes. In addition the Home Depot Foundation is planting 3 million trees in urban areas to help beautify the communities. The Home Depot is also working with The Conservation Fund to offset carbon emissions. As a partner in The Conservation Fund’s Go Zero Partners program, the Home Depot will “fund the planting of thousands of trees on nearly 130 acres across metro Atlanta to offset the carbon emissions”.

So as late Spring and early Summer emerge and you scour the web for green building products for that home renovation project you had in mind all Winter, keep Home Depot Eco Options product labeling program in mind, as a resource for your consideration. As a trend watcher we will be monitoring The Home Depot and other green building product companies to learn how these firms continue to provide new socially responsible products and services into the mainstream.

Mark C. Coleman
Senior Associate, AHC Group, Inc.
Mark@ahcgroup.com