Home Depot is making strides in sustainability

The home improvement retailer with the big orange signs wants its stores to be more green.

Atlanta-based The Home Depot Inc. said Thursday it cut its U.S. store energy use by 2.6 billion kilowatt-hours since 2004 and now aims for a 20 percent reduction in kWh per square foot usage in its U.S. stores by 2015.

The retailer also wants to shrink its greenhouse gas emissions in its domestic supply chain by 20 percent within the next five years.

Home Depot said it trimmed its U.S. stores energy per square foot consumption by 16 percent since 2004. Six years ago, Home Depot s energy usage was 25 kWh per square foot. Through upgrading store HVAC systems, aligning stocking hours more closely with store operating hours, using CFL bulbs and switching to T5 lighting, the company s U.S. store energy usage now stands at 21 kWh per square foot. The 2.6 billion kWh of energy saved is enough energy to power 203,000 homes for one year.

To reach its 20 kWh per square foot of energy usage by 2015, stores will move from 54 to 49 watt lighting, get more HVAC upgrades, install more white roofs and certain locations will shift stocking hours to align more closely with our store operating hours.

Home Depot set a 2015 target to reduce its domestic supply chain greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from its 2008 levels. As Home Depot moves from having predominately supplier-to-store shipments to using a centralized distribution network, it expects to see an increase in transportation efficiencies.

The reduction of green house gases from the domestic supply chain during the next five years will come from more efficient routing, scheduling and the consolidation of shipments to stores. Home Depot expects a reduction of 200 million miles driven per year, which is equal to annual fuel savings of 25 million gallons or 8,000 trips around the earth.

Cost cuts and rising consumer demand helped Home Depot boost its profit 18 percent to $2.7 billion in 2009. Home Depot has 2,245 stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces, Mexico and China.