Home Depot Due Diligence
by George Spyros, New York City, USA on 06.26.07
Ron Jarvis, the Home Depot senior vice president who oversees the Eco Options program, seems to get it. And so does the New York Times in its article about the big box's eco initiative. Author Clifford Krauss writes:
Even though Energy Star is a widely accepted barometer for how much electricity a refrigerator or washing machine uses, it does not measure other factors, like how much energy was used to make the appliance in the first place or whether the manufacturer used recycled materials and encouraged its product to be recycled at the end of its life.Home Depot is working with Scientific Certification Systems to audit and certify the green claims of the companies that supply the 176,000 products that Home Depot sells. They will grade a product based on its environmental record over its entire life cycle — including the sustainability of its production process, its efficiency and longevity and how it can be recycled when it is no longer useful.
I love to go shop at Home Depot for getting stuff for my projects. I've noticed that they seem to be really green compared to Lowe's in my area. I love how they label their green products out clearly. Home Depot is awesome.
I think this is green washing. The employees at the Home Depot where I live had no idea what Eco Options was even though there were signs hanging all over the store. I think Home Depot needs to do a better job of educating their staff. I have always preferred Home Depot over Lowe's because of the Home Depot Foundation but this just proves that big box retailers will never really change. I will stick to local stores.