Home Depot Votes Down Energy Efficiency Shareholder Resolution

Home Depot makes a big deal of sourcing sustainable wood products and selling energy efficient products and appliances. But when it comes to a shareholder resolution asking the company to set a strict energy efficiency plan for its own operations, the company has chosen to pass.

The home improvement retail giant voted down the resolution at its annual meeting last week (via GreenBiz.com). The resolution, filed by $20 billion pension fund Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust, would have asked Home Depot to set up an energy efficiency plan for its buildings, transportation and supply chain and report on its progress by September.

Doing so would help Home Depot improve its competitiveness with rivals such as Lowe's and Wal-Mart, the pension fund stated. Those two companies were cited as leaders in consumer perception of their green efforts in a February survey by Earthsense Eco-Insights.

Home Depot did not comment on the vote or how it related to its ongoing energy efficiency and sustainability efforts. It does have a host of sustainability programs, which include its Eco Options product classification, recycling programs for packaging and compact fluorescent light bulbs and a carbon emission offset program in partnership with The Conservation Fund.

As for energy efficiency, Home Depot says it has cut store energy consumption by about 34 percent in stores built after 2003 compared to those built before then.

That apparently didn't satisfy the shareholders behind last week's resolution. The company had agreed to improve its energy efficiency reporting three years ago in the face of a similar resolution, but the backers of last week's resolution said they were dissatisfied with the results, GreenBiz reported.

Home Depot isn't alone in facing criticism for not doing enough energy efficiency reporting and consumer outreach.

According to an IBM corporate social responsibility survey released Monday, most companies don't collect enough sustainability data on their own operations, not to mention their suppliers, and nearly two-thirds haven't done enough work to understand their customers' concerns on sustainability (see Corporate Social, Environmental Efforts Need More Data, IBM Says).

Shareholder resolutions have pushed companies to adopt policies aimed at promoting more sustainable forestry, according to Domini Social Investments. The firm, which specialized in socially responsible investments, said last year that Home Depot, Lowe's, Procter and Gamble and other companies agreed to change their practices in the face of such resolutions.