The Home Depot Versus The Green Depot

For over a decade now, The Home Depot has been dedicated to what they like to call “environmental excellence.”  This program started right after Earth Day in 1990 and has been steadily growing and making an eco-friendly difference ever since.  Not only does the company maintain a list of environmental principles that they use to promote sustainability, but The Home Depot also encourages their consumers to do their part through customer education programs, recycling efforts and contributing to non-profit organizations.  The company is also proud to list their environmental milestones on their website, ranging from 1990 to present day, and they are indeed milestones.  From donating large amounts of money for conservation efforts to planting three million trees to being named the ENERGY STAR partner of the year for two years in a row, The Home Depot seems to be doing some good with their popular name.

 While The Home Depot aims to “eliminate unnecessary packaging” and sell products that are “manufactured, packaged and labeled” in a responsible way (for the customer and environment), they are not the only ones to promote and encourage the green lifestyle.  The Home Depot will soon have more to fear than their just-down-the-road big box competitor of Lowe’s: The Green Depot.  Considered to be like the Whole Foods of DIY home repair, The Green Depot is planning to take our nation by storm with their recycled glass products, solar fans and eco-friendly baby department.  A unique feature of the Green Depot is their labeling.  Each product features an icon that tells whether the item is made from locally produced material, benefits the environment (by saving energy or preserving the atmosphere) or if it is made by a socially responsible company (which is right up SocialYell’s alley).

 The Green Depot sounds great, right?  Well, like grocery stores with exclusively organic produce, the green pit stop for your home is currently few and far between.  With a popular Manhattan location that opened in February and three more stores set to open in New York, The Green Depot has also set its sights on locations in Massachusetts, Delaware, Illinois and Pennsylvania.  What about the rest of us who don’t happen to live in the Northeast?  It looks like we will have to wait, and in the meantime, visit The Home Depot.  And while The Home Depot is doing some great things, especially for such a large company, the store could benefit from some friendly, green competition. 

What do you think about Home Depot?  Help us discuss and rate their business today at SocialYell!

 Ashley Strickland is a senior at the University of Georgia. She is a summer intern for SocialYell and blogs about health, social equity, consumer advocacy, charity, sustainability and just about anything green.