The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named The Home Depot a 2014 WaterSense Partner of the Year for its commitment to water efficiency and efforts to educate Americans about WaterSense products throughout its stores and online.Through the sale of nearly 13 million WaterSense® labeled products, The Home Depot helped American consumers save more than 42.5 billion gallons of water and over $358 million in water utility costs. This is enough water to supply 291,000 US homes for a full year.This is The Home Depot's third EPA partner award in 2014, marking the second consecutive year the retailer has won three key EPA honors — WaterSense Partner of the Year, ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year and SmartWay Excellence Award.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named The Home Depot a 2014 WaterSense Partner of the Year for its commitment to water efficiency and efforts to educate Americans about WaterSense products throughout its stores and online.
Through the sale of nearly 13 million WaterSense® labeled products, The Home Depot helped American consumers save more than 42.5 billion gallons of water and over $358 million in water utility costs. This is enough water to supply 291,000 US homes for a full year.
This is The Home Depot's third EPA partner award in 2014, marking the second consecutive year the retailer has won three key EPA honors — WaterSense Partner of the Year, ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year and SmartWay Excellence Award.
In 2013, WaterSense partners helped Americans save 271 billion gallons of water — enough water to supply all U.S. homes for 26 days — by producing and promoting WaterSense labeled products, new homes and programs.
This week, the U.S. Water Partnership launched H2infO — a new web platform that offers the global community simple online access to a growing library of U.S.-generated water data and knowledge. H2infO currently hosts over 3,000 resources from leading U.S.-based institutions, with exponentially more resources to be centrally accessible as this interactive tool expands. The launch event took place Monday at the U.S. State Department and was hosted by Catherine Novelli, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment.
Earlier this year, The Home Depot and a dozen U.S. home and garden retailers began working to ban or limit use of neonicotinoid, or neonic, pesticides, suspected of contributing to dramatic declines in honeybee populations. The retailers began requiring suppliers to label any plants treated with the pesticides before they can be sold in their stores. The Home Depot began requiring its suppliers to start such labeling by the fourth quarter of this year, and ran tests in several states to see if the pesticides can be eliminated in plant production without adversely affecting plant health.
Published Oct 10, 2014 12pm EDT / 9am PDT / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST
Managing Director, Sustainability & Social Impact
Deutsche Bank
Mike Hower is a sustainability communicator and connector committed to helping purpose-driven businesses and people unlock their full potential for positive impact. As founder and principal consultant at Hower Impact, he works with companies to translate sustainability strategy into stories that inform, engage and inspire investors, customers, employees, regulators and other stakeholders in the service of social, environmental and business goals. Through his Impact Hired initiative, he works to connect and engage corporate sustainability professionals at all stages of their careers.
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