Home Depot to expand DEI reporting

The Home Depot announced it will prepare racial equity and deforestation assessments in response to shareholder proposals from the company’s 2022 annual meeting of shareholders.

These assessments, said the large retailer, “will expand on the information previously shared in the company’s annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report on the progress of the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, sustainability and environmental efforts, and actions taken to combat deforestation.”

Both assessments will be conducted by a third-party firm with recognized expertise.

 In 2021, The Home Depot said it spent $3.3 billion with Tier I diverse suppliers and recently announced a goal to spend $5 billion annually by 2025.

The Home Depot’s U.S. workforce is consistently more ethnically diverse than the U.S. working population, based on U.S. Department of Labor data, it said.

The Home Depot’s ESG efforts include proactive initiatives and goals around three fundamental pillars: focus on its people, operate sustainably, and strengthen communities.

“The planned assessments will help the company benchmark its DEI and responsible forestry programs, highlight the ways the company is upholding its commitments, and potentially identify opportunities to enrich its efforts,” said the firm.

The Home Depot’s Office of DEI leads the company's diversity reporting, which includes gender, ethnicity and pay equity data for the company's workforce.

The company has numerous initiatives designed to increase the diversity of its workforce, promote inclusion, amplify support for diverse suppliers, and enrich the communities it serves.