Consumer Events

Eco Options Consumer Events

As a leader in environmental stewardship, The Home Depot Canada has piloted a number of successful Eco Options consumer events over the past ten years. Its annual Mow Down Pollution, Holiday Light Exchange, and Go Low Flow events have responsibly recycled hundreds of thousands of old, inefficient products and increased the uptake of new, more efficient alternatives. During these events, knowledgeable in-store representatives and associates educate the public on the key environmental issues related to each campaign.

Mow Down Pollution
Since 2001, The Home Depot Canada in partnership with Summerhill Impact (formerly the Clean Air Foundation) has run Mow Down Pollution to encourage consumers to make the switch from inefficient two- stroke gas-powered lawnmowers and trimmers to cleaner alternatives such as push reel, corded and cordless electric mowers and trimmers.

During select weekends every spring, consumers bring in their old gas-powered lawn and garden equipment to be retired and recycled to receive a coupon for an instant rebate on a more efficient alternative.

Results:

  • Almost 64,000 gas-powered lawnmowers, string trimmers, hedge trimmers, leaf blowers and chainsaws retired and responsibly recycled
  • More than 2,100 tonnes of point-of-use greenhouse gas and smog-forming emissions prevented (equivalent to the amount of CO2 sequestered by 39,256 seedlings grown over 10 years)

Holiday Light Exchange
Since 2007, The Home Depot Canada has run the Holiday Light Exchange. This event offers consumers free recycling of their old holiday light strings in exchange for a discount of up to 50% on energy efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) holiday light strings.

LED holiday light strings use up to 90% less energy than incandescent light strings and can last seven times longer.

Results:

  • More than 630,620 light strings collected
  • More than 9,045 MWh of energy saved
  • More than 2,453 tonnes of green house gas emissions prevented (equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 860 houses)

Go Low Flow
Since 2007, The Home Depot Canada has run in-store water savings events. In August 2009, the national Go Low Flow event was launched to help consumers make the switch from traditional 13L (or higher) toilets to more efficient models. As standards have evolved, rebates have shifted from 6L toilets to high efficiency (4.8L or less) and dual-flush toilets.

In addition to offering national discounts on select water efficient toilets, The Home Depot partners with municipalities across the country to offer mail-in rebates instantly in stores. The most recent event (February 2012) saw partnerships with the City of Guelph (ON) and The Abbotsford Mission Water and Sewer Commission (BC). Past partnerships have included the Region of Peel (ON), the City of Toronto (ON), the City of Calgary (AB), York Region (ON), Regional District of Nanaimo (BC), and the City of Hamilton (ON).

Results (since 2009):

  • Cumulative total water savings: 6.81 billion litres
  • Equivalent to more than 2,733 Olympic size swimming pools