THE HOME DEPOT HOLIDAY LIGHT EXCHANGE SAVES CANADIANS 872 MWh OF ANNUAL ELECTRICITY

The Home Depot’s Eco Options Holiday Light Exchange (SLED) program collected 66,147 old holiday light strings for recycling, resulting in 872 MWh of annual electricity savings and 226 tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions

Toronto, Ontario, November 14, 2011

In its 5th year running, The Home Depot's Eco Options Holiday Light Exchange (SLED) program collected 66,147 old holiday light strings, which will all be responsibly recycled within Canada by recycling partner Aevitas. 58,122 old incandescent and 8,025 old LED light strings were collected on the November 12-13, 2011 weekend event, saving approximately 872 MWh of electricity annually. The savings are equivalent to powering 71 homes for one year, and reducing 226 tonnes of annual GHG emissions.

SLED was managed by Summerhill, a Canadian environmental consulting and marketing agency, and was carried out in all 180 Home Depot stores across Canada. Customers were encouraged to bring in their old light strings in exchange for a 30% discount on new energy efficient LED light strings. Mike Driedger, program director at Summerhill, said after the event, “What an amazing event weekend! All of our Summerhill Reps and each of the stores pulled together to deliver a smooth, impressive and impactful exchange event. We've heard a lot of positive feedback from customers who truly appreciated the option to make this better choice and look forward to more opportunities in the future.” In total, 492 Summerhill representatives delivered the program across the country.

SLED has been running since 2007 at The Home Depot, and has collected more than 560,000 old light strings, saving more than 8,175 MWh of electricity and preventing the release of 2,227 tonnes of GHG emissions – equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 789 Canadian homes. LED holiday light strings, on average, use 80% less energy than older incandescent light strings, and can last 7 times longer – saving customers money on their holiday utility bills and future holiday purchases.