Eventually up to 6000 products which would represent 12 percent of sales of the store could become The retailer is also hoping that competitors will follow suit and actively encouraging its suppliers to provide it with more energy efficient products.  Energy savings in homes are one of the biggest opportunities to save energy and create so called virtual power plants. 

Home siding and insulation is one of the primary problems were US households are lagging behind modern day counter parts in Europe and parts of Asia.  Home Depot which is a huge supplier of construction material is well placed to push changes in this arena. The fact that a large portion of the products are already on the shelves and that Home Depot has such a wide area of coverage will no doubt also help the efforts.

The program which runs on under the name Eco Options is being heavily advertised and has already found a great deal of success in Canadian stores (200 stores) since its introduction there in 2004. There are presently 2000 stores in the United States. Home Depot will also give away 1 million CFL energy saving light bulbs on April 22 to mark Earth Day.

Ron Jarvis vice president of Environmental Innovation at The Home Depot was quoted as saying "As the world's largest home improvement retailer, The Home Depot can provide the widest variety of environmentally friendly products at the best value to more people," "The Home Depot is in the unique position to offer 1 billion customers more options to improve their environment than perhaps any other retailer," "The introduction of Eco Options is further testament to The Home Depot's commitment to sustainability and to help its customers choose ways to have less of an impact on the environment."

 For additional information:

http://corporate.homedepot.com/wps/portal/Company

http://ir.homedepot.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=238230