Lowe's outlines 2015 sustainability initiatives

Lowe's outlined its progress in meeting its sustainability objectives in its 2014 Social Responsibility Report.

"At Lowe's, we're driven by a single purpose – to help people love where they live," Robert A. Niblock says in the report's CEO Message. "This is a constant commitment that we approach together with the help of more than 265,000 employees. We're proud of our progress in 2014 and will continue to work hard to improve as we carry out our shared responsibility every day in our workplace and communities."

Highlighted in the report are improvements the company has made in employee safety and health, as well as its 2020 sustainability goals.

Among these is the $28 million given to community organizations, a record 21% improvement in its Lost Time Incident Rate, meeting its benchmark employee engagement goal of 65%, meeting its goal of serving at least 20% of its stores with natural gas trucks, and the sale of enough Energy Star products to save customers approximately $2.4 billion in utility costs.

Additionally, for the first time this year, Lowe's adhered to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines and included an index of standard disclosures to help improve transparency for key data points.

Lowe's is also already busy drafting up goals for 2015, such as improving its cardiac surgery and hip and knee replacement programs for employees, phasing out neonicotinoid pesticides (which have been shown to harm bee populations), and boosting its ranks of women in leadership positions.