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Environment

HD Supply Goes Green

Through a company-wide sustainability council, our businesses work together to assess environmentally-friendly product offerings to help ensure they meet the standards of our new identifier, ideallygreen^SM. Recognizing that sustainability is a critical need to protect our environment and way of life, we have also incorporated earth friendly practices into our daily operations. For us, sustainability is not just about selling green products, it’s about fostering an environmentally-sensitive culture across the HD Supply enterprise.

ideallygreen

To meet the growing demand of our customers to offer environmentally-friendly products, HD Supply is continually expanding our selection of eco preferable products. These products are identified by the ideallygreen brand and are currently carried by our Facilities Maintenance business, which has green offerings in five main categories: Energy Efficiency, Hazardous Material Disposal, Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), Waste Reduction and Water Conservation.

Products that carry ideallygreen must be endorsed by a qualified independent third party organization to validate their environmentally-friendly claims. Look for ideallygreen products coming soon to our Electrical, Creative Touch Interiors, Repair & Remodel, White Cap and Utilities businesses.

Additional Sustainability Initiatives

Following are other key sustainability efforts launched across HD Supply:

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In addition to offering ideallygreen products, Facilities Maintenance has incorporated a number of environmentally-friendly practices internally, such as:

• Eliminating use of Styrofoam cups and distributing reusable coffee cups to all associates.
• Adding recycling bins to all locations.
• Implementing energy efficient lighting.
• Starting carpool programs.
• Distributing an internal newsletter with helpful sustainability tips.

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• Currently seeking Energy Star Certification for select facilities.
• Implemented an internal recycling program, and offers lamp, ballast and electrical recycling services for customers.
• Participates in utility training programs to stay current on rebates for energy efficient upgrades.
• Added in-house Lighting & Energy Specialists to provide no-cost energy audits and retrofit proposals for customers. Often works with local utilities to ensure customers take advantage of any rebates available.
• Provides Energy Star training classes for building engineers and property managers through affiliation with the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).
• Added a LEED Accredited Professional to assist customers with interpreting the complexities of the United States Green Building’s LEED certification process.

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HD Supply Utilities, in partnership with RS Technologies, is meeting the growing demand for innovative, environmentally-friendly utility poles by offering RStandard™, an advanced composite utility pole. While wooden poles are susceptible to time, pests and the elements, RStandard poles have many benefits, including:

• Green – saves trees and requires no chemical treatment.
• Modular – allowing for interchangeability and increased flexibility to meet multiple pole strengths and class requirements with minimal inventory.
• Durable – not affected by rot, corrosion, insects, pests or harsh weather limiting the need for inspections and maintenance.
• Sturdy – made of ultra-strong Version™ resin and advanced composite material to deliver superior strength-to-weight performance.

• Active member of Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) nationally, and aligning products and services with BOMA's Go Green initiatives and certification.
• Launched a lamp recycling pilot program for customers in Ontario and plans to go national with the program later this year in addition to adding more recycling services (i.e. non-PCB ballasts and batteries).
• Provides eco-friendly products, including water conservation, energy conservation, waste reduction, hazardous material disposal and indoor environmental quality.
• Offers customers energy audits, retrofit and relamp proposals.

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• Provides energy audits and water usage forecasting.
• Installing energy efficient facility lighting.

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HD Supply Information Technology

• Incorporated targeted, floor-based cooling for all servers and devices so just the right amount of air is used to cool each device and no unnecessary power is used.
• Introduced virtualization software to allow multiple operating systems to share the same physical server – making better use of existing servers and reduces power usage.
• Recycling e-waste.
• Reduced dependence on paper by digitizing traditionally paper-based forms and processes.
• Encouraging associates to turn off PCs during non-working hours.

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Environmental, Health & Safety

• Facilitating storm water pollution prevention measures and best management practices to reduce impact to our nation’s lakes and streams.
• Implemented proactive spill prevention methods and technologies to reduce the potential of material spills.

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Green Resources

Green Building 101

What is “building green”? More and more buildings are designed, constructed and maintained with the environment in mind. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) was formed to rate buildings according to environmentally sensitive criteria. They created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System to provide a national standard.

According to the LEED system, a building can earn a Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum rating. The guidelines encourage a “whole building” approach to sustainability by evaluating six key areas of human and environmental health:

• Sustainable Sites
• Water Efficiency
• Energy & Atmosphere
• Materials & Resources
• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Innovation & Design

Why is Building Green a Good Idea?

It’s better for the environment. Each year, buildings are responsible for 39% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions and 70% of U.S. electricity consumption. They use 15 trillion gallons of water and consume 40% of the world’s raw materials. The air inside homes, schools and offices can be significantly more polluted than the air outside and has been linked to illnesses ranging from asthma to heart disease.

It increases efficiency. Studies show that, on average, LEED-certified buildings cost 2% –
3% more than conventional construction, but that difference is made back in full within a year based on energy savings alone. Water conservation, reductions in construction waste and effective storm water management generate significant operational savings for the building owner, while reducing the demand on municipal infrastructures.

It’s good business. Many states offer tax incentives or grants for building green. The trend is making substantial inroads into publicly-owned and publicly-funded sectors, with tax credits for residential builders and homeowners to follow. Increased demand for environmentally friendly products means huge opportunity for sales within the green niche.

What Constitutes a Green Product?

Creating a green building means matching products and materials to the specific design and site to minimize overall environmental impact.

Many of the goods consumed in the construction process do not earn LEED points directly, but assist in the accumulation of LEED credits, which convert to LEED points. For example, many manufacturers have developed low-Volatile Organic Content (VOC) products — paint, adhesives, sealants and caulks, to name a few — that release no or low levels of pollutant gases and are odor free. Use of these products accumulates credits in the rating system.

The following are examples of green product and material categories:

• Regional materials
• Recycled content
• Certified wood products
• Products with exceptional durability or low maintenance requirements
• Rapidly renewable products
• Products that reduce storm water pollution

As the green building trend becomes more widespread, the demand for green products will increase, creating huge opportunity for our business. To learn more about green building, visit www.usgbc.org or www.greenhomeguide.org.

Did you know?

• If the average American household shopped with reusable cloth grocery bags, it would be the energy equivalent of taking 50,000 cars off the road each year!
• The average office employee could save 475 sheets of paper per year by reducing their margins in Microsoft Word from the default setting of one inch to 0.50 in.
• On a daily basis, the people of the United States, directly and indirectly, use more than 380 billion gallons of water, or approximately 1,668 gallons per person. In Australia, the average daily use is 876 gallons. In Great Britain they use approximately 185 gallons per day and in Switzerland they only use 77 gallons per person per day.

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Supplier Audits

HD Supply wants to partner with suppliers that share our values and commitment to operating our business with the highest integrity. To that end, we contract with global testing and inspection companies, which offer varying versions of social and environmental screening methods. Depending on country risk, screening, at minimum, considers fraud, employment and pay practices (such as age requirements, forced labor, discrimination, freedom of expression and association, wages and work hours), emergency planning, environmental health, safety and denial of access.

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Community Involvement

HD Supply is dedicated to being a responsible corporate citizen. From volunteer efforts to financial support, we strive to make a positive difference in the communities where we live and work. Doing our part to create and sustain healthy communities is woven into the fabric of our company’s values.

HD Supply enterprise-wide aligns our charitable giving program to United Way and the agencies it supports. Through this partnership, and due to the breadth and depth of United Way’s services, we are able to ensure our associates can contribute their time and financial resources to a variety of organizations that best fit their interests.

We also maintain the HD Supply Helping Hand Fund, which enables associates nationwide to provide emergency financial assistance to support their fellow team members who may be experiencing financial difficulties due to events such as natural disasters, medical crises and/or death.

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