BY MARK B. SOLOMON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR–NEWS
THE DC VELOCITY Q&A thoughtleaders
FREIGHT MEANS A LOT TO THE HOME DEPOT. SO
does sustainability. Transportation accounts for 65 to 70
percent of its supply chain cost. And like other big shippers, the home improvement chain is aware that transport
generates about one-quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
Add it all up, and it means a big role for Michelle
Livingstone, Home Depot’s vice president of domestic and
international transportation. Her day is spent overseeing
her company’s vast shipping network, while ensuring the
carriers it hires meet strict sustainability guidelines.
In an interview with Mark B. Solomon, DC VELOCITY’s
executive editor–news, Livingstone discussed, among
other things, Home Depot’s commitment to the
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “SmartWay”
carbon-reduction program (of which it is a charter member), the growing role of intermodal in the company’s
transport strategy, and realistic targets for cutting the
company’s carbon emissions.
QCan you describe the steps Home Depot has taken to cut its carbon footprint through more effective
transport management? And how have you been able to
measure your improvements?
AOur carrier contracts require Smart Way participa- tion, and we work with all of our carriers to ensure
they meet the Smart Way qualifications. We have taken it
a step further by making a SmartWay score a key deter-
minant in the carrier selection process. We are
one of the founding members of the program,
so we want to make sure our carriers know
how important it is to us.
As for metrics, in 2015 we shipped 4,000
fewer trucks by optimizing our trailer cube.
This reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by
4,132 metric tons.
QWere the environmental improvements generated from building more truckloads
out of what were previously parcel or less-than-truckload
shipments, a shift to intermodal, or changing your network infrastructure?
AAll of the above. The advent of our rapid deployment center (RDC) network—and we now have 18 of these
facilities—has allowed us to change the way we order
product. This has enabled us to build more full truckloads
that get shipped to an RDC. We also operate an inbound
freight consolidation operation within our own network.
That allows us to combine less-than-truckload (LTL)
shipments for shipping to RDCs. We have effectively
created our own LTL terminal infrastructure. (Editor’s
note: For more on Home Depot’s RDC network, see “Home
Depot’s supply chain remodel,” August 2009.)
QAre you using more intermodal today than you did a year ago, two years ago, five years ago?
As one of the nation’s largest truckload shippers, The Home Depot wields
a lot of carbon-reduction clout with its carriers. It’s Michelle Livingstone’s
job to ensure they carry Big Orange’s freight as “cleanly” as possible.
INTERVIEW WITH MICHELLE LIVINGSTONE
Orange is the
new green
