Home Depot rejects green shareholder resolution

US retail giant Home Depot has reportedly signalled that it could be willing to enter into talks on its energy efficiency plans, despite the fact that investors last week voted down a shareholder resolution demanding that the firms set energy use targets.

The resolution was tabled at last Thursday's annual general meeting by Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds and called for the adoption of public energy efficiency targets, arguing that the absence of a company wide energy policy put the firm at a competitive disadvantage to rivals such as Wal-Mart.

However, despite securing support from the proxy advisory firm RiskMetrics Group and the Ceres group of ethical investors, shareholders rejected the resolution.

But despite the defeat, the Connecticut State Treasurer's Office expressed optimism that the resolution would lead to further talks with Home Depot about its energy efficiency policy.

Donald Kirshbaum, the office's investment officer for policy who made a presentation on the resolution at the AGM, told Greenbiz.com that there was now the opportunity for follow-up meetings with the company.

His comments were echoed by Rob Berridge, manager of investor programmes at Ceres, who said that the organisation was "cautiously optimistic" that a deal could be reached that would see the company step up efforts to improve its energy efficiency.