Our operations

By doing the right thing, we can reduce the environmental impact of our operations and be an agent of positive change to reduce waste and contribute to the fight against climate changes.

Waste management

We are committed to significantly reducing the quantity of waste generated by our operations sent to landfills. To that end, we have implemented several concrete recovery and recycling measures for cardboard, paper, plastic, dry building materials, metal, styrofoam, organic material and hazardous waste.

Energy efficiency

We can take direct action on our energy consumption—and we are doing so. When it comes to transportation, we are optimizing the routes taken by our fleet of trucks and contributing to electrification efforts, with electric vehicle charging stations at some of our stores and at our head office.

For the past several years, we have also been investing in the implementation of technologies that help us improve the energy efficiency of our buildings to help us significantly reduce our GHG emissions.

To do so, we have injected some $30M in our network to implement building management systems and replace lighting systems by LED ones at our Lowe’s, RONA+, RONA and Réno-Dépôt corporate stores, as well as at our Boucherville distribution centre.

It is estimated that on December 31, 2022, these two initiatives had allowed us to reduce our GHG emissions by approximately 8.6% compared to 2016, which is the equivalent of removing more than 2,675 vehicles from the roads.

Product take-back program

All of our corporate stores recover customers' products that would be hazardous to the environment if they were sent in landfills at the end of their useful life: compact fluorescent light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, batteries and paint. Our partners ÉcoPeinture, Product Care, and Call2Recycle then dispose of the products safely or give them a second life. In addition, we are proud to be the retailer that recovers the largest number of batteries in Québec and that offers the highest number of paint collection points in Canada. In 2021, we recovered more than 1,850 tons of paint, to say nothing of the 125 tons of batteries and 95 tons of bulbs and fluorescent tubes that our partnerships stopped from going to landfills. We were even awarded a tenth Leader in sustainability award by Call2Recycle to recognize our commitment toward battery recycling in 2021.

Withdrawal of plastic bags

As part of our efforts to reduce the environmental impact of our operations, we decided in 2022 to stop distributing single-use plastic shopping bags in all our Lowe’s, RONA+, RONA and Réno-Dépôt stores. This initiative will further our efforts–initiated in 2018 through the implementation of a fee on plastic bags– to encourage our customers to change their shopping habits and opt for more sustainable options.