Why businesses should follow Tractor Supply's push for diversity, inclusion and climate change prevention| Opinion

• Hal Lawton is president & CEO of the Tractor Supply Company.

At Tractor Supply, we are committed to preserving "Life Out Here" for future generations. 

Our Mission and Values ensure that we never lose sight of that commitment and are always working to secure a sustainable future for all our stakeholders — our team members, our customers, our communities, our supply chain partners, and our investors. 

Thirteen years ago, we launched our Stewardship Program to imbue every aspect of our organization with that commitment. As ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has emerged as the universal standard for good corporate citizenship, we have adapted our Stewardship Program to align with this direction.  

Hear from Tennessee's Black voices: Get the weekly newsletter for powerful and critical thinking columns.

Over the past year, we have made significant progress in our ESG efforts. This includes: 

• Significantly reducing our energy and water consumption,  
• Materially increasing the gender and ethnicity diversity of our Board and management Executive Committee,  
• Conducting unconscious bias training for over 40,000 team members, and  
• Implementing a new six-week paid parental leave policy for full-time salary and hourly team members 

Tractor Supply has the resources to take positive action and is committed to doing so. We have just announced new, robust goals to further reduce our carbon emissions, as well as continue our progress on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.   

After exceeding our initial carbon reduction goals set in 2018, Tractor Supply is setting new and more aggressive commitments:  

• By 2025, we will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from by 20% from what they were in 2020.  
• By 2030, we will reduce those emissions by 50%.      
• By 2040, we are committing to achieve net zero emissions across all our operations.   

We will seek to increase our renewable energy purchases, investments in energy efficiency and cleaner technologies, and design facilities to be more sustainable. 

We are committed to making  environmentally beneficial improvements at every level –within the supply chain, at the Store Support Center, at our stores and distribution centers, within products and product  packaging, and customer service offerings, such as recycling programs. 

A hallmark of Tractor Supply is our culture, and over the past two years we have rallied around the theme of Stronger Together.

To that end, we are also prioritizing and accelerating our initiatives for DE&I. These actions include establishing five-year goals to support and advance underrepresented groups across our workforce, vendors, suppliers, and communities. 

We intend to achieve the following by 2026:  

• Double the number of stores where Team Members mirror the communities we serve,  
• Increase people of color at the manager level and above by 50%,  
• Increase funding to programs and education for Black and African Americans by 30%, and  
• Increase spending with diverse suppliers by 35%. 

Our commitment to society also means continuing to prioritize our team members�� wellbeing and amplifying our community giving efforts. 

In 2020, we provided appreciation bonuses, raised wages for all team members, and opened benefits to part-time team members.

We also invested in our team members’ families with fun activities like family pizza night for all 45,000+ team members and with critical programs like providing 3,000 Chromebooks to families to support remote learning.

We donated over $12 million dollars in 2020 to charitable causes like FFA, 4-H, veterans, rural broadband, and DE&I. We also established the Tractor Supply Foundation to foster and support rural communities, both now and for the future of Life Out Here.      

ESG also requires a commitment to good governance, the element that defines the culture of an organization. Our governance practices maintain the highest level of ethics, standards, and transparency.

We are proud of the diverse breadth of our board including gender, experience, industry, ethnicity, and age guiding the future of our company.   

As the largest farm and ranch retailer in the US, we have a unique obligation to lead responsibly. Our planet is feeling the effects of climate change, with erratic weather patterns and extreme weather events.

Supply chain issues are impacting nearly every industry. The coronavirus pandemic continues to plague our world. Racial justice is an ongoing priority. As such, advancing our ESG goals is more important than ever.  

Our new ESG goals are the next step in our journey to help preserve and protect Life Out Here. If we are to tackle important issues such as climate that put our children’s future at risk, and if we are to make real progress on a societal commitment to greater opportunities for all, the business community needs to lead by example. 

Tractor Supply can and will do more. We applaud others that have also stepped up and we encourage others to do the same.    

 Hal Lawton is president & CEO of the Tractor Supply Company.