HP Reduces Product Energy Consumption by 50% Compared to 2005

Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest provider of information technology infrastructure, software, services, and solutions, released its eleventh annual Global Citizenship Report this past week. The report, providing an in-depth look at the company's global citizenship policies, programs and performance over the last year, focuses on environmental sustainability, ethics and human rights, supply chain responsibility, social innovation and privacy.

Some key highlights of HP’s accomplishments during 2011 include:

• Reducing the energy consumption of HP products by 50% compared with 2005 levels — exceeding the company’s original goal of a 40% decrease.


• Lowering greenhouse gas emissions from HP operations by 20% compared to 2005, meeting the company’s goal two years early.


• Working with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Kenyan government to automate testing processes and reduce the amount of time it takes to diagnose HIV-positive infants.


• Releasing an electronic Patient-Centered Dashboard, developed by HP Labs and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, that can help prevent human error in medical settings.


• Placing first among technology companies and second overall in the Ponemon Institute’s 2011 Most Trusted Companies for Privacy study among U.S. consumers.


• Partnering with customers, governments and NGOs such as the UN Refugee Agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development and mothers2mothers to address multifaceted social challenges.

Further achievements in the area of environmental sustainability include:

• A 33% carbon footprint reduction in Original HP ink cartridges by using recycled plastic compared to virgin plastic.


• Continued use of "New Water" to ease demand on fresh water resources. New Water accounts for more than two-thirds of the facilities’ annual water consumption and is 20% cheaper than standard potable water, helping to save more than $3.5 million USD since 2007.


• Ranked in the top-scoring 10% of S&P 500 companies by the Carbon Disclosure Project and was listed on their Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI).


• Collaboration with partners and industry and environmental leaders such as World Wildlife Fund and the Forest Stewardship Council, to further reduce extended environmental impact.

Improvements in supply chain responsibility include:

• HP's first audits of nonproduction suppliers, auditing three facilities in China, India, and Mexico. HP surpassed 750 cumulative audits since the company's first audits in 2004.


• Demonstrated improvements in suppliers’ audit performance following participation in HP's capability building programs.


• Expansion of the supply chain social and environmental responsibility (SER) audit program to Australia and Turkey.


• The implementation of HP Energy and Sustainability Management (ESM), designed to help enterprise customers measure and manage energy use and other resources across their facilities, IT, supply chain, and workforce, and  HP Power Assistant for individual users to monitor and reduce PC energy consumption, operating costs, and CO2 impact, without affecting productivity.

To promote HP's "culture of integrity," the company enforced its high standard of ethics and commitment to human rights by:

• Delivering ethics and compliance training to country managers and senior leaders in 15 high-risk countries.


• Training the HP global sales force in anti-corruption, with a particular focus on public sector sales. In 2012, anti-corruption training to employees from Privacy, Social and Environmental Sustainability and Compliance, Global Security, and Government Relations, in addition to salespeople will be delivered.

The report also features:

• A tour and interactive map of HP’s global citizenship activities.


• A gallery of HP products, services, and technologies that help customers improve their environmental performance.


• Video perspectives from external stakeholders.


• Profiles of HP employees who have contributed to global citizenship.


• A dashboard detailing HP’s global citizenship performance and goals.

Overall, the report confirms HP's commitment to its role as a global business influence:

Today the world faces serious challenges—such as responsibly meeting the needs of a fast-growing population, addressing the effects of climate change, and advancing global health solutions. No single entity can meet these challenges alone. Governments, nongovernmental organizations, and companies all have an essential role to play.

David Packard, Co-founder of HP reinforces this position: "The betterment of our society is not a job to be left to a few. It's a responsibility to be shared by all."

To view the full report, click here.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.