Company Profile: HP
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HP seems to put the same depth and effort into reducing their carbon footprint as into other aspects of their highly successful business.
Their website outlines in great detail their environmental goals across all aspects of their business. HP takes great pride in their recycling programs, and have a right to do so. With the goal of recycling 2 billion pounds of electrical products by the end of 2010, HP is putting the time and effort into properly dealing with end of life products.
On the energy front, HP had the goal of purchasing 50 million kWh of renewable electricity in 2007. After the year end calculations, they surpassed this goal with an impressive 61.4 million kWh. However, they have yet to introduce their future goals in this area. We hope the increase continues (it was closer to 10 million kWh only a few years ago) as this would be a big decrease to their carbon footprint and a big investment in the clean energy industry.
For overall greenhouse gas emissions, HP hopes to reduce total emissions from their operations and products by 25% by 2010 from 2005 levels – a pretty significant improvement in a short period of time. All indications show that they are currently on target to hit this goal, and will likely even exceed it. HP also places a lot of focus on the carbon footprint of their products once it is in the hands of the customer. With different goals for different products, they hope to improve the energy efficiency of HP goods by between 25% and 50% by 2010. This is an area missed by many other consumer electrical companies who focus more on their own operations.
In their day to day work, HP strongly encourages employees to act responsibly toward the environment. By the end of 2008, the company expect all office printing to be double sided to reduce waste, and hope to cut their water consumption by 5% by 2010 from 2007 levels. HP uses rail for at least 21% of the transport miles for their imaging and printing products in North America and have implement strict idling restriction on their shipping operations. They are also increasing their use of SmartWay certified shipping. There is one glaring fault here - that these goals and actions are for their North American facilities only. In today’s globalized world where large corporations have operations around the globe, it is increasingly important that their environmental improvements are carried out everywhere, not just in the countries where it is easy or convenient to do so.
Outside their company, HP is working closely with their first and second tier suppliers to improve their own operations and thus reduce the carbon footprint of their products from the very start of their products lifecycle.
So how do they stack up?
Business Strategy: 4.5/5 – HP has introduced measures to cut their carbon footprint on all aspects of their business and make good use of it as a competitive advantage
Products & Services: 4.5/5 – HP has set out clear and ambitious targets for the energy efficiency of their products and works closely with suppliers to make sure the products have as small a carbon footprint as possible. Their recycling programs help ensure the end of the product life cycle is environmentally friendly as well.
Leading by Example: 5/5 – by pushing customers and suppliers to improve their carbon footprint, HP shows other companies in their industry just how green a tech giant can be
Overall: 4.7/5
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