HP Reduces GHG Emissions by 35 Percent, Recycles Over 170 Tonnes of Plastics
HP Inc. today released its 2017 Sustainable Impact Report, which documents the company’s annual progress in achieving its environmental, sustainability, and diversity goals, and outlines its new efforts in these areas.
Highlights of the report include:
- Increase of 38 percent year-over-year increase in deals where sustainability was a key differentiator; more than $700 million in new business.
- Reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 35 percent, reaching its science-based goal ahead of schedule
- Sourced more than 170 tonnes of likely ocean-bound plastic (over 8.3 million plastic bottles) from Haiti in 2017 for use in HP’s closed-loop recycling process to create new Original HP ink cartridges (see HP Makes Ink Cartridges from Recycled Plastic Bottles in Haiti for more information).
- Announced that its diversity hires are on the rise in the United States, with an 8-percent increase year-over-year from 26.8 percent in 2016, to 34.5 percent in 2017.
HP Inc. President and CEO Dion Weisler commented: “At HP we’re reinventing for a better world. At the heart of our reinvention is the need to create a business that can have a lasting sustainable impact on the world. This is not just the right thing to do, it fuels our innovation, our growth, and creates a stronger and healthier company for the long-term.”
Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction
HP says it set ambitious GHG emissions reduction goals across its value chain—operations, products, and supply chain. In 2017, HP’s Scope 1, 2 and 3 goals were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Since 2015, HP has decreased its Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions from global operations by 35 percent compared to 2015, exceeding its 2025 goal of a 25-percent reduction.
The firm says the reductions came through a combination of energy-efficiency efforts, and purchase of renewable energy and renewable energy certificates (RECs) in the United States – in 2017, HP reached its goal to use 40-percent renewable electricity in its global operations. The company also reduced the GHG emissions intensity of its product portfolio by 33 percent, exceeding its goal of a 25-percent reduction by 2020 (from 2010) and helped suppliers avoid 1.05 million tonnes of CO2e emissions since 2010.
Closed-Loop Recycling
HP say its commitment to transforming its business model for a more materials-efficient, circular, and low-carbon economy spans across and beyond the value chain, from sourcing practices and operational excellence, to how it designs, manufactures, uses, and recovers leading products and solutions.
HP is working to extend the life of its hardware, and in 2017, 4.6 million units of hardware were repaired through the company’s remanufacturing program. When products reach their end-of-service, HP provides repair, reuse, and recycling programs.
Since the beginning of 2016, HP recycled more than 271,400 tonnes of hardware and is committed to achieving a volume of 1.2 million tonnes by 2025.
HP also says it deepened its commitment to transparency by publicly disclosing the names and locations of its recycling vendors in early 2017.
Core to HP’s innovation strategy is a closed-loop recycling program, which pioneered the use of recycled plastic from HP ink cartridges to make new products. In 2017, the company expanded closed-loop production to printers, with computers next in line for the switch to closed-loop manufacturing.
The firm says its partnerships are key to delivering on its commitment to build a strong, circular economy:
- Last year, HP introduced the first Original HP ink cartridges made with plastic bottles recycled in Haiti. Through March 2018, HP sourced more than 170 tonnes of plastic (over 8.3 million plastic bottles) from Haiti, plastic that might otherwise have washed into waterways and oceans. Together with partners in the First Mile Coalition, HP also provided 50 children with educational opportunities, as well as food and medical assistance.
- HP partners with Los Angeles-based Homeboy Electronics Recycling to recover material from end-of-service devices for incorporation into its closed-loop materials stream. By employing formerly incarcerated and otherwise hard-to-employ men and women, and training them to repair and recycle electronic equipment, Homeboy is said to be building a world in which human and natural resources are valued.
- Together with its partner Best Buy, HP recovered 3,200 tonnes of recycled plastic from recycled electronics for use in its printers through 2017.
HP says it’s also focused on driving greater sustainability and opportunity through the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” by using HP 3D printers to provide on-demand, localized production. The company demonstrated the potential impact of this by using HP Multi Jet Fusion technology in the HP Latex printer to replace an aluminum part with a redesigned 3D-printed nylon part. The change decreased the part’s weight by 93 percent, reduced GHG emissions by 95 percent, and cut costs by 50 percent.
Diversity and Inclusion
HP Inc. says it’s one of the top tech companies with women and underrepresented minorities in executive positions. Since the separation of the Hewlett-Packard Company into HP Enterprise and HP Inc. in 2015, HP Inc. has seen a 6.5-percent increase in women in its leadership positions, from 21.7 percent in 2015, to 28.2 percent in 2017.
HP’s executive leadership team consists of 21-percent of underrepresented minorities, representing seven different countries – “putting HP in a strong place to grow diversity in the company.” In many global functions at HP Inc., including legal, finance, human resources, and marketing, women represent more than 52-percent of HP Inc.’s employee base.
Among HP Inc.’s diversity program are its support for Black Girls Code, an organization that provides year-round workshops and summer coding camps, serving over 500 girls in 13 U.S. cities. The camps and workshops are an opportunity for girls from underrepresented communities to learn about computer science and coding principles.
Educational Goals
HP says it made strong progress toward its goal to enable better learning outcomes for 100 million people by 2025. Through 2017, more than 14.5 million students and adult learners have benefited from HP’s education programs (from 2015). This includes nearly 4,000 Syrian refugee students in the first year of HP’s partnership with the Clooney Foundation for Justice and UNICEF; 55,000 new students enrolled in HP LIFE business and IT skills training; and more than 4,000 people reached through HP’s World on Wheels program, which serves villages and towns in rural India. In 2017, HP also collaborated with the U.N. Refugee Agency and other partners to launch the first two of six HP Learning Studios in Jordan’s Azraq refugee camp.
Among HP’s educational programs include the “HP Classroom of the Future and Campus of the Future,” which works with K-12 and higher-education institutions to co-create next-generation academic environments. There’s also HP’s Applied Research Network, which is a collaboration with more than 20 higher-education institutions to investigate the application of immersive virtual and augmented reality technologies in the classroom.
Sustainable Impact at HP
HP says it aims to drive lasting improvements for the planet, people, and communities, and says it’s committed to full-circle innovation that improves performance, reduces waste, and powers a circular and low -carbon economy.
To learn more about these efforts, see the newly released HP 2017 Sustainable Impact Report here.
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