HP’s sustainable impact journey

Last year in HP’s Sustainable Impact Report, the company announced its agenda to become one of the most sustainable IT Companies. In the report, HP’s President and CEO, Enrique Lores announced its ambitious plans to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, with a 50% reduction in absolute emissions by the end of this decade. HP claims to have already achieved a 9% absolute reduction since 2019 but says it wants to accelerate this momentum.

To date HP has put a keen focus on its use of materials and how to keep them in circular use with the aim of reducing its footprint.

In line with this, HP has already made significant progress in reducing its plastic waste by using more recycled plastic. The company has also reduced its single-use plastic packaging by 44% compared to 2018. It has also increased its use of postconsumer recycled content plastic across its personal systems and print product portfolio to 13%, with the aim of boosting this to 30% by 2025.

HP is partnering with leading conservation and environmental organisations, including the likes of the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, the Arbor Day Foundation, and the Jane Goodall Institute, to invest in forest restoration and responsible management to counteract deforestation for non-HP paper used in HP printers and print services. Since 2020, all HP brand paper and paper-based packaging for home and office printers and supplies, PCs, and displays have been derived from recycled or certified sources.

Finally, the company is broadening its impact by engaging its hundreds of production suppliers and thousands of non-production suppliers in sustainability programs.

In early 2022, HP expanded its Amplify Impact channel partner program to enable its partners to advance their own sustainable impact journeys.

Here we speak with HP to find out more about its commitment to sustainability and how it is getting involved with local communities to accelerate these goals.

What community focused projects is HP currently involved in?
HP has a Forest Positive programme, which means we restore forests and plant more trees than we use in our printing products and print services, helping to create enduring positive change for forest environments. With the launch of HP Sustainable Forests Collaborative in 2020, we work with partners to restore, protect, and transition forests to sustainable management practices. Since 2020, all HP brand paper and paper-based packaging for home and office printers and supplies, PCs, and displays have been derived from recycled or certified sources.

HP is collaborating with the Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) to organise local tree planting across the UK & Ireland (UK&I). The ADF are currently working with Mersey Forest in the UK and Trees on the Land in Ireland to plant local trees for a variety of HP projects. So far, we have planted almost 40,000 trees across the UK and Ireland.

Why is getting involved in local community projects important to HP?
HP has an ambitious vision: to become the most sustainable and just technology company in the world by 2030. Much like our Sustainable Impact strategy, HP’s community initiatives are focused around three key areas of Sustainability: Climate Action, Digital Equity and Human Rights along with employee volunteering to support the progression of young learners with The Prince’s Trust charity.

In short, at HP we coordinate community projects around the UK to:

• Improve the vitality and resilience of our local communities
• Help eliminate the digital divide that prevents too many from accessing the education, jobs and healthcare they need to thrive
• Create a powerful culture of diversity, equity and inclusion
• Advance human rights, social justice, and racial and gender equality across our ecosystem, serving as a model for all

Tell us more about HP’s involvement with The Princes Trust?
Since 2008, HP has raised over £200k for The Prince’s Trust charity. Every year our UK&I intern cohort have raised between £20-30k for the charity through activities like the 3 Peaks Challenge, Tough Mudder, Palace to Palace, and office-based fundraisers.

Even last year, despite the majority of fund-raising being done virtually due to Covid-19, our interns raised an impressive £15k and this year’s cohort are on target to raise the same. HP’s Next Generation employee network are also involved in the trust’s Million Makers challenge, where they are working on activities to help raise tens of thousands of pounds for the charity.

Why is it important for more channel partners to support their local communities?
It’s not only important that we represent the communities we serve, but also to help improve the resilience of local communities. We are transforming our entire business towards a circular and low-carbon future. Following on from our Big Beach Clean Up in 2019, HP are working together with our Channel Partners to drive more local community initiatives.

Our Amplify Impact Program grants our Channel partners access to sustainability programs, to enable lasting and positive change. Gaining accreditation, partners must drive a community engagement initiative. HP are Leading the Channel by example:

• In June 2021 HP Employees from across the UK&I came together for ‘The Big Litter Pick’ in an effort to clean up local communities. In total, over a hundred volunteers collected 765.3kg of litter from coastlines, rivers, and communities.
• In 2022, HP hosted a further three shoreline and community clean-up events in Reading, Glasgow, and Dublin. HP volunteers took part in communities across the UK&I, and collected a combined 243kg of litter, and counting.

How have local communities benefited out of HP’s involvement?
HP LIFE, the HP Foundation’s free online business skills training platform, has supported over 561,000 learners since 2016, with 84% of users crediting their success to HP LIFE. The program offers over 30 individual courses, available in eight languages, focused on communication, finance, operations, innovation and marketing. Around the world HP LIFE is being used to support the development of successful enterprises.

Most recently, The Prince’s Trust charity has begun onboarding HP LIFE courses onto their learner programme to help support the growth and development of disadvantaged young people in the UK. We hope to facilitate more partnerships like this across the UK&I in the future to maximise the scale on which we support education and economic opportunities.

HP also supports the Digital Schools Awards programme, which encourages excellence in digital learning and supports the efforts of schools, teachers, and learners in making the best use of digital technology in the classroom. To date, 4,260 schools across Scotland, Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland have registered for The Digital Schools Awards and over 1.05 million pupils have been supported along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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