COVID-19 isn't a setback for HP's sustainability goals — it's a catalyst

Source: Windows Central / Daniel Rubino

As the specter of climate change looms over everything from conservation to politics, its current furnishings — and those we have however to experience — are coming into sharp relief around the world. An viii-land poll conducted last year showed that climate breakdown was viewed as "the nearly important issue facing the earth" for a majority of those surveyed. Companies, too, have been more than vocal in their efforts to operate in an environmentally witting mode, particularly among those in the tech manufacture.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works for many companies this twelvemonth as the globe copes with not only the homo price, but lockdowns, layoffs, and a massive shift to remote work for those fortunate enough to do then. With then much doubt in the air, it wouldn't come up as a surprise to hear almost companies de-prioritizing their sustainability efforts to focus spending in other, more than business-disquisitional areas.

For HP, though, sustainability remains a key pillar of its arroyo to business. I recently spoke with HP's president of personal systems, Alex Cho, to go a feel for how the company is juggling its sustainability goals amidst a global pandemic and how its environmental initiatives figure into its hereafter portfolio.

Planetary priorities in a pandemic

Source: Windows Cardinal / Daniel Rubino

HP, similar many businesses, saw the COVID outbreak as an inflection point. The virus laid bare the interconnected nature of the world, and the shift to remote piece of work fabricated PCs more important than ever. To Cho, this made apparent that PCs are "becoming essential."

"We're not working without a PC, we're not learning without a PC," Cho said. "So what you lot see is we're right in the heart of something that'south difficult and what we're working on is increasingly essential, and it's pretty motivating."

"Existence a role of something bigger ... we detect that very motivating."

Rather than putting a break on sustainability, Cho said COVID has served as a "catalyst" for HP to double down on its sustainability goals. "How practise we brand sure nosotros're delivering on our greater ambition of helping people stay productive, continued, learning, and secure, and how do we exercise that in a sustainable way?"

It'south a mission that HP is well prepared to comport out. In May, HP announced that information technology had the "earth's most sustainable PC portfolio, as measured by EPEAT, a program that independently verifies companies' sustainability claims. EPEAT'south ecolabel criteria measure out things like energy efficiency, production longevity, packaging, and cloth usage. At the time, HP said it had 38 Gold and 268 Silvery EPEAT-registered products, which outpaced all others in the Information technology industry.

"We're actually getting more assertive nigh this because we've been at it and it's tough, merely nosotros merely think it's the right thing to exercise," Cho said. "This is a time where people are evaluating what they're doing in their 24-hour interval jobs, and beingness a part of something that'south bigger, that's going to make an bear on, that'southward helping people, nosotros just find that very motivating."

An 80-yr journey

Source: Windows Central / Daniel Rubino

You lot'd be forgiven if HP isn't the outset visitor that comes to mind when you recall of sustainability. The visitor is an erstwhile name in the PC manufacture, and its origins date dorsum even farther to 1939, when Beak Hewlett and David Packard founded The Hewlett-Packard Visitor in a Palo Alto garage. It'due south not exactly the hip, new child on the cake.

However, HP has a legacy of environmental initiatives. In 1966, for case, HP emplyee Walt Moy started a recycling programme for HP punch cards. It seems quaint now, only it was the start of an increasing push for ecology initiatives.

Through the 1980s, HP made it a priority to focus on controlling pollution in its operations, and information technology fix up its own hardware recycling programme in 1987. Past 2022, HP had announced several initiatives to use ocean-bound plastic in manufacturing, pledged to reach 100 percent renewable electricity in its operations by 2035, and set goals to to help suppliers drastically cut carbon emissions.

In a fourth dimension in which information technology feels trendy for corporations to tout their sustainability goals, it'south easy to remain skeptical of their claims. We're frequently bombarded with print ads and commercials that often feel similar lip service to the climate crisis. Despite this, HP is now ranked as one of the world's most sustainable companies, earning recognition for its environmental and social impact.

Still, for Cho, HP has a long route ahead of it. "We have concrete proof points of progress, and I will tell you lot, genuinely, it has taken a lot of investment," he said. "And I would say we've got a lot more to abound and go."

Maintaining momentum

Source: Windows Fundamental / Daniel Rubino A visual help for HP's body of water-bound plastic recycling process used in the Aristocracy Dragonfly.

Going forward, HP has its sights assault several areas of comeback for its PCs and accessories. This year, the visitor launched the HP Elite Dragonfly and EliteDisplay E273d monitor, both of which are manufactured using ocean-bound plastic. Those aren't ane-off flukes, either: All of HP's new Elite and Pro desktops and notebooks released in 2022 incorporate bounding main-bound plastics besides.

"This is some tough stuff, but we've fabricated expert progress."

The push to recover and reuse plastics that would otherwise end upward as debris polluting the oceans extends to HP'south accessory lineup with backpacks and laptop sleeves. Cho sees this as a big driver for increasing consumer awareness around sustainability. "One thing that we plant is making it very tangible, what we've done, that is an aspect of who we are what we stand for that consumers are increasingly valuing."

HP is also laser-focused on making its packaging more than sustainable. The company has a goal of eliminating 75 percent of single-use plastics in its packaging by 2025. "This is some tough stuff, but I've gotta tell y'all, we've made some good progress," Cho said. "This by year, nosotros've eliminated something similar 900 tons of expanded plastic foam from our packaging, and nosotros're merely on our way."

A holistic approach

Source: Windows Central / Daniel Rubino

Ane word Cho kept returning to when talking nigh HP's sustainability approach was "holistic." In everything from packaging to product design, materials, and resource use, Cho emphasized HP tackles sustainability in a comprehensive way across the lifecycle of its products. But HP isn't only focused on moving its own goals forward; information technology views sustainability every bit a shared responsibleness across the manufacture.

"Sustainability is a little bit different from other topics in our business where, you know, we retrieve about competitive differentiation," Cho said. "On this one, information technology's like, kudos to the industry of moving forward. We're happy for [partners] to learn from us, and we're happy to larn from [them] because we desire to move this equally an industry."

Equally for where that leaves HP, and the residual of the tech industry, during the pandemic, Cho remained hopeful.

"There'due south never been anything in history where anybody in the earth pretty much, you know, is going through some similar ramification," Cho said. "We realize how interconnected we are and then suddenly the topic of being sustainability minded and having to human action on things brusque and midterm [is] again why I say [COVID] is a catalyst for that more."

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/hps-sustainability-covid-19-coronavirus

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