Product use

Designs of HP’s notebook and personal computers have continued to improve energy performance. The shift from PCs to notebooks and from cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors to flat panel displays saves significant energy. A flat panel requires approximately 60 percent less energy during use than a CRT and also weighs less, which saves energy in transport. We continue reducing the energy consumption of notebooks, and designing desktop and workstation PCs to be energy efficient in different configurations. We use energy-efficient chips such as the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor and AMD’s PowerNow!™ technology. In addition:

• Approximately 15 HP product families have configurations that will meet the new, more stringent ENERGY STAR® standards, which become effective July 1, 2009.
• Several computing products achieved a Gold rating according to the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT®) in 2008, including the 2530p, 2730p and 6930p configured with HP Illumi-Lite LED display. We expanded our EPEAT Gold offerings across the entire HP Compaq dc Series product lines, which make up approximately 70 percent of our total commercial desktop shipments. The HP Pavilion Verde Special Edition a6645f and HP Pavilion Phoenix Special Edition a6655f desktop PCs met the standards for the EPEAT Silver rating.
• HP offers business customers a variety of energy-saving PC alternatives, such as thin clients² and PC blades, which offer 50 to 80 percent savings in power compared to a traditional HP desktop. The HP 2533t Thin Client includes power management features as well as an HP Smart AC Adapter with a built-in sensor to alert the notebook user of the power rating.
• In 2008, we estimate that customers have reduced GHG emissions by 350,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) by using HP Power Management Technology, the equivalent of taking 76,000 cars from the road for one year.

HP enables customers to make smart printing choices by providing them with products, services and tools to save energy and reduce paper use.

• HP launched the HP Deskjet D2545 (see case study) in 2008, which uses 40 percent less energy than its predecessor. It is made from 83 percent recycled plastic material.
• Customers use HP’s Carbon Footprint Calculator for printing (case study) to assess printer energy and paper use, as well as the carbon impact and associated cost. Customers enter basic information such as number of employees, types of printers, the business’s physical location and pages printed per person, and the calculator shows customers how specific HP technologies will save paper and money while reducing energy use and GHG emissions.
• HP’s Instant-on Technology (case study) enables a printer to warm up in a matter of seconds from the sleep or even off mode. It was introduced in 1993, and through 2007, it has saved nearly 6.5 million tonnes of CO₂e emissions.
• HP’s Photosmart ml1000 Minilab printer (case study) requires only ten minutes to start up from standby mode, compared with an average of two hours for a typical silver halide wet lab, and consumes only one-third of the energy in use.

Data centers account for about 1.5 percent of total U.S. energy consumption³, and in Europe, their power use grew by more than 13 percent between 2006 and 2007.⁴ These trends are rooted in increasing demand for processing power and expanding volumes of data. Over the next few years, hundreds of data warehouses will reach a petabyte in size (one petabyte equals one million gigabytes) .⁵ As a point of reference, there are just two petabytes of information in all U.S. academic research libraries.⁶

Improving the energy efficiency of data centers is a priority for HP. One large data center can use as much power as 30,000 average U.S. homes and consume as much water as 3,700 U.S. households.^7,8

HP delivers a wide range of equipment, software and services, including data center design and management of power and cooling systems. Two acquisitions in 2008—of EDS and EYP Mission Critical Facilities—expanded our data center service capabilities and capacity.  

Following the acquisition of EYP Mission Critical Facilities, we created HP Critical Facilities Services to team with other HP business units in delivering energy-efficient products and services, including the following:

• Energy Efficiency Analysis, which provides on-site analysis to identify opportunities to improve the efficiency of power, cooling and air management systems.
• Energy Efficiency Design, which includes optimizing buildings and infrastructure. As an example, HP is designing a new, $100 million greenfield site, which is targeted to earn a U.S. Green Building Council LEED® certification at the Silver level.

See case study for more detail about HP data center services.

In 2008, as part of our Green Business Technology initiative, HP launched the Thermal Logic portfolio, which includes hardware and software that reduces energy use, reclaims unused capacity and extends the life of data centers. For example:

• The redesigned HP ProLiant BL460c G5 server reduces energy use by up to 25 percent over HP’s previous model, yielding up to $2,200 in energy savings for a typical enclosure of 16 blades over three years without compromising performance.
• HP’s new Dynamic Power Capping for Proliant servers continuously monitors energy use and sets an optimum threshold, allowing the addition of servers without overloading power distribution systems.

See the case study for more detail.

HP is also leading industrywide efforts to improve energy efficiency. We are working with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to develop a new energy-efficiency assessment tool, one of the first developed in response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s report on data center power use. In addition, we are participating on a U.S. Department of Energy steering committee developing a framework to certify data center energy specialists.

HP Halo Telepresence Solutions offer a digital alternative to travel for meetings, helping global organizations reduce GHG emissions from business travel. It is a virtual meeting tool that creates a natural, lifelike meeting environment.

HP SkyRoom will bring high-definition collaboration to the desktop, making virtual meetings even more accessible to a larger number of people.

See a case study for more detail about Halo and see the Operations section for information about how we use Halo at HP.