This is the eighth consecutive year HP has reported its global citizenship performance, reflecting our ongoing commitment to transparency. Our Global Citizenship Report 2008 describes the company's policies, programs and performance as we strive to balance our business goals with our impacts on society and the planet.
Data and goals dashboard
View the interactive dashboard to track our recent performance, see progress against our 2008 goals and view our targets moving forward.
Create your own report
If you'd like a hard copy of our report, use the custom report tool to generate a PDF with the information that interests you most.
Download our customer report
We developed a version of our report with customers in mind. It features HP solutions and best practices to help enterprises and other organizations address pressing global citizenship issues.
Our five pillars
We focus our global citizenship initiatives on five areas: ethics and compliance, human rights and labor practices, environmental sustainability, privacy, and social investment. Collectively, these areas span our entire business, influencing our priorities, operations, product development and brand differentiation.
Making the business case
Customers are giving global citizenship greater weight in their IT purchasing decisions, making it increasingly important to our business. Global citizenship is also key to responding to new opportunities, increasing the efficiency our operations, strengthening our relationships with stakeholders, and attracting and retaining exceptional employees.
Upholding Standards of Business Conduct
Regardless of tenure, title or responsibilities, everyone at HP is expected to be an ethical leader. Last year, we trained 97% of employees in our Standards of Business Conduct (SBC) and introduced a simpler, values-based version of the SBC in more than 20 languages.
A central hub for compliance
In 2008, we strengthened leadership of our Compliance Office to promote greater consistency across our global organization. The office works with other groups within HP to provide a holistic view of governance, risk and compliance to senior management.
Raising supply chain standards
HP is leading a new approach to strengthening social and environmental standards in the global IT supply chain. We collaborate with local NGOs to train suppliers in building capabilities and making systemic improvements to protect workers and the environment.
Fostering employee success
Our HP culture rewards performance, provides opportunities for training and advancement, and encourages open, honest communications and respect for all. We remain focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce.
Supply chain audit performance
We have made it easy to review in-depth results of our supplier audits—either globally or by region—with an interactive tool that presents data, explains major causes of nonconformance and highlights challenges and HP’s response.
Engaging society
HP unconditionally supports human rights and promotes higher standards in our employment practices and throughout our supply chain. We collaborate with others to share our progress in these areas and raise awareness of human rights issues.
Sustainable design
In 2008, we introduced the HP Eco Highlights label, which helps customers understand the environmental attributes of more than 115 products. Through our Design for Environment program, we focus on energy efficiency, materials innovation and design for recyclability.
Climate and energy
HP was the first IT company to report the greenhouse gas emissions of key suppliers, and we are on track to reduce the energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions of our operations and products to 25% below 2005 levels by 2010.
Showcasing impact
Visit our gallery of sustainable design example—new to this year’s report—highlighting HP solutions that increase productivity and lower costs while improving environmental sustainability.
Reuse and recycling
In 2008, we recovered for reuse 75 million pounds (34,000 tonnes) of hardware units and recycled 265 million pounds (120,000 tonnes) of electronic products and supplies, increases of 16% and 6% compared with 2007.
HP’s accountability model
Our groundbreaking approach to protecting privacy goes beyond legal and industry norms. We review all decisions related to privacy not only for compliance but also for our values, customer expectations and a range of potential business risks, and hold ourselves accountable for our actions.
Collaborating on solutions
HP works with regulators and nongovernmental organizations such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative and the European Commission to advance thinking and develop new frameworks for protecting the electronic flow of information across borders.
Innovations in education
We believe technology can be a catalyst in addressing inequalities in education and fostering the next generation of skilled workers and entrepreneurs. In 2008, HP invested nearly $20 million in programs that apply technology in creative ways to transform the learning experience, particularly in science, technology and engineering, and math.
Entrepreneurship education
HP supports organizations and programs that help cultivate socially minded entrepreneurs, particularly in developing regions. Our goal is to increase the number of entrepreneurs using technology to launch and grow small businesses, crucial to creating jobs and spurring economic growth in local communities.
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 HP strives to ensure our products, services and information are accessible to everyone. For people with disabilities or seniors with age-related limitations, using information and communications technology (ICT) and the Internet can be challenging. Displays can prove difficult to read for people with impaired vision, while keyboards and mice can pose challenges for people with limited dexterity. Accessibility is important because a significant and growing percentage of the global population is elderly or disabled. For example, more than 20 percent of the population in developed countries is now over 60.1 Many countries have introduced or are revising accessibility regulations and standards. For example, in 2008, the U.S. government updated the Americans with Disabilities Act to expand the range of disabilities covered. In Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, parts of Latin America and the United States, government agencies have requirements to purchase accessible ICT and make websites accessible. In 2008 the number of requests for accessibility information associated with public sector procurement increased significantly, and business customer interest grew as well. HP’s commitment is reflected in our product and website design process, partnerships with assistive technology vendors,2 education of employees about accessibility regulations and best practices, and participation in efforts to update accessibility standards around the world. Accessible products and services help HP meet customer requirements and expand the potential market. In the United States, for example, HP public sector sales (which generally include accessibility requirements) exceeded $4 billion in 2008. ApproachWe work to make our products (see Product accessibility below), services and our website accessible. Our website reflects Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) web content accessibility guidelines and the U.S. Section 508 web accessibility standards. For example, we add descriptive text to images. We hope to continue our certification (achieved in 2002–2007) with the National Federation of the Blind in the United States, which is reviewing the accessibility of HP.com for users with limited vision or blindness. HP’s Accessibility Program Office trains our customer support, sales, marketing and web development teams to implement our Accessibility Policy. Our Accessibility Toolkit for product designers includes information on requirements and best practices in accessible design. We advocate for consistent accessibility standards through our membership in the Information Technology Industry Council and the Information Technology Association of America, and through our participation in the Joint Technical Committee 1 Special Working Group on Accessibility. We also participated in the U.S. Access Board (a government agency) update of Section 508 accessibility standards for electronic and information technology purchased by the federal government. Product accessibilityOur product design teams explore ways to enhance accessibility, productivity and user comfort. Accessibility features on HP products may include buttons identifiable by touch, ports and switches positioned within easy reach, and large adjustable displays. Examples of products featuring accessible design include:
Some customers need additional specialized assistive technology (AT) devices such as screen magnification or large-print keyboards. We partner with more than 50 assistive technology vendors (ATV) worldwide to ensure our products are compatible with these devices. ATVs receive free membership in our HP Developer and Solution Partner Program (DSPP), enabling them to use HP technologies and products and to benefit from technical, sales and marketing support. HP documents the accessibility features of products offered to public sector customers through a detailed voluntary product accessibility template (VPAT). In 2008, we completed VPATS for 156 products. Case studies detailing our accessible products and services are available on our Accessibility website.
1 World Population Ageing, United Nations, 2007.
2 Assistive technology vendors develop hardware and software products (i.e., screen reader or screen magnification software) that provide access to information or technology for people with disabilities or age-related limitations. |
