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Welcome

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.

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View the interactive dashboard to track our recent performance, see progress against our 2008 goals and view our targets moving forward.

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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.

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Global Citizenship at HP

Our five pillars
Our five pillars

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.

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Making the business case

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.

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Ethics & Compliance

Ethics and compliance
Upholding Standards of Business Conduct

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.

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A central hub for compliance

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.

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Human Rights & Labor Practices

Raising supply chain standards

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.

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Fostering employee success
Fostering employee success

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.

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Supply chain audit performance

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.

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Engaging society
Engaging society

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.

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Environmental Sustainability

Sustainable design

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.

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Climate and energy
Climate and energy

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.

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Showcasing impact

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.

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Reuse and recycling
Reuse and recycling

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.

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Privacy

Privacy
HP’s accountability model

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.

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Collaborating on solutions

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.

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Social Investment

Innovations in education
Innovations in education

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.

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Entrepreneurship education
Entrepreneurship education

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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Introduction
Global citizenship at HP
Ethics & compliance
Human rights & labor practices
Environmental sustainability
Privacy
Social investment
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HP Global Citizenship Report  > Environmental sustainability  > Sustainable design

Packaging

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Three men handling boxes on an assembly line

We design packaging to cost-effectively protect our products while minimizing environmental impact. We consider the quantity, type and recyclability of materials used, as well as how the packaged product is transported. Our packaging guidelines help HP packaging engineers balance these factors. Decisions can be complex and often involve tradeoffs. For example, expanded polystyrene is light, which saves on transportation energy compared with alternate materials that may be more easily recycled in some areas.

In 2008, we developed a strategy to reduce the total environmental footprint of HP’s packaging and logistics. We plan to:

  • Reduce the amount and types of packaging material per product
  • Increase the use of recycled content in packaging materials and the recyclability of materials used
  • Eliminate materials of concern
  • Reduce the size and weight of our packaged products to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from transport
  • Work with suppliers to develop new materials and processes that reduce the impact of packaging and logistics
  • Reduce the size of secondary packaging compared with the size of the product in it

We entirely eliminated PVC from our packaging in 2007.

Packaging innovations in 2008

By reducing the packaging on our Pavilion dv6929wm Entertainment notebook PC by 97 percent, HP won Walmart’s environmental design challenge in 2008. (See case study). We developed a sturdy, stylish and reusable messenger bag, made from 100 percent recycled material that eliminates the need for corrugated packaging and plastic cushions. It protects the notebook and its accessories during shipping and on the store shelf, and customers use the bag to carry their new notebook home.

Also in 2008, we:

  • Began to use molded pulp, made entirely from post-consumer recycled and industrial paper waste, instead of expanded polystyrene for larger products. HP TouchSmart IQ 500 series PCs use a new packaging design that virtually eliminates plastic foam cushioning materials.1
  • Reduced the amount and weight of packaging used to ship our high-end printers by 70 percent, through two innovations. In place of a corrugated cardboard box and foam packaging, we now use minimal foam supports and wrap the product in broadly recyclable film. In many cases we have begun shipping cartridges installed in the printer, further reducing foam and cardboard packaging. The resulting compact package can be shipped more efficiently, with up to twice as many printers transported per pallet. Together these initiatives will reduce GHG emissions by more than 3,100 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
  • Switched to a thinner packaging film for Print Media products, reducing the amount we purchase annually by 61 tonnes. This will save HP approximately $200,000 per year. The thinner film can be sealed at lower temperatures, using less energy.
  • Began investigation of biopolymers for cushioning instead of oil-based foam.

Performance

We track packaging material use by product line. We extrapolate data from Europe to provide the worldwide estimates below.

Packaging per product sold globally, 2005–2008 [average grams]
  2005 2006 2007 2008
Paper 290 273 255 228
Plastic 48 53 55 42
Total 338 326 310 270
Total weight used, 2005–2008 [thousand tonnes]
  2005 2006 2007 2008
Paper 139 187 184 180
Plastic 23 36 40 37
Total 162 223 224 217

 

1 Paper based cushioning materials are used for most standard palletized shipments; foam cushions are still used for some harsh and parcel shipments.


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