HP aims to always act with uncompromising integrity, whether dealing with our suppliers, partners, employees, customers, or society more broadly. Our shared values guide us to behave ethically and in compliance with the law, and to respect the rights of all our stakeholders. Our scale and influence help us encourage similar behavior in others.

Winning the right way, every day

Legal compliance is the absolute minimum we expect from our employees, partners, and suppliers. We promote a culture of integrity and ethical decision making everywhere we operate, even when it means holding ourselves and our partners to a higher standard than local laws or customs require. We encourage people to check whenever they are unsure of the right thing to do. HP provides the standards, governance structures, training, communications, and reporting and investigation procedures to ensure legal compliance and ethical behavior globally.

Our goal isn’t just to avoid doing something wrong, but to enhance our brand by earning a reputation for winning in the right way. We do not tolerate bribery and will never trade our integrity for a business opportunity. This means refusing to pay bribes or kickbacks even if we must walk away from a deal. Making sure HP employees and partners globally understand this is a priority, as our expansion in growth markets means we increasingly operate in countries where cultural norms differ and regulations may be less stringent than our own standards. We have strict policies for activities such as giving and receiving gifts, and deliver training programs for new and existing employees—especially those working with public sector customers, including sales people.

Respecting human rights

Everyone is entitled to certain fundamental rights, freedoms, and standards of treatment. Respecting these human rights is core to HP’s shared values and is part of the way we do business.

We don’t stop there—we use our size and influence to promote respect for human rights in all our business dealings. We do this by working with organizations such as the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights (GBI) and BSR, which promote awareness of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Revised in 2011 using input from experts at the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), our Global Human Rights Policy establishes our commitment to integrating respect for human rights throughout our business. It commits us to complying with laws and regulations or international standards—whichever are more stringent locally—and a range of other best-practice measures. The policy also highlights links between human rights and other areas of our business, such as supply chain management, employee practices, and privacy protection.

Addressing conflict minerals

HP plays a leading role in international efforts to achieve conflict-free trade with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Minerals originating from the DRC have been a concern for more than a decade because some mines are controlled by armed militia engaged in a civil war. Although progress in overcoming the related problems has been slow, HP is determined that change is possible. We believe that all involved stakeholders must work together to build a lasting solution that avoids the widespread exit of trade from the region, as this would worsen the plight of local people.

In 2011, we and our partners made significant progress on the following five fronts:

• Conducting due diligence of our supply chain—We asked suppliers to provide information about the smelters they use, to adopt a DRC conflict-free policy, and to set the same expectations for their suppliers.

• Supporting the development of a due-diligence approach across industries—HP co-developed a reporting template with the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), for companies to use and share information between suppliers and company customers.

• Advancing the Conflict Free Smelter (CFS) program—HP is part of the EICC CFS program, which identifies, verifies, and maintains a list of conflict-free smelters.

• Supporting an alliance for in-region mineral certification—HP participates in Solutions for Hope, a project which has achieved the first validated source of conflict-free tantalum ore from DRC.

• Influencing policy and legislation—HP has contributed to the development of the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) due-diligence guidance on conflict minerals.