Sustainability: HP’s Ambitious Climate Action Goals – Carbon Emissions, Circularity and Forests Conservation

“At HP, we are united in our ambition to become the world’s most sustainable and just technology company. These new goals reflect our continued efforts to drive toward net-zero carbon emissions – not just within our own operations, but across our entire value chain. It’s not only the right thing to do, but also an increasingly important driver of innovation and growth that will strengthen our business well into the future.”

PALO ALTO, Calif: Today, in advance of Earth Day, HP Inc. announced some of the most aggressive and comprehensive climate goals in the technology industry. The commitments highlight the progress the company is making to drive a net zero carbon, fully regenerative economy, reduce its overall environmental footprint, and strengthen its business for the long term to create the most sustainable portfolio of products and solutions in the industry.

“Combating the climate crisis is an unprecedented challenge demanding action across the private and public sectors. We all have a shared stake in safeguarding our planet, and making a sustainable impact on the communities we serve must be a priority for all companies,” said Enrique Lores, HP Inc. President and CEO.

The Case for Business Transformation

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The measures HP is pursuing, including the targets announced today, are among the most comprehensive climate actions in the technology sector and align with relevant U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. In order to achieve these goals, HP is focused on accelerating five strategic drivers intended to decouple growth from carbon emissions and resource consumption, drive innovation, and transform design and business models:

Goals

Print and Compute-as-a-Service: Print supplies renewal, hardware-as-a-service, certified pre-owned, hardware.

Sustainable materials: Increase use of renewable and recycled materials.

Supply chain decarbonization: Drive and support supplier carbon reduction, use of renewable electricity, and adoption of surface transportation and alternative fuels and electric vehicles for product shipments.

Energy efficiency: Design in existing and new energy-efficient product technologies.

Forest investments: Address the fiber used in printing and packaging by investing in forest restoration and protection, and continue to source certified or recycled materials.

Carbon emissions and circularity

To achieve these targets, HP will be carbon neutral in its operations by 2025 and reduce Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% on an absolute basis by 2030, compared to 2019.   Additionally, 75% HP’s total annual product and packaging content, by weight, will come from recycled, renewable and/or reused materials, products and parts by 2030.

HP commits to 75% of its total annual product and packaging content (by weight) to come from recycled and renewable materials and reused products and parts by 2030. These actions will help to position HP to reach net zero emissions across its value chain by 2040. In line with HP’s circularity ambitions, HP Operations will be zero waste in its managed facilities by 2025.   HP’s Customer Support organization will also be carbon neutral across both HP and partner-run operations by 2030.

HP will pursue and accelerate a range of steps, including enabling a circular economy by using more sustainable materials, such as recycled plastics and metals, and investing in forest restoration and protection.  Since 1991, HP has kept more than 875 million HP cartridges, 114 million apparel hangers, and 4.69 billion postconsumer plastic bottles out of landfills—instead, upcycling them to make new HP products. After introducing the world’s most sustainable PC portfolio, HP continues to innovate throughout its product portfolio and work with key partners to achieve circularity. HP is a member of NextWave Plastics, collaborating across industries to create the first global network of ocean-bound plastic supply chains. HP is also a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Network and the Circulytics measurement tool.

HP was the first global IT company to publish its full carbon footprint and set carbon emissions reduction goals for its operations, supply chain, products and solutions. HP was among the first 10% of companies with GHG emissions reduction goals approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative, including a 1.5°C aligned goal to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions 60% by 2025 compared to 2015. For two consecutive years, HP is the only technology company to have been named to CDP’s A lists for climate, forests, and water, as well as CDP’s supplier engagement leaderboard. HP has been a member of RE 100 since 2016 and EV 100 since 2017.

Reducing Carbon in HP Supplies

HP will transform its print business from a transactional model to a services model, while actively reducing the carbon footprint of its company and its products. To accelerate a transition to a net zero value chain, HP commits to carbon neutrality for its supplies business by 2030.

HP will start transitioning supplies to be carbon neutral by launching HP Instant Ink with Planet Partners pilot, leveraging recycling and new renewal capabilities to extend the life of Original HP Supplies. This pilot will help customers decrease virgin plastic used, and diminish waste, including ocean-bound plastics, on the pathway to circularity. Launching in Germany in May 2021, HP Instant Ink with Planet Partners will allow HP Instant Ink subscribers to opt-in to receive renewed cartridges. The end-to-end use of HP technology and engineering is what makes this pilot unique. The consistent reliability and outstanding print quality of Original HP Supplies mean fewer reprints and less waste.

Forest Protection & Restoration

HP is also focused on nature-based solutions with global partners including World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Arbor Day Foundation and through its own Sustainable Forests Collaborative. HP is one of the few companies in the world to achieve a zero deforestation goal for the sourcing of its paper and packaging.  In 2020, HP has achieved zero deforestation for 99% of HP brand paper and paper-based product packaging with the remaining 1% assessed to ensure reported fiber usage meets HP’s Sustainable Paper and Wood Policy .  HP brand paper has been deforestation-free since 2016. For paper-based product packaging, this represents the culmination of five years of work to enhance HP’s procurement processes and collaborate with more than 100 suppliers to drive progress. HP has implemented a conformance assurance program to manage any corrective actions and maintain this performance in the future.

Now going beyond the company’s own responsible sourcing of HP brand papers, by 2030 HP will scale up investment in forest restoration, protection and other initiatives to counteract deforestation for non-HP paper used in HP products and print services. HP is the only technology company to set a goal to address deforestation that goes beyond its own fiber sourcing to include the use of its products and services.  

To ensure the vision to make every page printed with HP is sourced responsibly and contributes to restoration and protection of forests, HP created the Forest Positive Framework  which includes partnering with leading NGOs and organizations to take action beyond restoration and protection to include developing science-based targets for forests, collaborating with the industry, and innovating more efficient print technologies.

A Continued Commitment to Sustainable Impact and Climate Collaboration

Efforts to make a sustainable impact on people, the planet and communities are integrated into HP’s business strategy and operations, and have become an increasingly important driver of customer purchasing decisions. HP’s Sustainable Impact efforts helped drive more than a billion in sales wins in 2020 for the second year in a row.

To further its commitment to the restoration and protection of the world’s oceans and forests, HP also announced a series of updates to its NGO partnerships.

The company has joined the Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Alliance as a member of the Steering Committee for its newest Signature Initiative: ASPPIRe (Advancing Solutions to Plastic Pollution through Inclusive Recycling). ASPPIRe aims to reduce plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, create a stable market for low-value plastics in selected geographies and increase the availability of recycled content. HP is the only technology company on the committee and is working alongside some of the world’s largest brands including Pepsico, Starbucks Coffee Company, Dow, and Kimberly-Clark.

HP also announces new partners joining HP’s Sustainable Forests Collaborative, including Andhra Paper Limited, Crown Van Gelder, Felix Schoeller Group, International Paper Company, Lenzing Papier, and Mondi Uncoated Fine Paper. Additionally, as the largest open-membership non-profit organization for forests big and small, Arbor Day Foundation is joining as an advisor to the Collaborative. Arbor Day’s mission is to provide proven scientific approach on forest projects. Arbor Day’s mission is to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. The cross-industry collaboration will demonstrate scientific and viable approaches to keeping forest ecosystems healthy. Together, HP and its industry partners seek others to join the movement of protecting and restoring forests for future generations.

In addition, HP announced it is the founding sponsor of the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) “One Simple Action” digital marketplace , that helps consumers understand why FSC matters, and products they can buy if they want to be part of the solution for forests. FSC certification is the most rigorous standard available in the marketplace, ensuring that critical forest ecosystems—and the wildlife and workers that depend upon them—are protected.

These new partnerships build on HP’s existing portfolio of NGO collaborations committed to protecting natural resources, preventing biodiversity loss, and combatting climate change.

HP has garnered recognition with seven Good Green Design Awards for responsible design and manufacturing through the use of sustainable materials and finishes, including ocean-bound plastics and water-borne finishes.