The Technology Context – B101

How do Hewlett-Packard’s Corporate Policies Help Achieve Environmental Sustainability?

Hewlett-Packard (here on referred to as HP) is the world’s largest Information Technology supplier. (Wikipedia, no date, [online]). Hewlett-Packard has one of the most comprehensive and detailed environmental sustainability policies in the information technology sector, and is constantly expanding its goals and objectives, which HP are constantly pursuing.

But what are these policies and what are the problems that these policies hope to address? The purpose of this report is to find out the answers to these questions, and evaluate how HP’s policies are attempting to change this situation.

There are many different aspects to HP's overall environmental sustainability policies, and these are discussed individually below.

Chemicals used during manufacture

One of HP’s policies is to “eliminate the use of polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame-retardants where applicable.” (HP, 1992, [online])
PBB and PBDE flame-retardants are commonly used to make plastic harder to burn. However, they have been shown to cause “weight loss, skin disorders, nervous and immune systems effects” (Wikipedia, no date, [online]). As a consequence, some are controlled in the EU under the important Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, more commonly known as RoHS (RoHS.gov.uk, no date, [online])), but HP is extending its environmental responsibilities by banning the use of all of these chemicals in its products, even though they are not obliged to.

HP also “use moulded-in colours and finishes instead of paint, coatings or plating whenever possible” (HP, no date, [online]). Avoiding using paint and finishes cuts the amount of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that HP produces. These VOCs contribute hugely to the greenhouse effect and so global warming, as well as some of them being carcinogens which is harmful to both human health and can also badly effect plant growth (UKPIA, Feb. 2002, [online]).

HP's policy of eliminating the use of these dangerous chemicals is an important step towards the company's environmental sustainability goals.

Product energy efficiency

HP aim to reduce the amount of energy that their products use, including computers and printers. This is because the more energy-efficient the products are, the less electrical power they require to run, and so less burning of fossil fuels is required to produce this electricity, which in turn reduces greenhouse gases emissions.

In order to achieve this, HP use various technologies, such as the ProLiant range of servers that combine energy efficient processors (either Intel Xeons or AMD Opterons) and memory with smart cooling which only cools just enough to keep the system within optimum operating temperature. This system is known as HP Thermal Logic. (HP, no date, [online])



HP also make a large range of products which are Energy Star certified, meaning they use approximately half as much energy as others.

The increasing energy efficiency of HP's products is obviously good for the environment and contributes to helping to achieve environmental sustainability.

Disposal and recycling at end of life

HP offers a comprehensive recycling program for their products when they reach the end of their lives. This is in order to meet another of their goals, which is to “offer our customers environmentally responsible end-of-life management services for HP products” (Herd, M, no date, [online]).

The recycling program reduces the effect products have on the environment when they are no longer needed. By recycling, the amount of waste going into landfill or being incinerated is reduced, which have environmental impacts such as contaminating the earth and groundwater (in the case of landfill) and adding to greenhouse gas emissions (for incineration). It is especially important to minimise these situations when electrical goods such as computers are being disposed of, as these can contain toxic chemicals, which could be harmful to the environment or human health. Secondly, recycling reduces the need to acquire more raw materials when manufacturing new products. This is important as the amount of raw materials available on the earth is finite, and will eventually run out. Also, the way these raw materials are obtained can be harmful to the environment, such as with mining.

HP offer completely free recycling for ink cartridges and toners, and depending on the area of the world, they also freely recycle batteries and mercury lamps. However, the recycling of computer hardware is charged for, unless it is used in part-exchange for new HP hardware. (HP, no date, [online])

This diagram displays the various end-of-life recycling options that HP employs:



By offering a program which allows the consumer to recycle their old electronic equipment, HP are complying with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, commonly referred to as the WEEE Directive, a law introduced throughout the European Union that required full compliance by January 2007. The WEEE regulations plan to reduce waste from electrical and electronic equipment and encourage their recycling (Netregs.gov.uk, no date, [online]).


The fact that HP is complying with the WEEE regulations through its policies and offering comparable policies in regions of the world in which the WEEE Directives do not apply is a good indicator of the quality of HP's policies towards environmental sustainability, and could lead to a sizeable reduction in the amount of computer hardware being disposed of by conventional means.

Greenhouse gas emissions

As well as reducing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by powering HP’s products, HP are also committed to reducing the amount of these emissions during the manufacture of its products, in a policy to “aggressively pursue pollution prevention, energy conservation and waste reduction in our operations” (Herd, no date, [online]).

This is because these emissions are major contributors to the greenhouse effect – when gases form a blanket over the earth to stop solar radiation (heat) from escaping. This process is known as the ‘Greenhouse Effect’. This warms the earth and causes what is known as 'Global Warming'.



Because of their policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, HP's output of these gases into the atmosphere has declined steadily over recent years:



HP are obviously being successful in a achieving a drop in atmospheric emissions. Unfortunately, no details of exactly how they are achieving this, either through policy or technology, are available from HP.

Overall, the steady decline in HP's atmospheric emissions and the fact that they are committed to further progress in this area is one of the most significant changes they can make in order to meet there goal of environmental sustainability.

Energy use in facilities

HP is also reducing the amount of energy used in its facilities, so that less greenhouse gases are produced as a result of producing the required energy. The effects of reducing the amount of energy used by facilities would be great, as “energy use accounts for 97% of HP's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from operations”.

In order to do this HP “continually identify and implement energy saving initiatives to reduce energy consumption and costs”, for example replacing energy-hungry CRT screens with LCD monitors, and, instead of individual desktop printers in offices, using fewer networked printers.

Another major solution to improving the energy-efficiency of HP’s facilities is to improve cooling, such as that used in offices and data centres, by using HP Dynamic Smart Cooling which “enables real-time changes to air conditioners, fans, vents and even computing”, as well as reducing the overall number of facilities, as part of the “HP Workplace Transformation Initiative” which is designed to “consolidate our operational locations to core sites”. The consolidation of sites reduces the total floor area needed for operations which requires less heating and lighting and therefore less energy. (HP, 2006, [online])

Reducing energy use this way undoubtedly leads to an overall decrease in greenhouse gas emissions as a company, and, as a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to their facilities, then this program goes a long way in reducing the overall amount of emissions that HP puts into the atmosphere.

Political Impacts

HP's actions in improving their companies environmental sustainability effort should have a large political impact throughout the information technology and electronics industries, causing rival companies to introduce their own policies to tackle environmental issues in order to compete with HP. Improving their environmental polices will cause the company to receive good media attention which could lead to a increase in sales.

The fact that HP show that something can be done about the environment could cause consumers to become more aware of the issues and so seek out products made in an environmentally responsible way. This could cause the demand for 'greener' products to increase for all products, not just in the industry HP is in. This would lead to all industries becoming greener and would be a big step towards environmental sustainability.

Financial Impacts

The pursuit of environmental sustainability has both negative and positive financial aspects for HP. This is because some of the policies may cost money to implement; however, others may save the company money.

By refusing to use any toxic chemicals, or chemicals that are suspected of being toxic, in their products, it probably costs HP more to produce a product than it would to use traditional chemicals. This is simply because they are a newer technology with a lower level of adoption. Lower demand means that prices will more expensive for these new chemicals, although simplifying the production process by not using coatings or paint may reduce production costs.

Another policy which costs money to implement is improving the energy efficiency of their hardware, because newer technology (such as processors) has to be used along with more efficient, higher-quality components. Higher quality costs more, making each piece of hardware more expensive to produce.

The cost of improving the products 'green credentials' is passed on to the consumer, increasing the price of the product. This is bad for the consumer, but some people may pay more for a more environmentally friendly product.

Despite some of these policies costing money to implement, HP can benefit financially from some of their policies. The recycling program means that HP does not have to buy raw materials or components and can re-use old parts.

However, it is not known whether any savings are passed on to the consumer or simply kept as profit.

HP does not lose money on recycling products which they cannot reuse because they charge for their recycling. However this may deter people from recycling, and cause them to dispose old equipment in other ways, such as landfill.

Using less energy in their facilities is both good for the environment and saves money, and outweighs the cost of upgrading the infrastructure of the buildings. One of the main features of HP's policy to reduce energy use is by shutting down facilities and consolidating some into larger sites. This, however, leads to a loss of jobs and illustrates the fine line companies have to tread between environmental and social responsibility.

Technological Impacts

The need to develop technology which can meet the goals of HP's environmental sustainability goals drives research into new technology.

This applies not only to HP's products, but the whole industry as well, as rivals have to keep up with technological developments in order to compete in the market. This drives the whole industry to adopt 'greener' technology.

This is progressing sustainable technology throughout the information technology industry and will contribute to environmental sustainability. However, technology which is considered the 'green' choice now may not be in the future, so constant progress is needed.

As a side effect, the development of technology which is designed primarily to be 'green' may lead to other progress. For example, research into more energy efficient processors leads to processor designs which produce less heat, which could mean a faster processor could be produced without increasing heat output. The need to find a more environmentally sustainable cooling solution for their data centres led to HP developing technology to dynamically change the operation of fans and other cooling methods to keep temperatures at their optimum level. This technology could be used to produce computers which are quieter and cooler.

Conclusion

It is clear to see from the multitude of policies that HP has that they are serious about environmental sustainability, and that all of the policies are helping to achieve this in different ways. The main impact that these polices are making is reducing greenhouse gas emissions from both manufacturing and less energy use, but the policies to use less toxic chemicals and raw materials are good for the environment also.

Overall HP’s policies are being successful in helping to achieve environmental sustainability, and are a step in the right direction which should be adopted by not just the rest of the information technology and electronics industry, but all companies worldwide. If consumers and governments can get companies to adopt these practices, which they have already started doing with directives like WEEE and RoHS, then the global positive impact on sustainable development would be huge. A global adoption of policies such as HP’s would lead to humans living more in harmony with the environment, taking fewer resources from it and adding less bad chemicals back into it: Important for us, but even more so for the generations to follow.

References

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