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Pioneering Past and Future of HP's Sustainability Efforts

Why More Companies Need to Follow HP's Lead:

The Pioneering Past and Future of HP's Sustainability Effort

The article The pioneering past and future of HP's sustainability efforts (Gunther, 2010) provides a glimpse into the world's largest technology company's efforts to also be the global leader in sustainability, recycling and eco-friendly product designs and processes. Beginning in 1960 with the definition of what the company would later call The HP Way, founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard set the direction of the company towards giving back to society and making the world a better place through their innovation and growth. The two founders were prescient in their vision. Today HP is the global leader in environmental sustainability and has received many awards and much recognition for these efforts. The company also was listed as number one in a recent Newsweek Environmental Ranking of 500 biggest U.S. Companies.

Tough-minded CEOs whose careers are entirely based on what financial results their companies deliver often doubt the value of sustainability and paying attention to the footprint their companies have on the environment. Yet HP has been able to traverse this conflict brilliantly. The company saves millions of dollars a year due to its extensive recycling and reverse logistics strategies. From printer cartridges to actual printers, HP has created entire plants to recycle components and create cost advantage for themselves in these product lines. The company, as of 2010, has recycled over 10 million printer cartridges, saved millions in plastics costs, and reduced their footprint on this planet more than any other high tech manufacturer in existence today (Gunther, 2010). What is at the center of all this success is the ability of the sustainability, recycling and reverse logistics executives at HP to make the benefits of these programs align with the passions of the company CEO and board of directors.

Instead of attempting to push sustainability, recycling, reverse logistics on CEOs, and continually persuade them to adopt these strategies, the leaders of these efforts in HP concentrate on selling the business benefits. Significantly reduced costs, greater innovation, greater revenue attained by producing products that are eco-friendly by design all contribute to HP's financial success. HP has the ability to recycle up to 60% of the materials in a printer, making the cost per unit to produce it much lower than competitors. This is one of the primary catalysts of their strength in the printer market for example.