In a world increasingly focused on corporate green credentials, HP says it's building on decades of investment in environmental sustainability, by focusing on energy efficiency, resource conservation and end of life programmes.
“We're trying to reduce our environmental footprint as much as possible, in our production processes and by using recyclable materials,” said Bernhard Bette, HP supplies category manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), in a presentation on the company's printing supplies in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday.
According to Bette, environmental sustainability has to happen at every level, from initial product design - “the smaller the product, the less pollution you create” - to things like travel decisions. “In terms of transporting goods, you have sea freight and air freight, with the latter obviously being worse for the environment and more costly,” explained Bette. He added, however, that sea travel requires much more extensive planning, with demanding lead times.
Another policy is ensuring trucks don't leave the plant half-empty. “We don't have quarter or half-full trucks driving around; we work with our partners to make sure they order full trucks of supplies to reduce energy consumption in terms of road travel,” said Bette.
He also stressed the dual benefit of greater efficiency as both an environmental and cost saver. “If you design supplies to be smaller, then your machines can be smaller and you waste less. You need less packaging and can transport more products at a time. So you save costs, are more efficient, and reduce the environmental footprint.”
While reducing environmental impact before and during production is key, Bette pointed out that most of a cartridge's effect happens after it leaves the store. He cited a life cycle assessment HP commissioned in 2008, which revealed more than 92% of a cartridge's environmental impact occurs after production - primarily during use.
For this reason, end-of-life programmes are an important focus. HP introduced the Planet Partners return and recycling programme in 1991, aiming to provide a simple and convenient means of recycling original HP printing supplies. It is now functional across more than 50 countries worldwide, and 32 in the EMEA region.
“You have to make it as easy as possible for the consumer,” Bette told ITWeb, “as soon as it is complicated people don't want to do it, and it's our responsibility to make these programmes usable for the customer. That said, we don't always have the perfect solution.”
He explained it's often a case of negotiating with regulatory bodies which work slowly and take a long time to give programmes the go-ahead. “Authorities want to test and probe a new implementation before they're convinced. And it's something one understands - there are rules, and now they have to make an exception, but it can make things very complicated.
“What we've seen historically is the efforts we put into producing and distributing recycling programmes were not accepted in the way we expected by the consumer,” noted Bette. “In the beginning, when we started with our environmental activities, people just preferred to buy cheaper products. It wasn't recognised, and it takes a while for things to get down to the customer.”
Another important consideration, noted Bette, was identifying the materials used in returned products, and marking supplies to make recycling more easy and efficient. This is often a hurdle in cross-border transportation, with many unidentified materials making their way into recycling loads.
In future, Bette said HP plans to present the programme in more countries, and also educate customers on the importance of giving empties back. “If we can increase the collect rate, we can increase the number of cartridges not ending up in a landfill.
“Everybody's going in the right direction - industry, consumers, the authorities. And as customer demand and environmental awareness increase, small actions like print cartridge recycling will make a big difference.”
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