HP Has Big Plans of the Green Nature

While browsing the GreenBiz website, I stumbled upon a few very interesting articles. One that I chose to discuss was that of Hewlett-Packard's newest attempts at being a more green machine-maker. 2008 was a huge year for HP's environmental impact reduction. The article describes numerous ways that HP was able to reduce carbon emissions by a relative 13% over 2007 -not a figure to dismiss lightly. Another notable fact, their new e-waste objectives led "HP... to 1.7 billion pounds (850,000 tons) of total electronics recycled" that would have otherwise gone directly to landfills. I think that these socially responsible activities are very poignant in business today. Electronics companies seem to have become a ridiculously large source of waste by requiring mostly virgin materials for construction, the short useful lifespan of products, and the small rates of recycling done with the products afterwards.

I think the most interesting aspect of the article centered on a Wal-Mart sponsored green design challenge in September of 2008. (Wal-mart sponsored?? Atleast the green bandwagon is one that everyone should jump on.) In regards to packaging for a laptop, HP was able to reduce the materials needed by 97%! How you reduce packaging to 3% of what it used to be is astounding to me... By doing so, HP was able to fit 3 laptops per average shipping box instead of 1 like before, this means huge savings for HP and for the environment. Why wouldn't electronics companies want to do this? By using recycled materials and a lot less foam, HP is able to change the world one laptop at a time. If there was a design challenge on all products think of how much negative impacts on the globe could be suspended? Truly mind-blowing.