HP Has Decreased Their Water Footprint 12%

Jul 21, 2016 9:05 AM ET

Water availability is a growing concern in many parts of the world, and HP is committed to understanding and disclosing water use across our entire value chain.

While HP’s direct operations are not water intensive, we work to reduce our consumption, particularly in water-stressed regions. We use the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Global Water Tool to assess water scarcity and identify HP sites that are considered water stressed. The use of smart meters, infrastructure upgrades, and improved irrigation and landscaping are three key water initiatives we pursued in 2015 and will continue to moving forward. In 2015, Hewlett-Packard Company, HP Inc.’s former company prior to the separation of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, reduced freshwater consumption per employee at office sites by 26% compared to 2010, achieving its goal of a 20% decrease by 2020.

Water scarcity is a growing risk in many regions where HP suppliers operate. We work with our suppliers to improve water management and encourage responsible withdrawal and discharge. HP is a member of the Global Social Compliance Programme and uses its Environmental Reference Tools to help suppliers improve water use practices and other aspects of environmental performance. The WBCSD Global Water Tool also helps us assess risks to local environments and communities across our supplier base and to identify water-stressed locations to focus our efforts.

Customer use of our products represents most of our total water footprint, due to the considerable amounts of cooling water required during electricity generation as well as water use related to the production of paper used in our printers. As in our operations and supply chain, improving energy efficiency in our products reaps big rewards; decreased water use is just one. Water consumption associated with product use decreased by 14% compared to 2014, driven primarily by decreased energy use in our product portfolio.

Learn more about our environmental footprint here.

Find out more about HP's Sustainability initiatives here.

Read HP's 2015 Sustainability report here. 

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HP Inc. creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our portfolio of printers, PCs, mobile devices, solutions, and services, we engineer experiences that amaze. More information about HP Inc. is available at http://www.hp.com.