HP: 3D Printing Can Cut IT's Supply Chain Carbon Footprint
Tech giant outlines measures to meet its sustainability goals
Originally published on IT Pro
by Keumars Afifi-Sabet
HP has admitted to experiencing "challenges" in regard to its progress on sustainability, but believes innovations like 3D printing and its own PageWide technology can help it reach its green goals.
Speaking at the company's annual Sustainability Summit in London yesterday, HP's UK MD, George Brasher, explained how the environmental benefits of "short run printing" could play a part in countering the carbon footprint of businesses' supply chains.
"If you think today, most products are designed somewhere, they're shipped typically overseas, they're built there, and then they're transported - all having an impact on the environment," he said, speaking to partners, customers and journalists.
"In the future what's going to happen is you'll design a product - instead of having a physical supply chain you'll have a digital one, so you'll ship ones and zeroes, and then that production will occur closer to the consumer, significantly reducing the impact on the environment."
In HP's 137-page Sustainable Impact Report, which measures progress made against its sustainability goals, the company announced it had introduced devices to more than 14.5 million students to assist with learning, against a target of 100 million by 2025, and recorded an 8% rise in 'diversity hires' in the US in the last year.
