HP and WWF Commit $80M to Protect Critical Forest Ecosystems
With the expansion of their partnership, HP becomes the first company to pilot science-based targets for forests with WWF.
By Sarah Murry
As world leaders convene this month at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, HP is pledging to expand its reforestation efforts and partnership with the World Wildlife Fund.
Building on its Forest Positive Vision and goals, the company last week announced it’s expanding an existing partnership with WWF to sustainably manage, restore, and protect nearly one million acres of forest over the next decade to counterbalance the 17 million metric ton of paper used in both consumer and commercial HP printers. In 2020, HP said it achieved zero deforestation for 99% of HP brand paper and paper-based product packaging.
The $80 million commitment will go toward a suite of conservation and restoration projects that enables HP to regenerate forest health at a scale that encompasses not just HP brand paper, but the total amount of paper run through its printers, regardless of brand.
Over the next 15 years, forest landscapes equaling an area more than twice the size of Texas could be lost to rampant deforestation, according to a WWF report. If nothing is done, 11 of the world’s most ecologically important forest landscapes will account for over 80% of forest loss globally by 2030, the report shows.
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“Given the impact forests have on the air we breathe, habitats for wildlife, and the livelihoods of communities around the world, they are critical for human survival first and foremost as well as material to our business,” says James McCall, HP’s chief sustainability officer.
As part of this partnership expansion, WWF is also joining HP’s Sustainable Forest Collaborative along with the Arbor Day Foundation, Chenming Paper, Domtar, New Leaf Paper, and others. The cross-industry collaboration aims to demonstrate scientific and commercially viable approaches to keep working forest ecosystems healthy.
Prior to this expansion, HP and WWF began working together in 2019 to harness nature-based solutions to deliver on biodiversity conservation, clean water and air, and climate resilience in Brazil’s threatened Atlantic Forest and China’s Fujian, Guangxi, Hunan, Anhui, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Hebei provinces. Over the past two years, WWF and HP engaged over 50 local institutions in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest in native forest restoration and 54 community members in China to ensure the responsible management of their bamboo and forest lands.
Additionally, the company planted one million trees both in 2021 and 2020, supporting the 1 Trillion Trees initiative, and became a founding partner of Trees for Jane, a community-driven grassroots reforestation campaign led by environmentalist icon Dr. Jane Goodall. Trees for Jane follows a 2020 pledge from the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) to contribute five million trees (via replanting or restoration).
“To truly solve the dual climate and nature crises, we need companies to go even further than their immediate supply chains,” says Carter Roberts, president and CEO of WWF. “Solving these problems means taking responsibility for emissions and environmental impacts from the entire life cycle of a company’s products. By pledging to address forest resources used for paper outside its supply chain, HP is accelerating ambition for corporate climate and nature commitments. And by helping us pioneer the development of science-based targets for forests, HP is building a road map for others to follow.
