New Decade, New Tech: Sustainability Innovations to Watch at CES 2020

This week, the technology world gathers in the desert at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the first of the new decade. The world’s largest showcase of its kind, CES attracts over 175,000 attendees who descend on Las Vegas to get the most comprehensive look at the newest tech trends and a peek into what the future will look like. 

Major innovations and conceptual prototypes across all industries will be on view, from transportation to entertainment to healthcare. Among the more than 4,500 exhibitors, HP will take part with new technology that sets the stage for a future with a reduced impact on the planet and more freedom and security to work and create on the go.

The products showcased at CES offer clues into everything from how we’ll do our jobs to how we’ll entertain ourselves in the coming decade. Here’s a look at the biggest trends at the start of the decade and how HP is leading the way.

“This year, our theme across everything we’re talking about is freedom.”—Mike Nash, chief technologist and VP of customer experience and portfolio strategy, HP Inc.

Sustainability at the heart of tech design

As the clock ticks on the global climate crisis over the next decade, sustainable design will become table stakes for new tech products. CES features nearly 200 exhibitors in the category of sustainability this year, along with presentations from industry leaders on topics including energy efficiency and revolutionizing package design. 

“Recycled materials play a huge role in consumer tech sustainability,” says Marc Palatucci, a researcher at The Future Today Institute, an advisory firm that helps organizations plan for future risks and opportunities. “A big part of that is whether there is a system in place for a device to live out its life cycle and then be repurposed in some form or have materials broken down, redistributed, and put into other technologies in the future.”

HP — which recently topped Newsweek’s list of America’s most responsible companies — is approaching sustainability from a number of different angles, including ramping up its use of recycled plastic materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill, or worse, in the ocean. “We've used 35 million plastic bottles to date in this process, going into a variety of products,” says Ellen Jackowski, global head of sustainability strategy and innovation at HP.

The HP Elite Dragonfly debuting at CES is the world’s first notebook containing ocean-bound plastic material. From its chassis to its bezel to its keyboard caps, inside and out, the designers behind these devices have transformed waste into beautifully made features — over 82% of the laptop’s mechanical parts are made from recycled material. 

And it’s not just hardware — soft accessories are also getting an eco-friendly makeover. “We’re thinking holistically about everything we're making,” says Jackowski. HP’s Renew Series, a variety of bags, totes, and protective sleeves designed to make carrying laptops and other gadgets both comfortable and stylish, uses recycled materials, including single-use plastic water bottles. The largest bag is crafted from up to 10 of them, while the HP Renew Sleeve is a laptop protector made from material that uses two plastic bottles and knit in a way that minimizes the amount of manufacturing waste it produces. Plus, its industrial-chic packaging is 100% compostable.

Read more about upcoming CES 2020 announcement from HP Inc. here