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HP is Greenwashing
Did you hear Hewlett-Packard (HP) boast about recycling over 10 million ink cartridges since 1992? Not very impressive when considering that HP produces approximately 575 million of these per year - which means that the electronics giant has manufactured almost 10 billion cartridges since 1992. So where did the other 9.99 billion cartridges end up? At least half of these are in landfills. Also, some HP laptop buyers claim that monitor screens with the mercury-free LED label still contain mercury. The warning label is conveniently located inside the box, tricking shoppers with the external LED label. How ethical. Greenpeace expands the HP abbreviation to "Hazardous Products," a mock reference to the company's judicious use of toxic chemicals. HP repeatedly breaks its own commitments to eliminating the hazardous materials from its products. Such toxins include polyvinyl chloride plastics and brominated flame retardants. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic is sometimes called the poison plastic because of its link to cancer and birth defects. Until HP can follow through on a commitment to "phase out toxic chemicals" including PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants, it cannot be considered a socially responsible company.
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Understanding HP
HP is not all bad. Well, then why did I rate the company so low? It boasts excessively about green accomplishments while ignoring its many faults. Greenwashing companies are known for this. Such businesses attempt to steal others' customers by placing an undeserved environmentally-friendly label next to their names. A socially responsible company does not need to be 100% eco-friendly, especially in the pollution-laden electronics industry. But it does need to be honest and straightforward about the successes and shortcomings of its sustainable campaign.
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What their site says:
2010 Environmental Goals
1) HP will reduce the combined energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions of HP operations and products by 25 percent below 2005 levels1 by achieving the following:
a)Operations: HP will reduce energy consumption and the resulting GHG emissions from HP-owned and HP-leased facilities worldwide to 16 percent below 2005 levels2
b)Products: HP will reduce the energy consumption of HP products3 and associated GHG emissions through specific goals for representative product categories, including the following goals for some of HP's highest-volume PCs, printers and servers families:
-Improve energy efficiency for high-volume server families by 50 percent, relative to 20054
-Reduce the energy consumption of volume desktop and notebook PC families by 25 percent, relative to 20055
-Progress: We reached 19.2 percent reduction in our combined operations and products energy use at the end of October 2007, the end of HP's reporting year. We are confident that we surpassed the 20 percent mark by February 2008, more than two and a half years early.
2)Reduce water consumption by 5 percent, compared with 2007
3) Remove all mercury - a material commonly found in notebook screens - from its entire notebook line by the end of 2010
If they're well on their way to reaching these goals, how can they be all bad?
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Don't hate the player, hate the game
It's kind of hard to be green when you're in an electronics company - they make their profit purely by coming out with a slightly better model every year and encouraging consumers to buy again. Secondly, all electronics use metals and plastics. Until we can make hardware out of biodegradables and recycle every computer chip, we're going to have to rate nearly every electronics company as 'negligent.'
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