IT can support the fight against climate change! - CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa -
CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa » IT can support the fight against climate change!
IT can support the fight against climate change!
Imagine a world where business travel is largely replaced by popping into your local office and talking to someone across the globe via the world’s most sophisticated tele-presence system. This is a reality for HP employees and other corporate customers who increasingly use our flagship HALO technology to talk to colleagues across the world.

And here’s the great thing: the more customers of this revolutionary solution there are, the better it is for HP’s business and the better it is for the environment. Millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions could be saved through the exponential growth of HALO and other such technologies – a genuine win – win for business and the environment.

On Monday 28th January, GeSI – the Global e-Sustainability Initiative – of which HP is a leading member, hosted an event during the European Union’s Sustainable Energy Week.

Sustainable Energy Week is meant to raise awareness amongst policy makers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), industries and the European public in the hope that they work toward a common goal – a more sustainable use of our energy resources in the EU. HP is a partner to the week and has been present for the last three years in order to illustrate the positive contribution IT can make to the climate challenge.

Why have we done this? When policy makers pursue tough, headline grabbing targets on renewable energy, energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage etc; they rarely talk about IT as a way of dramatically reducing the total carbon emissions of the EU. We aim to change this.

HP is leading this charge. As part of our strategic partnership with the WWF, HP are embarking on a project to identify the first 1,000,000 tonnes of CO2 saved through IT solutions. To put that into perspective, that is ¼ of the total EU CO2 emissions. And we believe we can do it.

Through systems such as HALO, online banking, buildings with better designs – both enabled and operated by IT, and a host of other solutions, IT has a major contribution to make in the fight against climate change. In a world rightly concerned with energy efficiency and scarce resources, I am advocating a world where the overall energy use of IT increases, where our sector’s carbon footprint increases to help bring down carbon emissions significantly in other sectors. I’d rather have many more HALO rooms than many more long-haul flights – and Mother Nature would too.

Edward Lewin, HP Government Affairs Manager
Posted 02-18-2008 2:22 PM by BlogArchive
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