CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa : EU

Let’s power up a green IT strategy!

jeanne2007 — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:51:00 GMT

I just have seen the most recent announcement made by the European Commission to power up a green IT strategy in Europe.

At HP, we have already been working on offering climate smart solutions for our customers. In 2008, together with WWF, we published a customer report to demonstrate how 1 billion tonnes of CO2 can be reduced with the help of IT solutions.

Currently, we work with Ashridge Business School and EABIS to invite students from major business schools and universities to submit their innovative ideas on how to set up management structures and internal processes to facilitate the implementation of green IT solutions within a company.

A significant number of customers are already working on green company strategies. So the support of the EU to power up green IT strategies is well connected to significant industry efforts that are already on their way.

Jeannette Weisschuh, Director of Global Citizenship, HP EMEA

EU Competitiveness Report highlights CSR as cutting edge factor

jeanne2007 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:05:00 GMT

As you might have heard the European Union launched the European Competitiveness Report last month. The great news is that this is the first time that the report includes a chapter on corporate social responsibility. This is worth talking about.

Since 1999 the European Commission has published an annual competitiveness report which provides an overview of the economic performance and competitiveness of the European Union region. It elaborates on drivers of competitiveness such as foreign direct investments and trade openness.

For the first time ever, a chapter on CSR has been included this year, which once more underlines the importance of CSR for business and the economy in general. Highlighting the Lisbon Agenda, the EU has emphasised the important role that CSR plays for social and economic development.

The report makes clear that CSR especially influences three competitiveness factors: human resources, risk and reputation management and innovation. This sounds completely plausible to me.

To be competitive, a corporation must have a strong team of employees. If a company has a good reputation for being a good corporate citizen, it will attract the right talent. An employee will want to be proud of being part of a company and will want to identify himself with that company, its values and also its CSR approach.

I notice more and more that students (and potential future employees) look hard at the CSR approach of companies and investigate how companies deal with different societal challenges, such as the current economic slow down or climate change. I am assuming it must be obvious how risk and reputation management is influenced by CSR. We live in an information society where nearly everything a company does becomes transparent. Corporations are under permanent public scrutiny and we have seen in the past how a company’s reputation can suffer if it does not adequately deal with CSR-related issues. The key is to be as transparent as possible and to proactively approach any issues that might arise.

A clear example is an open and transparent supply chain management approach. Last Spring, HP disclosed the names of our first tier suppliers and this will hopefully trigger other corporations to follow suit.

Finally, innovation is an important competitiveness driver that can be equally and positively influenced by CSR. CSR opens the door to establishing dialogue between different stakeholders and it encourages collaboration.

Confronted with non-optimal working conditions along the supply chain, HP joined forces with international institutions and non-governmental organisations to look for new innovative approaches to maintaining a socially and environmentally sound supply chain. Just a couple of weeks ago the CSR Europe Laboratory on Responsible Supply Chain Management launched an online portal which provides an overview of existing supply chain practices and consists of useful tools that small and medium sized enterprises can use.

The CSR chapter of the EU competitiveness report ends by saying that, if a company ignores CSR, then it misses opportunities for competitiveness gains. That is a strong statement and the message is clear: CSR is a ‘must-have’ for companies in operating today’s business world who want to be the most competitive and the most successful!

Jeannette Weisschuh, Director of Global Citizenship, HP EMEA

Fight social and environmental exclusion: The e-inclusion Ministerial Conference

Daniela.Opp — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:11:00 GMT

At the beginning of December I had the opportunity to participate in the e-inclusion Ministerial and Expo in Vienna, where HP was one of the main sponsors. HP presented our latest accessibility products and showed some great solutions on web accessibility. We integrate accessibility into our HP products and website development process in order to improve user experience. This is accomplished by buttons identified by touch, ports and switches positioned within easy reach and also large adjustable displays.

The event is organized on an annual basis by the European Commission. This year there were 90 exhibition stands, more than 130 speakers and nearly 1500 delegates who all talked about or presented their approach on how information and communication technologies can fight social and economic exclusion.

The conference focused on bringing together many actors of civil society, the economy and the government to exchange their knowledge and best practices, to honour best practices (e-inclusion awards) and to create a discussion forum about different initiatives and the way forward. The exhibition area constituted a great pool of existing approaches and ideas and it was exciting to see what’s already out there.

This is the second year that we have participated in this event. We had one exhibition stand where I presented our GET-IT programme, which aims at fostering entrepreneurship among young graduates aged between 16-25 in Europe, Middle East and Africa. I presented details on our newly launched GET-IT City portal, which allows us to reach students beyond the classroom. The portal gives students access to training and enables them to receive useful tips for establishing an enterprise. Students can learn IT and important business skills in an entertaining way, with online games and videos. Click here to get your own impression about GET-IT City and let me know what you think.

In addition to our exhibition stand, the lead for our organization, Gabriele Zedlmayer, Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Global Citizenship, Hewlett Packard, Europe, Middle East and Africa, delivered a keynote speech about digital literacy. Gabi made it clear that technology access is a key factor in bridging the digital divide. But access is not enough: eSkills are needed to participate in the information society.

I really enjoyed some very fruitful conversations with many important HP stakeholders. Through these discussions I gleaned more ideas on how we can make our social investments even more relevant to society.

Daniela Opp, Manager, Social Investment and Economic Development