HP’s Enterprise Printing Blog : Green Business

IDC: Going Green Cuts Costs

Tac Anderson — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:32:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
Vice President and General Manager
Enterprise Sales and Services
IPG-Americas

At the start of every year, everyone makes predictions for the new year.

This year is no different, but one that I recommend for our industry is IDC's “Top 10 Predictions Worldwide and US Hardcopy 2009.” It’s an interesting read and I agree on various points. Of particular interest to HP enterprise customers, is that IDC is convinced that 2009 will be the year for vendors to focus on helping customers with cost-cutting and productivity enhancements to their existing infrastructure. Green and sustainability will be increasingly important to enterprises as a cost cutting tactic.

Sound familiar? It's a challenging economy for everyone, however, as my previous posts indicate, HP has the strength, capacity and solutions in place to help our enterprise customers manage the environmental impact, and the costs associated with, their imaging and printing infrastructure. In fact, pre- and post-analysis of some of HP's Managed Print Services customers’ imaging and printing operations reveals energy savings of between 30 percent and 80 percent and reductions in paper consumption in the millions of pages!

There's a cost cutting (and planet improving!) incentive for you. Interested in learning more? Go to www.hp.com/go/greenITplan to get started with your Green IT Plan today.

HP Unveils New Document Management Solutions and Green IT Action Plan for Enterprise Customers

Tac Anderson — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:38:00 GMT

Live from ImagePrint 2008 pt 2

Mike Feldman
Vice President and General Manager
Enterprise Sales and Services
IPG-Americas

I’m up early and ready for an engaging and informative day with customers and partners here at ImagePrint. In all of our customer conversations today, we’re focused on how we can help customers optimize their infrastructure, manage their environment and improve their workflows.

With this in mind, today we are excited to announce three new imaging and printing solutions that include:

HP and Perceptive Software Capture and Workflow Solutions, which enable customers to capture and organize all types of documents then retrieve a specific page instantly from a wide variety of standard as well as custom enterprise business applications.
HP and ReadSoft Automated Invoice Processing Solution that transforms paper-based workflows into a seamless electronic process. This allows for finance and administration teams to interpret, validate and verify information contained in printed invoices.
HP Automated Invoice Processing Solution for Manufacturing captures invoice data for manufacturers at remote locations using HP MFPs and rapidly interprets, verifies and approves the information electronically. The solution facilitates rigorous records management, compliance and risk reduction, creating fully digital documents that can be processed in days rather than weeks. It is ideal for manufacturers looking to reduce labor, document storage, shipping, and courier costs.

In addition, we are also announcing the new Green IT Action plan for printing and imaging, a step-by-step guide to help customers develop a plan to reduce the environmental impact of printing and imaging.

The new solutions and the Green IT Action Plan expand HP’s portfolio of solutions to addresses the document management and sustainability needs of enterprise customers. To learn more about these solutions, visit: http://www.hp.com/go/imageprintma.

I’m looking forward to meeting with customers and to a great night that includes the “Taste of Florida” dinner and reception here at ImagePrint.

Bruce Dahlgren presents the keynote address at ImagePrint 2008.

Technorati Tags: IT,Green,HP,ImagePrint,Document Management,Workflow

Reaching your green fatigue threshold? HP's committed to the environment.

murradav — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:37:00 GMT

Alison Graves
Worldwide PR Manager for HP’s Enterprise Imaging and Printing Business

Are you beating yourself up for infractions like pitching a soda can in the trash or forgetting to bring your own travel coffee mug into Starbucks? If you answered yes, then you might be suffering from “Green Guilt.” Are you skeptical of every green marketing claim and more interested in the U.S. presidential election and Jamie Lynn Spears’ baby? Then you probably have “Green Fatigue.” The New York Times reports the green fatigue threshold has been reached. PR and marketing professionals are trying to figure out what to do about it as experts worry the trend will soon die off. “After 18 months, levels of concern on any issue tend to drop off,” said Jonathan Banks, business insight director in Britain at Nielson, in an interview with the Times.

According to PR industry e-zine, Bulldog Reporter, “The problem boils down to misleading and exaggerated environmental claims and ties by advertisers that have consumers caught on an overgrown lawn of green skepticism.” For example, the Times points out that The Advertising Standards Authority received 561 complaints from consumers about green claims in 410 ads in 2007, up from 117 complaints about 83 ads the year before.

Where does that leave HP? Our commitment to environmental stewardship isn’t just a passing phase – in fact, it’s built into our DNA as a company, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were pioneers in recognizing that beyond making a profit, a company has a responsibility to enrich the businesses, lives and communities of its customers, partners, employees and stakeholders. Sure, like almost everyone else, we amped up our green marketing in the last year, but our claims are very real. They not only relate to our own commitment to the environment, but also our work to support our enterprise customers green goals. And speaking of our own commitment: Last week HP’s Corvallis site was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency as exemplary steward, for making efforts, both internally and externally, to go above and beyond legal requirements for protecting the environment. The Corvallis site has reduced the total amount of electricity use by 6 percent, accounting for 9.7 million megawatt-hours, and invests in 4.2 million megawatt-hours of renewable energy per year. Congratulations HP Corvallis!

HP's Carbon Footprint Calculator is Now Available

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:41:00 GMT

Michelle Price

Manager, Worldwide Environmental Strategic Marketing, Imaging and Printing Group

On May 22nd, HP’s Imaging and Printing Group made a huge environmental announcement. As part of the announcement, we introduced the HP Carbon Footprint Calculator and indicated that it’ll be available at the end of June. Well, it’s now available. It takes about a minute to load. Check it out and let us know your thoughts.

The HP Carbon Footprint Calculator for printing helps you compare the carbon footprint of an existing sample printer fleet to that of a new, optimized LaserJet-based fleet. The calculator helps you understand how you can reduce your impact on the environment. It assesses printer energy and paper use, the carbon impact of usage and associated monetary costs based on geographical energy assessments.

If you are interested in learning more about the recent HP environmental announcement, click here or check out Mike Feldman’s blog about the announcement.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, environmental issues, green business, carbon footprint calculator

Today’s Environmental Announcement

Anonymous — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:54:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
VP, IPG Global Enterprise Business

It’s great to see HP’s Imaging and Printing Group continue to make the public aware of our environmental programs. Few companies can match HP’s legacy of responsible corporate citizenship and environmental stewardship. It’s in our DNA to be an asset to the communities in which we live and work, and I’m proud of that heritage. The adage, “do well and do good” rings true. Smart companies realize that what’s good for the environment is also good for business.

It’s important for HP to show the positive steps we’re taking as a company to reduce our carbon footprint. It’s equally critical to proactively help our customers cope with their environmental footprint and improve their environmental responsibility. When we step-up, speak-up and support important issues, whether it’s global climate change or disaster relief, it increases awareness and encourages people – from individual consumers to executives in large companies – to pay attention and do whatever they can to make a difference.

Our enterprise customers are definitely paying attention and are inspired to make dramatic changes. Environmental innovation isn’t just the purview of a company’s corporate social responsibility department. It is happening throughout the organizations we do business with – at every level, including the CIO, facilities, procurement and business process owners. That’s why more than 80% of the requests for proposals (RFPs) we’re seeing for Managed Print Services include environmental impact as part of their vendor selection process.

I’m sure we’ll continue to see this number grow – and we’ll be there every step of the way. Our approach to environmental sustainability is about helping enterprise customers drive cost savings through efficiencies and securing competitive advantage. Our solutions range from helping customers with energy and resources savings to digitally green alternatives, to reuse and recycling.

Most of my fellow bloggers in HP are also writing about today’s announcement. You can get all the news of the day in our press release. Instead of repeating here what you can read there, I’ll focus on one aspect of the news that I think is exciting and cutting-edge for our enterprise customers: The HP Eco Printing Assessment.

We’ve been using the Eco Printing Assessment with several large customers over the last few months to help customers assess their energy consumption, paper usage and carbon emissions in addition to recommended ways to use less energy, recycle more and reduce the impact of imaging and printing. In using this assessment service, as well as a host of existing tools like Instant-on Technology, duplexing, Universal Print Driver, Web Jetadmin, and pull printing solutions, these customers see at least a 30% reduction in their carbon footprint.

The Eco Printing Assessment begins by taking a representative sample of a customer’s printing environment. HP uses the current printing infrastructure as a benchmark to capture the environmental impact of the printing fleet. HP then recommends best practices and identifies a roadmap of recommended changes, helping customers reduce costs, save resources and deliver results that are good for business. For more information, click here.

Also, if you have a little more time, please check out these case studies from some of our enterprise customers who are working with HP to make a difference.

We’re all in this together. “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, environmental issues, green business

An Inconvenient Truth About Solid Ink: The Polar Bears Have Spoken

Anonymous — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:13:00 GMT

David Murray
Enterprise Marketing Program Manager

With some of the recent discussion on the blog about environmental topics like “greenwashing” and the recycling of supplies, I thought I’d share a video about Xerox solid ink titled “An Inconvenient Truth About Solid Ink”:

I’ll let the video speak for itself, but hopefully people will start looking at printers from an energy consumption standpoint as opposed to just paper and supplies (also important). The key differentiator here for HP is Instant-on Technology. If you want to learn more about Instant-on Technology and print speeds, check out this post from Vince Ferraro's blog.

Technorati tags: Business printer, printers, solid ink, Xerox, printing, HP, Instant-on Technology, energy savings, carbon footprint, inconvenient truth, recycling, greenwashing, supplies, youtube

Margin of Error

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Alison Graves
Worldwide PR Manager for HP’s Enterprise Imaging and Printing Business

Greetings from Austin, Texas

The April ’08 edition of “Austin Monthly” was also the publication’s second annual green issue: “The people, places & ideas that are greening the world.” Just like every other city in the nation (I hope!) my fair city is all over this green thang. Austin-based retail and grocery chain, Whole Foods is about to ban plastic bags and the city launched an awareness campaign called “Austin’s Got a Brand New Bag.” So what does all this have to do with enterprise printing? I was inspired by a little blurb in the reader feedback section of the magazine about a weblog called www.changethemargins.com.

According to the reader, in a letter entitled, Margin for Error, “It’s a campaign to get everyone from Microsoft to universities to change their default margins from 1.25 inch to .75 inch. The group says if everyone did so, it would save more than six million trees!” That might be hyperbole, but who cares? I think it’s an awesome idea. I’m ridiculously excited about this initiative. As Randy Jackson on American Idol says, “Check it out!”

Just this morning I changed the margins on a document and was able to take what was previously a two-pager and print it out as one page. Contrary to how it may appear, I actually do have a life, but these things hit home when I think about all the other documents being printed in enterprises across the world and the amount of paper that could be saved by something as simple as putting our margins on a diet. Join the margin Biggest Loser Club.

It’s another one of those small things we can each do to make a big difference – like setting our default mode on double-sided printing. Pass it on – green it forward.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, environmental issues, green business

Earth Day is just around the corner!

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:27:00 GMT

Alison Graves
Worldwide PR Manager for HP’s Enterprise Imaging and Printing Business

Earth Day is just around the corner – Tuesday, April 22 – and let the games begin! It’s a great time to be a marketer. We can all watch, listen and learn from what is shaping up to be an awesome barrage of green marketing. Natalie Zmuda, in AdAge.com, asks, “Is Earth Day the New Christmas?”

There’s no better forum than the blogosphere if you’re interested in getting insights and perspectives on many of the “green” campaigns we can expect to see unveiled in the coming weeks and months. Thanks again to AdAge for this list of blogs. You can just sit back and be a regular blog-potato:

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, environmental issues, green business

Eco:nomics - HP's Tips to Help the Environment and Your Bottom Line

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:12:00 GMT

Mike Feldman
VP, IPG Global Enterprise Business

Last week I attended a conference called Eco:nomics, hosted by the Wall Street Journal. Presenters including California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger; General Electric CEO, Jeffrey Immelt; and Wal-Mart CEO, H. Lee Scott, shared their CEO-level views on the environment and the bottom line. HP was one of four main sponsors (along with Intel, General Motors, and Scudder). To see more info on the event that took place last week, go to http://www.economics.wsj.com/. To see more blogging from thought leaders, check out http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/.

The Wall Street Journal conference and the HP Enterprise Advisory Council (EAC) meetings I attend-- two in the U.S., two in Europe, one each in Canada, Latin America and Asia -- have given me a newfound appreciation for the challenges of managing and communicating around environmental issues. Our enterprise customers are deeply concerned about environmental stewardship – not only their own, but that of their suppliers. At the same time, they’re concerned about how to effectively communicate their good works without being accused of “greenwashing.”

The enterprise companies I’ve met with are serious about being green. They’re taking real steps to reduce their carbon footprint. This is coming out loud and clear from all of our councils and from companies around the world. And they’re doing it for the right reasons -- not just to look good.

We take our responsibility to help these companies to heart, and have real ways to help them cut through the hype and reduce their carbon footprint. Specifically as it relates to printing and copying, HP has a variety of tools, services, and products that can significantly help. Here are a few tips:

Produce double-sided documents whenever possible. HP studies show companies can achieve at least a 25% savings by setting duplex as a standard. Within HP, using our Universal Print Driver to configure printers for duplexing, we expect to save up to 800 tons of paper a year, at an annual savings of $7.7 million.

Conserve energy -- turn off equipment when it's not being used. Turning off equipment during “off” business hours can save up to 66% of their normal power consumption. HP’s Instant-on Technology virtually eliminates warm-up time from powersave mode and will save as much as 50% in power consumption while printing and up to 50% energy savings over traditional fusing.

Use energy efficient products -- Choosing the right product for the environment can help reduce your overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). ENERGY STAR®-qualified products are optimized to meet and exceed energy consumption levels.

Reduce fax-related paper waste by using digital images that can be captured and sent directly from a scanner or computer without requiring a printed hard copy. HP scanners, digital multifunction printers (MFPs) and digital sending software captures and sends images through the workflow process, reducing the need for paper and supplies.

Recycle -- Choose suppliers who take back packaging, supplies and hardware for reuse. HP’s Planet Partners program, established in 1991, allows free and convenient return and recycling of toner and ink cartridges. More than 106 million HP LaserJet print cartridges have been returned and recycled since 1991.

Optimize the imaging and printing infrastructure -- where selective desktop, centralized workgroup and data center printing exists will reduce your overall power consumption and supplies costs. Then, put a plan in place to manage the environment so as new devices come in, they stay within your strategy for on-going optimization. And, finally, work towards improving your workflow so you can automate paper-based processes and reduce paper.

I am really happy to see companies take this so seriously and am really proud of what HP is doing in this area. There’s more work to do, but we are on the right track.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, environmental issues, green business

Thoughts on Greenwashing

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Alison Graves
Worldwide PR Manager for HP’s Enterprise Imaging and Printing Business

As a consumer, I’d like to see every business do what they can to be better stewards of the environment. But what about “greenwashing,” a term used to denote when an advertiser makes over-blown claims about their commitment to the environment? With so many marketers jumping on the green bandwagon, we’re now having what Brandweek (March 3, 2008) calls, “a green backlash.” As a result, the Federal Trade Commission recently decided to review its green guidelines a year earlier than originally planned, after noticing a “proliferation of green claims in the marketplace.”

You might think with the recent onslaught of green marketing, that the concept of greenwashing is a recent phenomenon. A quick look at Wikipedia suggests otherwise. Apparently, the term came into use around 1990 and was generally used to describe a company spending significantly more money or time advertising being green, rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices. An example of greenwashing cited is the George W. Bush Clear Skies Initiative, which environmentalists have argued actually weakens air pollution laws.

I work with people and organizations throughout HP who are leading amazing environmental initiatives. Their efforts will have far-reaching benefits for HP and for our customers. I hope HP will start talking more about our legacy of environmental stewardship, starting from the days of Bill and Dave to what we’re doing now and into the future. In the meantime, turn off equipment when it’s not being used and make double-sided printing your standard. What do you have to say?

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, environmental issues, green business

Environmental responsibility is now a business issue

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:50:00 GMT

Michelle Price
Worldwide Environmental Strategic Marketing Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett Packard

“Smart companies seize competitive advantage through strategic management of environmental challenges.” Quote from Andrew Winston and Daniel Esty in their book Green to Gold.

I love this quote because it points out that companies can use their environmental challenges to grab competitive advantage. But equally important is the notion of strategically managing your environmental challenges. What this means is that companies need to examine their business through an environmental lens, not just look at regulations. Smart companies are doing this. Look at 3M, GE and DuPont (and many more). I’m incredibly impressed with DuPont’s accomplishments. They’ve cut greenhouse gas emissions over 70%, held energy use flat over last decade while growing, cut waste management cost 80%, and save approximately 2.0B per year on eco-efficiency. Now that’s a smart company!

DuPont looked for opportunities and proactively managed their risks. Other companies should take note and learn.

A few of the opportunities that companies can take advantage of are competitive advantage, access to new customers and markets, cost reductions and new opportunities for managing your brand. Risks include items that don’t show up on financial statements, but influence a company’s results. Today, companies are under environmental pressure from customers, investors, employees, legislators and increasingly, from banks and insurance companies to be eco-efficient.

Here are a few examples of why companies should manage risks when it comes to environmental responsibility:

Risk of losing customers. If your customer base includes the public sector, you know that vendor requirements are changing to reflect their own goals to be more environmentally responsible. Local governments are also concerned and taking action. 780 city mayors have responded to the Mayor of Seattle’s challenge to adopt the goals of the Kyoto protocol.
Risk of losing access to capital. The Investor Network on Climate Risk is a $4 trillion network of 65 institutional investors that promotes better understanding of the financial risks and opportunities posed by climate change.
Risk of access to loans and insurance. Banks and insurance companies are beginning to evaluate and factor in environmental risks when issuing loans and insurance. In fact, in 2003, 10 global banks announced “Equator Principles”, which created a new standard for how banks review loans.

Are you looking at your business through an environmental lens? Is your company a “smart company”?

Michelle Price currently works as a WW Strategic Marketing Manager in Hewlett Packard’s Imaging and Printing Group (IPG). She is responsible for IPG’s global environmental marketing strategy and planning. Her responsibilities span across all IPG’s businesses, segments and regions. Previously, Michelle managed IPG’s WW marketing readiness for the Microsoft Windows Vista release. She also held Advertising, Marketing Communications and New Product Introduction Manager positions in both IPG and HP Personal Systems Groups and also has experience in the Consumer, SMB and Enterprise segments. Prior to joining HP in 1998, Michelle worked as Account Executive and Production Manager at Rives Carlberg Advertising. She has a Masters of Business Administration degree in Marketing and Finance and a Bachelors of Fine Art in Graphic Design. Michelle and her family are based in Vancouver, Washington.

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, environmental issues, green business

HP’s Enterprise Printing Blog : Green Business

IDC: Going Green Cuts Costs

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HP Unveils New Document Management Solutions and Green IT Action Plan for Enterprise Customers

Reaching your green fatigue threshold? HP's committed to the environment.

HP's Carbon Footprint Calculator is Now Available

Today’s Environmental Announcement

An Inconvenient Truth About Solid Ink: The Polar Bears Have Spoken

Margin of Error

Earth Day is just around the corner!

Eco:nomics - HP's Tips to Help the Environment and Your Bottom Line

Thoughts on Greenwashing

Environmental responsibility is now a business issue