Cliff Hobbs at myITforum.com

[HP] HP Extends Environmental Leadership with New Technology to Save Customers Money

Hot on the heels of the last announcement comes this one (I wonder how long 1 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity would last the average home or even power a city for?):

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 2, 2009

HP today announced several additions to its HP Eco Solutions program, including new products, services and operations, as well as company-wide environmental goals.

The expanded portfolio provides consumers, small and medium businesses, and enterprises – including HP – with a clear return on investment through financial savings, as well as a “return on environment” through energy, carbon and waste savings.

“For more than 50 years, HP has been focused on environmental sustainability and now we’re making it even more relevant for customers, especially in today’s economic climate,” said Shane Robison, executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer, HP. “Through our industry-leading products and solutions we’re helping our customers – from consumers to large corporations – achieve significant dollars savings and improve their environmental performance while enhancing our own operations to achieve the same.”

HP’s new offerings add to a growing portfolio that helps customers live and work in a low-carbon economy while remaining cost-effective. Highlights of the announcement include:

• HP is doubling the number of HP ProLiant G6 server platforms, delivering more x86 server platforms with top energy efficiency than any other company in the industry.
• HP has set a new goal to save 1 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity by 2011 through a variety of product design strategies.
• HP launched the HP Eco Solutions printing practice for large organizations, which now includes the HP Web Jetadmin Eco Solutions Reports and updates to the HP Carbon Footprint Calculator for printing that help customers save money through lower paper and energy usage.

Energy efficiency to help customers save money
HP is a leader in delivering practical solutions that translate into convenient, cost-efficient and responsible energy usage for its customers.

Through its HP Eco Solutions printing practice for large organizations, which includes an extensive portfolio of tools, software, hardware, services and expertise, HP collaborates with customers to help them reduce their environmental impact and save money. As an example, HP helped Cerritos Library, a high-tech city library in Southern California, reduce energy use by an estimated 30 to 40 percent and cut ongoing costs by almost 50 percent due to HP reliability and lower consumables costs.

To date, pre- and post-analysis of some HP managed print services customers’ imaging and printing operations reveals energy savings of between 30 to 80 percent and reductions in paper consumption in the millions of pages.⁽¹⁾ HP has now expanded the practice to include the HP Web Jetadmin Eco Solutions Reports, Change Management kit and updates to the HP Carbon Footprint Calculator for printing.

Additionally, HP has set aggressive goals to ensure all its tools and services meet environmental standards and offer cost and energy savings for customers. Examples include:

• HP has set a new goal to save 1 billion kWh of electricity by 2011 through a variety of product design strategies. With the amount of energy that HP expects its PCs to save, 90,000 homes could be powered for an entire year.⁽²⁾
• HP exceeded the goal it set in January 2008 to reduce the energy consumption of its volume desktop and notebook PC families by 25 percent by 2010, a full year and a half ahead of schedule.⁽³⁾
• Overall, HP has reduced the energy consumption of its highest volume desktop and notebook PCs by 41 percent by since 2005.⁽⁴⁾
• HP plans to improve the energy efficiency of its printing products by 40 percent by 2011 and is on track to meet this goal with 32 percent efficiency to date.
• In recent independent tests, HP ProCurve switches have been shown to use less power than the industry average for comparable switches.⁽⁵⁾ This represents an annual energy cost savings up to 45 percent versus the industry average for HP ProCurve chassis-based solutions and up to 38 percent versus the industry average for HP ProCurve fixed-port switches.

With the increasing cost of energy, data centers play a critical role in cutting operational costs and reducing global greenhouse gas emissions for customers.

• HP has doubled the number of HP ProLiant G6 server platforms to 22, all delivering superior energy efficiency over previous generations. If all the legacy rack and blade servers sold worldwide in 2005 were replaced with HP ProLiant G6 servers, customers would save $2.5 billion in energy costs.⁽⁶⁾
• With the HP ProLiant G6 server featuring twice the performance at half the power draw of previous generations, HP offers customers more x86 server platforms with top energy efficiency than any other company.⁽⁷⁾ HP has introduced seven energy-efficient platforms based on the Six-Core AMD Opteron™ processors.⁽⁸⁾ HP also introduced the HP ProLiant DL1000 Multi-Node series of servers, which are the first multi-core rack servers based on industry standards. With a shared power design, the DL1000 delivers a 30 percent improvement in energy efficiency compared to traditional rack servers.⁽⁹⁾
• EDS, an HP company, reduces environmental impact and lowers costs by managing and transforming technology environments for customers. Most recently EDS has developed or transformed two data centers in Tulsa, Okla., and Wynyard in the United Kingdom. The center in Tulsa is an expansion project that doubles the size of EDS’ Service Management Center. A new cooling system design is expected to generate several million dollars in cost savings each year, and the center’s 800,000-gallon chilled-water storage tank will enable the facility to operate for up to eight hours without using a chiller/cooling plant. The data center in Wynyard, which is currently under construction, has already won an award for innovation and design excellence. EDS is leveraging the cold wind blowing off the North Sea to lower temperatures of IT equipment and plant rooms for an anticipated annual energy saving of 40 percent compared to conventional data centers. When complete, the facility will be one of the largest and most efficient in Europe.

HP’s ENERGY STAR® qualified products save customers money by reducing energy costs.

• Twenty-six HP PC product families have configurations that will meet the new ENERGY STAR 5.0 specifications, which require 85-percent-efficient internal power supplies, including select HP Thin Clients. Thin Clients are a new category of products within the scope of the EPA ENERGY STAR specification. An ENERGY STAR rated PC and monitor with power management tools enabled can save up to $75 in energy costs in one year.⁽¹⁰⁾ The new specifications go into effect on July 1.
• In 2008, HP shipped more than 25 million ENERGY STAR qualified printers – more than any other vendor. Additionally, all its new 2009 HP LaserJet and inkjet printer families will have ENERGY STAR qualified offerings. Using Instant-on Technology, found in many HP LaserJet printers, provides up to 50 percent energy savings over traditional fusing and has reduced emissions by 6.4 million tons of CO2 to date – the equivalent of removing nearly 1.4 million cars from the road for 1 year.⁽¹¹⁾
• The popular HP ProLiant DL360 and DL380 are the first in a series of HP servers that meet the new ENERGY STAR for Computer Servers 1.0 specifications.

Sustainable practices to help customers reduce footprint
HP takes steps toward making sustainability real by designing products that use fewer materials, are easy to disassemble and recycle, and allow for more effective reuse of materials. HP strives to create sustainable design practices that also lower the total cost of ownership for customers.

For example, by 2011, HP expects to use a total of 100 million pounds of recycled plastic in its printing products (cumulative from 2007). To provide perspective, this is the equivalent of diverting 4 billion plastic water bottles from going to landfill.⁽¹²⁾

The company has already exceeded its 2008 goal to triple the amount of recycled content in its inkjet printer products and double the amount of recycled content used in its inkjet cartridges. To date, HP has sold more than 400 million inkjet cartridges made from its “closed loop” inkjet cartridge recycling process – the industry’s first and only.⁽¹³⁾

“HP’s ‘closed loop’ inkjet cartridge recycling process is unique in the printing industry,” said Cathy Martin, senior consultant, InfoTrends. “We expect that business and home users will demand more of this kind of environmental responsibility from the companies from which they purchase office equipment.”

Additionally, HP announced the expansion of its Planet Partners return and recycling program to business customers across Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Since 1991, the HP Planet Partners program has made it easy for customers to recycle any brand of IT equipment as well as HP print cartridges, now available in more than 50 countries around the world.

HP also provides asset recovery services that can extend the useful life of older IT equipment and reduce the amount of waste going into the recycling stream. HP Financial Services manages disposition of obsolete IT equipment in conformance with local environmental laws – anywhere in the world. In 2008, HP Financial Services processed more than 1.2 million total units globally.

Advances in the field of nanotechnology from HP Labs, the company’s central research arm, are aimed at developing computing systems that require significantly less materials and are far more energy-efficient than the computing systems of today. HP is developing roll-to-roll manufacturing technology for the fabrication of low-cost flexible electronic displays that, from an environmental standpoint, leapfrog conventional flat-panel manufacturing methods by using up to 90 percent less materials by volume.

Transforming processes for positive impact on the environment

HP helps customers transform business processes by applying relevant technology that improves productivity while reducing cost and carbon of traditional operations. HP’s energy-efficient technologies allow customers to live less carbon-intensive lifestyles and operate low-carbon business models that translate to cost efficiency. By transforming business processes, HP is changing the way customers use energy.

For example, HP SkyRoom technology, expected to be available later this year, offers professional-quality visual collaboration and conferencing that preserves the value of personal connections in human interaction while cutting customers’ travel costs and reducing their carbon footprint. The cost of using HP SkyRoom is a small fraction of a single round-trip, which is estimated at $1,002 for domestic travel in North America in 2009 and $3,452 for international travel.⁽¹⁴⁾

Last week, HP was presented with the 2009 AMR Research Leadership Award for “Sustainability and Innovation Leadership.”

Also, HP announced the launch of Power To Change, a campaign that encourages personal computer users around the world to make behavioral changes in support of the environment. This new desktop widget tracks the energy savings associated with turning off idle PCs when not in use. It is available for download at www.hp.com/powertochange.

More on information on today’s announcements is available at http://www.hp.com/go/ecosolutions/reduceimpact.

HP and the environment
For decades HP has been an environmental leader, driving company stewardship through its HP Eco Solutions program. HP influences industry action by setting high environmental standards in its operations and supply chain, by providing practical solutions to make it easier for customers to reduce their climate impact and through its research on sustainability solutions that support a low-carbon economy. More information on HP’s Eco Solutions program is available at www.hp.com/ecosolutions.

About HP
HP, the world’s largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com/.

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2009/090602xa.html

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