HP releases new eco-reporting tools, goals for imaging products

Here's a number that would awe even Carl Sagan: 53 trillion pages.

That's the number of pages that Hewlett-Packard estimates will be produced in A4 equivalent printer output in 2010, with nearly 90 percent of that coming from commercial offset printers. At this rate, the global carbon footprint of printing will be 850 million tons by 2020. (If you need info on paper sizes, here's a great Wikipedia entry. I didn't realize there were standards!)

All this is set-up for the fact that Hewlett-Packard is releasing three new tools for those of you out there who are looking for better ways to reduce the environmental impact of your printer fleet. Globally, HP thinks that we have the opportunity to reduce that 850 million tons number by up to 251 millions, if we all apply some discipline to how we think about printing. (The impact that HP itself can make with changes to its products is included in that estimate.)

Michelle Price, worldwide environmental strategic marketing manager for HP, says the latest tools HP has created to help its customers in this mission include HP Web Jetadmin Eco Solutions Reports, which measure how individual printers are being used and figure out the impact of eliminating certain ones based on your workforce; HP Change Management Kit, to help you manage the impact of eliminating certain printers (apparently people will go to great lengths to keep their own printer, including hiding them from IT!); and an updated HP Carbon Footprint Calculator for printing.

HP also has set some new goals for its imaging group when it comes to reducing the impact of its imaging group on the environment.

By 2011, the company pledges to:

• Use 100 million pounds (cumulatively since 2007) of recycled plastic in its printing products
• Reduce the average weight of its printer packaging by 35 percent per product (over 2005 levels)
• Move to use recycled materials for at least 35 percent of its printer packaging
• Cut the amount of plastic in its printer packaging by half (over 2005 levels)

How has it done to date?

Last year, HP used roughly 12.9 million pounds of recycled plastic in its new inkjet and LasterJet print cartridges, reports Jean Gingras, environmental marketing manager for HP's North America division. More recently, in April, the company moved to reduce its packaging for cartridges by up to 40 percent (by weight). The company estimates that this move will save an estimated 1.2 million pounds in paperboard in the first 12 months, Gingras says. What's more, the company will be able to cram more cartridges onto each one of its distribution trucks (about 90 percent to 100 percent more per truckload), which will cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, she says. The net impact of the anticipated reduction in greenhouse gas emissions will be approximately 1.7 million pounds, the company estimates.

One final note: I have been debating the value of remanufactured cartridges in some of my posts here from GreenTech Pastures. My publicly expressed theory is that rather than just focusing on using recycled materials in its new cartridges, HP should take a closer look at reusing spent ones. Gingras rebuts that theory by pointing out that remanufactured cartridges don't perform as well as new ones, which results in more reprints being necessary because of poor print quality.