HP Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA) has presented the 2008 HP Responsible Business Award to the Austrian student team, Infotainment, for their concept to educate 8- to10-year-old students, their parents and teachers on environmental topics like climate change, during the 19th Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JA-YE) Europe Company of the Year Competition, hosted by Young Enterprise Sweden in Stockholm.
The winning student company has created workshop modules, easy-to-understand environmental stories and games summarized in a booklet used to raise the interest of students, teachers and parents in environmental topics, while at the same time establishing a profitable business (www.jfcgv.de.tl 
). The education modules are available in German, English and Russian as part of the team’s international approach to their business. So far, the student company Infotainment has educated more than 500 school students.
“Issues that concern all of us, such as environmental issues, should be solved collectively. We decided to work with children to teach them about climate change in a way they could understand and help them enjoy learning how they could make a difference,” said Daniel Brandner , CEO, Infotainment.
The Infotainment team received HP laptops to support their endeavors to further grow their business.
The HP Responsible Business Award, launched three years ago, is designed to encourage students to take social and environmental responsibility into consideration as they build their own enterprises. It is given to the student company who does the best job at integrating the following criteria into their business plan and operations:
“HP has teamed up with JA-YE to contribute to entrepreneurial education and social and environmental thinking at schools across Europe. We need more entrepreneurs with sustainable business concepts to strengthen the economic development in Europe” said Gabi Zedlmayer, vice president, Corporate Marketing and Global Citizenship, HP EMEA. “We would like to help future entrepreneurs and support start-up companies find new ways to balance the economical, social and environmental aspects of running a business most successfully.”
The HP Responsible Business Award is a result of the ongoing cooperation between JA-YE and HP. For over a decade, HP and JA-YE’s joint activities have included support for enterprise education programmes and special events through cash and equipment donations, as well as the participation of HP employees as volunteers in local JA-YE programmes.
“We are grateful to HP and its 121 volunteers for their support given to JA-YE across 14 European countries. The dynamic interaction between students and volunteers promotes hands-on, experiential learning and brings classroom concepts to life, resulting in meaningful experiences for both student and volunteer.” said Caroline Jenner, CEO of JA-YE Europe.
The Award is part of the HP Responsible Business Competition, an extension of the existing JA-YE Annual Company of the Year Competition which gives students aged 16-18 across Europe the opportunity to prepare for working life through the experience of running their own company. More information is available at www.responsible-business.org .
JA-YE Europe is Europe’s largest provider of enterprise education programmes, reaching 2.6 million students in 40 countries in 2007. Funded by businesses, institutions, foundations and individuals, JA-YE brings the public and private sectors together to provide young people in primary and secondary schools and early university with high-quality education programmes to teach them about enterprise, entrepreneurship, business and economics in a practical way. The JA-YE Company Programme is recognised by the European Commission Enterprise Directorate General as a ‘Best Practice in Entrepreneurship Education’. JA-YE Europe is the European headquarters for JA Worldwide.
HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling 0.4 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2008. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.
© 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
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