HP to help improve CSR practices in Central Europe

Today, HP and The Copenhagen Centre for Corporate Responsibility announced a new Central European Supplier Responsibility (CESR) project to equip small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the management tools needed to operate their businesses in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner.

The CESR project, developed jointly with The Copenhagen Centre for Corporate Responsibility (TCC) and Copenhagen Business School (CBS), will provide training for 20 HP suppliers – both direct and indirect – in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Supported by a grant from the European Commission, the eighteen-month project aims to teach SME suppliers (less than 250 employees) how to run their businesses in a way that is both efficient and responsible.

“Economic growth has often outpaced managerial knowledge in this region. So HP’s goal is to educate our suppliers about how socially-responsible management practices will actually improve, not take away from their bottom line,” said Bonnie Nixon Gardiner, HP’s Programme Manager for Supply Chain Social & Environmental Responsibility.

The project participants, including suppliers of packaging components, plastic and sheet metal parts, will gain access to training and advice on management systems, occupational health and safety topics, and sound environmental practices. The Copenhagen Centre will facilitate the training sessions with support from Copenhagen Business School and HP. In addition, participants will be invited to attend workshops to share experience and knowledge with the wider SME supplier community.

“With this programme, The Copenhagen Centre will be able to study how a multinational company builds up supplier capability, and examine the drivers and barriers to this. At the end of the project, we will develop written guidelines with Copenhagen Business School for similar capability-building partnerships across different industry and supply-chain scenarios,” said Jette Steen Knudsen, Director of The Copenhagen Centre.

For HP, the programme is an opportunity to build a focused effort on sustainability issues with suppliers in Central Europe. It also allows the company to reach second tier suppliers through the HP SER programme and provide contract manufacturers with the capability of undertaking sustainable supply chain management with their own suppliers. Following the conclusion of the project, HP will share its CSR engagement experience in other regions such as China and Latin America.

HP is committed to aligning CSR concerns with competitive business development. HP established its Supply Chain Social and Environmental Responsibility (SER) Policy in 2002, and to date has introduced the Supplier Code of Conduct to 550 high-priority suppliers, addressing a total of 98 percent of the company’s purchasing expenditure.

The core aim of HP´s SER programme is to achieve long-term sustainable change by encouraging suppliers to create their own management systems. The programme is designed to create sustainable improvements in suppliers’ practices where they fall short of the Code.

On a global level, HP is working with other companies, academic institutions, governmental entities, NGOs and training firms to provide SER management training to teach suppliers a systematic process they could use to sustain change on their own. The training promotes understanding of HP’s objectives and expectations and suppliers are encouraged to propose ideas and share best practices. In 2006, auditor trainings and supplier forums have taken place in India, Mexico, Eastern Europe and China. HP is also in the midst of a capability-building programme in China for 30 key suppliers called the Focused Improvement Supplier Initiative (FISI). 

More information about HP’s supply chain social and environmental responsibility programmes is available in the 2006 HP Global Citizenship Report . Or visit HP’s SER website.