Saving energy with HP

How far will energy go?

That depends on how we use it. At HP, we are focusing our energy on developing products that use less and conserve more.

Take the data centre, for example. Cooling it can take the same amount of energy as it does to operate the equipment. But HP’s new Dynamic Smart Cooling cuts cooling costs by up to 40 percent – saving about $1 million a year for a data centre producing 10 MW of heat. 

HP is also finding innovative ways to reduce the energy impact of its own operations caused by its use of fossil fuels and electricity. By 2010, HP will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from HP-owned and HP-leased facilities worldwide to 15 percent below their 2006 levels.

HP is collaborating with customers, governments and investors to address the issue of climate change.

Though current trends point in the direction of ever-increasing energy use, recent research also shows that Europe could save at least 20 percent of its present energy consumption in a cost-effective manner. On November 8th, 2006, HP and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced a comprehensive, joint initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from HP’s worldwide operating facilities, educate and inspire others to adopt best practices, and use HP technology in conservation efforts around the world.

WWF and HP will also leverage HP technology to advance the science and practice of adapting to climate change. ''HP will be a vital partner as we address the effects of climate change in some of the world's most important wildlife habitats," says Suzanne Apple, a VP at the World Wildlife Fund.

This is nothing new to HP.  In EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa),  HP facilities  have a long history of reducing environmental impact. In Cernusco Sul Naviglio (Italy), Bristol (UK), and Dublin (Ireland), technology in the boiler facilities was upgraded in 2005 to reduce energy use by 1.4 million kWh. HP’s Supplier Code of Conduct -- which regulates the IT industry’s largest supply chain -- requires that suppliers have environmental policies covering energy efficiency.

HP was one of the first companies to join the World Economic Forum’s Global Greenhouse Gas Register and will publicly report its greenhouse gas emissions after they have been verified by WWF and other third parties.

ICT is the fastest-evolving business in the world.  It accounts for 40 percent of Europe’s productivity growth and for 25 percent of GDP growth in the European Union. As the largest IT Company in EMEA, HP is in a strong position to make a positive impact by designing energy efficient products – from printers to data centre solutions.

The energy efficiency of products is largely determined at the design stage.
Each line of HP computing and imaging products is designed to offer better performance than previous models, conquering workloads while conserving power.

To help consumers appreciate advances in product design, HP supports IT eco-declarations as well as certain eco-labels. They allow customers to save energy and money – and do less damage to the environment -- by choosing energy efficient products. A founding partner of the American Energy Star eco-label in 1992, HP now has over 1,000 qualified products. Likewise, almost 1,000 HP products have an IT Eco Declaration. Many of HP's most popular printing, imaging and computing devices qualify for Europe’s top eco-labels: Germany’s Blue Angel and Sweden’s TCO.

Boosting the environmental performance of its products, HP has found, is sometimes a question of filling previously unmet market needs.

HP produces a popular line of multi-function devices called All-in-Ones (AiOs), which integrate printers, scanners, copiers, and sometimes faxes into a single device. These integrated devices use at least 40 percent less material, energy, and packaging than the sum of the comparable standalones.

The unique design of HP BladeSystem c-Class servers incorporates multiple innovations – everything from fan design to advanced sensing and power management technologies – to save over 30 percent of the energy consumption of a normal server.  

Targeting one of the main culprits of battery consumption on mobile devices – the display – HP researchers developed an energy-aware solution that uses 30 percent to 90 percent less energy. And 95 percent of users said they preferred the new interface.  The new display, which extends battery life by a factor of 20, will be introduced in future HP products.

Business travel is a major expense and source of greenhouse gas emissions. To come up with an environmental alternative to the airplane, HP’s engineers created HP’s Halo Virtual Collaboration System (VCS) for ‘face-to-face’ business meetings. Sitting in a Halo studio, users have the impression that they are only separated from their colleagues by a window. Voices sound perfectly natural. You can connect up to four Halo studios – they could be on four continents – with a few clicks of a mouse.

There are 63 Halo studios installed across the globe, 26 of them belonging to HP itself. HP’s Imaging and Printing business achieved an 8 percent reduction in travel in 2005 by using the Halo studios. Use of the rooms has grown by 25 percent in one year.

Advanced Micro Devices nearly eliminated the need for executives to fly between locations in the United States. "Our next step is to put a Halo room in Dresden, Germany, where our factories are,” said Hector Ruiz, CEO, AMD. “That is very critical; I think this one installation could really take our use of Halo to a whole new level. So far we've been talking about U.S. site to U.S. site – now we are talking about continent to continent."

Perhaps the most promising thing about HP Halo is that for every new customer, there is a potential reduction in airplane travel and in the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.