HP WoW is a self-contained, Internet-enabled & solar powered digital learning lab
HP Inc. (formerly Hewlett-Packard Company) has a global footprint, with operations around the world and customers, partners, and suppliers worldwide. From PCs to printers, HP’s products rely on a vast network of suppliers spanning six continents. However, it’s also one of the most transparent companies in the highly competitive tech sector. One example of this is the HP Human Rights Progress Report released earlier this year, which the company has produced as a standalone publication. It outlines the steps taken for fostering a safe, healthy and inclusive workplace. More broadly, it outlines how the products are engineered and manufactured with a deep respect for the people who make them.
HP India recently unveiled self-contained, Internet-enabled and solar-powered digital learning labs named “HP World on Wheels” in public-private partnership (PPP) model aimed at driving digital literacy, E-education, Entrepreneurship training, and other citizen services in rural India. This kind of project achieves social and sustainable development goals on many levels. For more on its global initiatives, The CSR Journal presents below excerpts from the latest HP Sustainable Impact Report:
1. Transparency at HP Inc
Approximately 700 production suppliers make the products and several thousand nonproduction suppliers support their operations. HP Inc. discloses the names and locations of the production suppliers that represent approximately 95% of its manufacturing spend. The products are manufactured in countries and territories worldwide, but over half of the manufacturing suppliers are based in the Asia Pacific region.
In addition to the Sustainable Impact report, the company discloses information about supply chain responsibility and human rights performance through the annual SEC Conflict Minerals Report, Modern Slavery Transparency Statement, Report on Cobalt, and CDP Supply Chain disclosures. They also provide tailored supply chain information to customers and channel partners to help them achieve their supply chain sustainability goals.
HP has achieved a triple “A” score for transparency and action on climate, forests, and water, and has also been recognized as a CDP Supplier Engagement Leader. The company was named to the CDP Climate “A” list for the sixth year in a row, for actions to cut emissions, mitigate climate risk, and develop the low-carbon economy. For the second time, it achieved an “A” score for initiatives to address water security and forest commodity risk. Its inclusion on the CDP Supplier Engagement Leaderboard is for the fourth consecutive year.
1.1. Sustainability Scorecards
The company summarizes supplier performance across multiple dimensions using Sustainability Scorecards. These are intended to incentivize suppliers and drive improved performance through consistent, comprehensive, and actionable feedback. This tool provides suppliers a score that encompasses audit performance; environmental governance, transparency, goal setting, and performance; conflict minerals management; and other social and environmental topics. The results contribute to a supplier’s overall procurement score, which impacts the supplier’s relationship with HP and ongoing business. Suppliers discuss their scorecard with HP as part of regular business performance evaluations and receive additional points if they demonstrate sustained improvement.
The firm continues to expand the scope of the scorecard and has started implementing new criteria that increase expectations as well as raising the thresholds for the Preferred and Acceptable levels. In 2019, average scores decreased due to the addition of several new suppliers to the programme. During the year, the Sustainability Scorecard applied to suppliers representing 78% of production spend — up from about 60% the prior year.
2. Capability building
In collaboration with NGO partners and other external organizations, the firm provides programmes designed to help suppliers continually improve along their sustainability journey. During 2019, it reached out to 11,000 workers through capability-building programmes. In 2019, HP launched a two-year programme in collaboration with Verité, an international nonprofit that promotes safe, fair, and legal working conditions in global supply chains. This programme supports worker wellbeing by strengthening health and safety knowledge and equipping workers with the tools and skills needed to grow professionally and personally. During the year, the company completed assessments at three factories, developed an implementation plan, and administered a two-day ambassador training on-site. The worker wellbeing programme will directly reach 2,300 workers, with the potential to reach more than 10,000 workers.
2.2. Working with U.S. truckers to fight human trafficking
Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) sees individual truckers as vital eyes and ears in the fight against human trafficking. TAT helps to combat trafficking in the United States by educating and mobilizing members of the trucking and busing industries and coordinating with law enforcement agencies.
HP supports innovative and effective initiatives such as TAT to combat forced labor wherever it exists. Most of HP’s U.S. trucking vendors have signed up to the TAT initiative, and several are sponsors. The company is among the shippers that participate directly and are committed to ensuring that all carriers moving HP products in the United States take the training.
3. HP LIFE
To bridge the “digital divide” and build skills for the future, the HP Foundation provides core business and IT skills training free of charge for start-ups, students, and small businesses through HP LIFE (Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs). The programme offers global access to 32 free courses in seven languages, with a focus on providing highly accessible and usable content. New
courses added to the portfolio during the year included Growth Engines for Your Business and Customer Relationship Management. During 2019, HP LIFE content was available offline for the first time, enabled by Learning Equality’s Kolibri platform, which is being used globally by HP partners including UN Women.
Nearly 800,000 new HP LIFE users were enrolled from 2012 through 2019, including 49,000 last year. The greatest uptake occurred in Brazil, Egypt, India, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United States.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), HP, and the HP Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding in 2017 renewing their partnership to further foster entrepreneurship and employment opportunities in developing economies, including expanding the company’s work into Africa. In 2018, HP announced a new commitment to reach 100,000 learners across Africa over the next three years through HP LIFE. As a knowledge partner of UNIDO’s Learning and Knowledge Development Facility, HP LIFE platform has contributed to a collection of learning materials on future industrial skills with a course on 3D printing.
3.1. New HP LIFE Centre, Johannesburg
In December 2018 opened a new HP LIFE Centre in Johannesburg, to support local entrepreneurs. With the HP LIFE programme at its heart, the centre is a technology-enabled hub that provides free, innovative learning experiences to help participants from the community acquire new skills, start or grow a business, or improve their employment prospects. During 2019, the centre served as a focal point for collaborations with local organizations including Umlambo Foundation and Ashoka Southern Africa. HP LIFE also visited Thubelihle High school in Soweto to raise awareness of the free courses and learning opportunities provided by the programme.
3.2. Digital opportunities for women and girls across Africa
The company’s CSR is partnering in the UN Women’s Second Chance Education programme, which serves marginalized and underrepresented populations with learning and employment pathways — whether to re-enter formal education or build new vocational and entrepreneurship skills. Their efforts are focused on addressing gender disparities and using HP LIFE to increase female access to digital learning opportunities in five priority countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa.
3.3. Expanding access to learning in Mexico
Also in collaboration with the UN Women’s Second Chance Education programme, as well as the BHP Foundation, the company launched three new HP LIFE centres in Mexico in 2019. These centres, located in the states of Jalisco and Mexico, delivered online entrepreneurial learning courses in digital classrooms to more than 6,000 women during 2019, and are expected to reach thousands more across Mexico in the future.
3.4. Supporting skills development in Costa Rica
HP is working in Costa Rica to support local people to build digital skills and overcome barriers to education through programmes facilitated by HP LIFE, the dedication of nearly 200 HP volunteers, HP Foundation grants, and public sector involvement. After 27 weeks learning basic computer skills, students progress to HP LIFE courses, to be completed over 36 consecutive weeks. Students also visit an HP Innovation Lab to learn about design thinking and develop a business idea to present to the group.
The Science, Technology and Telecommunications Ministry of Costa Rica provides a certificate to all students who complete the 30-course programme with a satisfactory grade. Ninety-four people received certificates for basic computer courses in 2019, ranging in age from 15 to 55 years, and 84% were women. More than 60 people went on to start HP LIFE courses.
3.5. BeChangeMaker (BCM)
HP LIFE hosts an annual BCM social entrepreneurship business pitch competition programme, in partnership with WorldSkills International. In 2019, 270 teams entered from 38 countries, and 30 teams representing 24 countries were selected as semi-finalists. HP employees served as team mentors and judges. Teams used HP LIFE courses and webinars to generate social venture ideas, create a viable business model, and pitch their concept to the judges.
The five winning teams proposed solutions for food security, plastic waste, energy poverty, air quality, and sustainable fashion. The latter idea, from a team in Morocco, involved using fish waste to make handmade products. Since the competition, the Seaskin team from Morocco has been commissioned to create a fashionable laptop sleeve for HP in that country.
4. Student Entrepreneurship Challenge
In 2019, the HP Foundation and the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) launched a competition for community college students across the United States—the Student Entrepreneurship Challenge: Solutions for Sustainable Impact.
A team from Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville took first place with its business idea for a tutoring app to connect high school students in Eastern Tennessee with qualified tutors, to help improve reading, writing, and math skills. Students from Kauai Community College in Hawaii achieved second place for the idea to provide affordable housing for teachers who might otherwise leave the island.
5. Imagine Grants
Through the HP Foundation Imagine Grants, HP leaders and country managers have discretion to allocate a cash grant to approved organizations working to bring technology-related learning experiences to underserved and underrepresented communities. In 2019, the company gave $1.02 million in Imagine Grants worldwide.
6. Disaster recovery and resilience
The company’s employees and the HP Foundation together provide financial support for communities affected by natural disasters and emergencies. In 2019, HP CSR supported response efforts for the California Wildfires and the Government Shutdown Response Fund and worked with expert partners, including the American Red Cross, Feeding America, and the Information Technology Disaster Resource Center (ITDRC), to speed recovery and reconnect vital networks.
6.1. HP Connection Spot: Mobile disaster relief
The HP Connection Spot provides emergency connectivity to people in the contiguous United States who are unable to communicate due to a natural disaster. The custom-built trailer is equipped with HP laptops, chromebooks, printers, and an Internet hot spot. Staffed by HP volunteers, the HP Connection Spot is also available for first responders and nonprofit personnel involved in disaster relief efforts.
7. Employee volunteerism
HP taps into the talents, passions, and entrepreneurial spirit of employees to make a difference in the communities it works with. In 2019, 8,850 employees contributed about 145,000 hours to local volunteer efforts in 51 countries, with a value of $5.43 million. HP employees are granted four hours paid volunteer time per month. In addition, HP’s Time Off Community Support Grant allows employees to apply for a week of paid volunteer time to support more intensive engagements and travel service projects.
7.1. 40 Days of Doing Good
The company’s annual 40 Days of Doing Good campaign takes place each year in May and early June. In 2019, 2,980 HP employees in 27 countries volunteered 2,150 hours on approximately 200 projects. Among the many activities were a digital literacy project in Costa Rica, skills workshops in Lagos, Nigeria, and mentoring at an HP Science Fair in Vancouver, Washington.
The HP Foundation complemented these efforts with grants totaling $0.45 million to support the work of education and technology-related learning charities nominated by employees. In addition to their time, U.S. employees also donated $2.13 million in cash to qualifying organizations during 2019 through the HP Inspires Giving programme. The HP Foundation contributed $1.96 million in matching funds.
7.2. Using Virtual Reality for Human Rights Education
During 40 Days of Doing Good, HP employees from Guadalajara, Mexico, partnered with A Toda Voz A.C., a local NGO with a mission to promote inclusive culture and the protection of human rights through art, design, and technology. HP employee Ricardo Rincón developed a virtual reality (VR) app prototype to take viewers through a virtual museum gallery featuring artwork depicting various aspects of human rights.
HP volunteers, led by project lead Mariano Ramirez, then hosted an educational workshop for local school children, using the VR app to bring the human rights curriculum to life. Along with other hands-on activities, the children created posters to demonstrate their newfound knowledge. Leveraging a grant from the HP Foundation, A Toda Voz will further develop and improve the VR app and continue offering these workshops to reach even more students throughout Mexico.
8. CodeWars
HP has hosted CodeWars, a programming competition for high school students, for more than 20 years. CodeWars is part of HP’s continuing drive to engage students everywhere in STEM and strengthen the future pipeline of innovators. It is now the world’s largest high school STEM competition held by private industry, with events in locations across the United States, Europe, and Asia. HP engineers craft exciting challenges to test the ingenuity of student teams. In Houston, Texas, where the largest CodeWars event took place in 2019, more than 700 teens gathered (17% of participants were girls). At CodeWars Barcelona, the percentage of girls who took part jumped from 18% of all participants to nearly 30%.
9. Hour of Code
Hour of Code is a global effort to introduce students to the basics of computer science and coding. HP employees volunteer to teach coding in schools and community organizations around the world, with a goal to reach underserved student communities, particularly young women and ethnic minorities. These Hour of Code sessions focus on introducing students to valuable skills, increasing interest in computing and technology, and building the future pipeline of diverse talent for HP. In 2019, nearly 1,600 HP volunteers from 37 company sites participated in Hour of Code in 286 schools and communities worldwide, reaching more than 26,000 students.
10. Regenerate natural systems
In contrast to the “take-make-waste” linear model, a circular economy is regenerative by design and aims to gradually decouple growth from the consumption of finite resources. However, to address the tremendous environmental challenges
that we face, we must look beyond our value chain to actively strengthen the natural systems that support us all. This
requires true collaboration within and across industries, and between businesses, governments, NGOs, academics, and others, to achieve the scale necessary. Technology is essential to these efforts, and to driving progress toward a more circular and lowcarbon future.
10.1. Tackling ocean plastics
In 2016, HP Inc. launched an ambitious program in Haiti to help tackle the growing challenge of ocean-bound plastics. In
partnership with the First Mile Coalition and our supplier partners, it has now built a fully functioning ocean-bound plastics supply chain.
Through September 2019, they collected more than 35 million plastic bottles to be upcycled into HP print cartridges and hardware products—that’s more than one million pounds (over 450 tonnes) of ocean-bound plastics that might otherwise have washed into the Caribbean Sea. This CSR initiative opened a new market opportunity, providing a steady revenue stream for local collectors, enabling safer working conditions, and supporting local educational opportunities.
In 2018, the company joined NextWave Plastics, a global consortium of worldwide businesses committed to scaling the use of ocean-bound plastics by developing the first global network of ocean-bound plastics supply chains.
HP was announced in January 2020 as a founding member of The Ocean Plastics Leadership Network, a membership community dedicated to accelerating collaborative action to address the ocean plastic pollution challenge. In January 2020, the company also joined Project STOP, which collaborates with governments and communities in Southeast Asia to create effective waste management systems that eliminate plastics leakage into the ocean and provides solutions that can be replicated in other cities. As a technical partner, they are supporting the organization’s work to create a circular waste management system in East Java, Indonesia.
Project STOP materials recovery centres in the province will not only collect, manage, and recycle plastic waste, but also provide income-generation opportunities, including for local people working in the informal waste sector.
10.2. HP Sustainable Forests Collaborative
Today, nearly 50% of global forests are under threat due to deforestation and forest degradation. According to WWF, the
planet is losing 18.7 million acres of forest each year—the equivalent of 27 soccer fields per minute. In 2016, HP committed to eliminating deforestation from its paper and packaging supply chains. However, the company recognizes that to truly address the global challenges related to forest loss, corporations must look beyond their own supply chain and partner to protect and help regenerate these valuable natural systems.
In November 2019, HP Inc. launched the HP Sustainable Forests Collaborative initiative, realizing the value to business and nature of accelerating forest and biodiversity protection and setting targets informed by science. The Collaborative’s objectives are to:
– Maintain HP’s long-standing commitment to sustainable fiber sourcing through supply chain management.
– Support the development of sciencebased targets for forests, which includes estimating carbon and nature co-benefits
of forest restoration and improved forest management.
– Protect, restore, and improve responsible management of forests.
– Collaborate across HP and with industry, partners, and customers, using collective influence to inspire action.
– Drive the development of innovative printing technologies that reduce paper waste and improve the efficiency of paper
consumption.
In partnership with WWF, the first projects of the Sustainable Forests Collaborative will focus on restoring and improving the management of nearly 200,000 acres (over 80,000 hectares) of forests in Brazil and China, an area equivalent to the size of New York City, by the end of calendar year 2024. The area of forest that will be under these projects would produce enough paper to run through all HP consumer printers over four years.
The first phase of work includes outreach and consultation with local communities, landowners, government authorities, NGOs, academia, and other stakeholders to support these forest conservation actions on the ground. As part of this process, over 1,200 acres (500 hectares) of native forest lands in the Upper Parana and/or Serra do Mar areas of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest will be mapped for on-the-ground forest restoration activities over the next five years, with the first round of forest restoration planting planned for the end of calendar year 2020.
In addition to these activities, HP is supporting the development of a Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) Consumer Marketplace. This will give consumers an easy-to-use, comprehensive way to find all FSC retail partners and FSC-certified brands as well as a means to purchase certified products. This project will build awareness about the importance of responsibly managed forests and generate demand for FSC-certified products.
11. Global education programmes
Access to a quality education is a fundamental human right. This belief is at the core of the company’s global education CSR programmes and solutions, which emphasize access for all and deliver educational opportunities to girls, women, and some of the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized communities. The corporation is creating conditions for better learning outcomes for all people, to advance inclusion, foster equity and equality, and accelerate economic opportunity. The initiatives are either funded by the corporation’s business groups or the HP Foundation.
11.1. Campus of the Future
As part of this initiative, HP is working with more than 20 elite colleges and universities, providing cutting-edge technologies alongside financial and technical support. These collaborations are exploring the types and uses of 3D printing (additive manufacturing), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) to identify the technologies with the greatest potential for teaching, learning, and research.
For example:
a) At the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts is unleashing technologies
such as 3D Design, VR, and AR to inspire student imagination. Using equipment provided by HP, media arts, medical, and computer science and engineering faculty are collaborating to develop custom VR software designed to assist people with autism spectrum disorder and cerebral palsy.
b) Columbia University’s Emerging Technology Consortium is sharing information and disseminating advanced technological tools provided by HP across the campus, such as VR, AR, and machine learning. These tools are being used to foster collaboration and to help faculty and researchers develop next-generation applications, improve research outcomes, strengthen expertise, and transform teaching and learning.
11.2. Classroom of the Future
In 2019, HP Learning Studios brought state-of-the art educational technology into more than 100 schools across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand. The company offers tools and technologies that boost teachers’ vital contributions. Every Windows 10-based HP Education Edition PC ships preloaded with HP Classroom Manager. Through one console, teachers can cultivate a collaborative learning environment, monitor student activities, and evaluate progress in real time. With co-molded industrial rubber, pick-proof keys, and other rugged features, these PCs are built to last in the classroom and tested in a laboratory environment that simulates a school setting.
The company’s CSR team works with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other partners to enable refugees and displaced populations to learn in-demand skills to enhance employment opportunities. Examples include:
a) Uganda: HP School Cloud was piloted with partners including Education Cannot Wait (a global fund of UNICEF), UNHCR,
and Learning Equality. The technology is currently being used in 12 secondary schools across Uganda (both rural and urban) with high concentrations of refugees—reaching over 6,000 refugee students as well as their Ugandan peers and teachers during 2019.
b) Lebanon: The company is partnering with the Clooney Foundation for Justice, UNICEF, and Google.org to improve educational opportunities for thousands of Syrian refugees and Lebanese students. For example, in the Fern El Chebbak middle school, the principal instigated a mandatory IT period to tackle basic digital literacy. After gaining confidence, students moved on to the next level of skills, including text editing and Internet search.
c) Jordan/Lebanon: The company launched three HP Learning Studios in Lebanon in early 2020. This follows the two studios launched in Jordan, in the Azraq Refugee Camp and Amman.
12. Skill Development
The Fourth Industrial Revolution or 4IR is a profound, technology-enabled transformation that is set to reinvent how goods are designed, created, and delivered. While still in its early stages, studies indicate it could lead to the creation of millions of new jobs, including in positions that may not yet exist today. This presents an urgent need to educate current and future generations so that they can make a successful transition, and so that we can help to ensure a diverse and inclusive Fourth Industrial Revolution.
This includes CSR programmes to serve those displaced by automation, educational systems to retrain those with transferable skills, and preparation for the next generation.
12.1. Building skills for 4IR
HP Inc. is implementing best practices in workforce training to develop the next generation of diverse talent, working with
partners to develop 3D printing engineering curriculum, and fostering collaboration with governments to address skills of the future.
For example:
a) The HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab in Singapore, founded with the National Research Foundation Singapore, supports the university’s efforts to democratize digital manufacturing on a global scale. It is the first public-private partnership of its kind in Asia.
b) Curriculum modules for higher education: The company published the Multi Jet Fusion Engineering Handbook to help designers create parts for production using HP 3D printing technologies.
12.2. Building skills at the local level
In Singapore, building on insights from the survey conducted in Indonesia, the company delivered an interactive learning experience to 200 parents and their young children. At Fort Canning Park, the families took an immersive journey through history, enabled by print innovation from HP.
To help meet the demand for technology in educational settings, the company is providing HP Modular Tech Hubs to schools in Southeast Asia, enabling students to use HP PCs to learn coding and Microsoft Office skills. The programme also includes training to support teachers to improve learning outcomes through technology. As of December 2019, the CSR division has launched six hubs and reached more than 3,500 students.
12.3. NETA
The HP NETA programme—which uses a combination of macroeconomic analysis, hyper-local insights, and predictive analytics—supports policymakers and governments to create education technology programmes that teach skills employers need. In Idaho, United States, in partnership with Idaho Business for Education, they carried out an extensive, statewide study on education and the economy. With contributions from more than 1,800 Idaho businesses, teachers, school leaders, and government representatives, the study showed that education system performance and vibrant growth are intrinsically linked. The final report highlighted recommendations for Idaho’s government and education leaders, as well as guidance for the private sector, focusing on long-term education and economic competitiveness.
12.4. HP School Cloud
This is a hybrid cloud appliance enabling students and teachers in rural, poor, and marginalized communities to access free, high-quality open source educational resources—even without an Internet connection. Featuring the HP Open Learning Platform and in partnership with OpenStax, HP School Cloud provides access to millions of e-textbooks and thousands of
lessons on reading, science, mathematics, and more. Resources align with international curricular and instructional standards from UNESCO, OECD, and others.
13. Gender equality
More than 130 million girls around the world lack access to education, and women account for two-thirds of the 750 million
adults without basic literacy skills. To improve gender equality in education, on International Day of the Girl in October
2019, the company announced with nonprofit Girl Rising the launch of new curriculum and technology solutions that will equip up to 10 million students and teachers. The multi-year partnership extends to communities in the United States, India, and Nigeria.
The company is also collaborating with UN Women to advance education, entrepreneurship, and digital learning for women and girls in five priority countries: Senegal, South Africa, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Morocco. Through Hour of Code and CodeWars, volunteers from HP teach coding in schools and community organizations around the world in order to reach underserved student communities, particularly ethnic minorities and young women.
13.1. World on Wheels
The company is bringing self-contained, Internetenabled, solar-powered mobile learning labs to rural areas of India. The HP World on Wheels (WOW) programme supports digital literacy, education, entrepreneurship, and citizen services, aiming to provide access to more than 15 million people across 6,400 Indian villages by 2022. Each 20-seat WOW vehicle is equipped with HP computing and printing technology, as well as software and e-learning tools. Since the rollout of 43 WOW mobile learning labs in rural India during 2017, they have provided access to WOW resources to an estimated 3.5 million people across more than 1,400 villages.
In conclusion
From taking digital education worldwide, following supply chain sustainability to a T, regenerating natural resources, to combating human trafficking and modern slavery, HP addresses all facets of what global CSR stands for in the new millennium.
Disclaimer: The contents of this report are largely excerpts of the HP 2019 Sustainable Impact Report
