Why Being Good for The Planet is Good for Business

Why Being Good for The Planet is Good for Business

By Gary Tierney, MD of HP Ireland

Society is changing. People are becoming more aware of the world around them and the impact that day to day living has on the environment – from recycling to carbon footprints, steps are being taken to combat climate change.

This isn’t just on a personal level, 60% of business leaders consider climate change to be a bigger risk to the economy over the next ten years than Brexit, and consumers now expect corporations to take practical steps to become more sustainable.

For Irish businesses, environmental issues have never been more pressing. Last year, it emerged that Ireland won’t meet its 2020 carbon-reducing emission targets as set by the European Union, and with the wider world facing critical environmental challenges, the need to act has never been more urgent. But what does this involve?

Going Green

A recent survey found that 59% of Irish business leaders believe that sustainability is increasingly important to corporate success.

Today’s environmentally conscious consumers expect more from businesses, challenging brands to behave and crucially, act, green – standing for something more than the products they sell. In fact, a recent survey from PwC Ireland found that 41% of consumers would pay a premium price for sustainable products, with 32% of respondents purposely choosing sustainable products.

This represents a real opportunity for Irish businesses. By introducing more sustainable products, companies can reduce waste and lower carbon emissions, while also attracting more customers and boosting business growth.

Sustainable Impact

How you do business is just as important as what you do. At HP, sustainable impact is a fundamental part our business strategy. We recently published our 2018 Sustainable Impact Report detailing how sustainability has directly resulted in more than $900 million dollars of new revenue globally, representing an increase of 35% year-on-year.

We are committed to driving a low carbon-economy and last year, more than 21,000 tonnes of recycled plastic was incorporated into HP products. Earlier this year, we also launched the EliteDisplay E273d, the world’s first display manufactured with ocean plastic.

Building on this, we recently made a commitment to increase our use of recycled plastic in our Personal Systems and Print hardware and supplies to 30% by 2025, and we have already sourced approximately 700,000 pounds of ocean-bound plastic materials with a view to upcycling this material into HP cartridges and hardware. Our commitment to ‘going green’ is getting stronger each year, and we are already seeing the benefits come through.

It’s How You Do It

In a similar fashion, Irish businesses can increase revenue and lower their carbon footprints by becoming more innovative. Manufacturers must consider the sustainable potential of a product in the design process – not just when customers are ready to discard the product.

For example, the World Economic Forum reported that 95% of plastic packaging is discarded after a short first-use cycle at a cost of $80 – $120 billion annually.

Increasingly, it’s not always what you do but how you do it that counts. Any business model that relies on the traditional ‘take, make, dispose’ model will have to adapt or face near-certain decline as customers wake up to the plight of the natural world.

More information about Irish Tech News and the Business Showcase

FYI the ROI for you is => We now get over 1.5 million monthly views, and up to 900k monthly unique visitors, from over 160 countries. We have over 860,000 relevant followers on Twitter on our various accounts & were recently described as Ireland’s leading online tech news site and Ireland’s answer to TechCrunch, so we can offer you a good audience!

Since introducing desktop notifications a short time ago, which notify readers directly in their browser of new articles being published, over 16000 people have now signed up to receive them ensuring they are instantly kept up to date on all our latest content. Desktop notifications offer a unique method of serving content directly to verified readers and bypass the issue of content getting lost in people’s crowded news feeds.

Drop us a line if you want to be featured, guest post, suggest a possible interview, or just let us know what you would like to see more of in our future articles. We’re always open to new and interesting suggestions for informative and different articles. Contact us, by email, twitter or whatever social media works for you.

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie or on Twitter: @SimonCocking