Corporate Social Responsibility at HP

Since the early 2000s, HP began to design products that could be easily recycled in the future. For instance, HP designed products in such a manner that most components could be removed and separated. Components were molded in such a way that they could be snapped in together doing away with the need for adhesives. Component parts were marked so as to enable identification and separation at the time of recycling. Molded-in colors and finishes were used instead of paints, coatings or plating. As an example, it was earlier a problem to recycle cartridge parts due to the use of an adhesive, which formed a very strong bond between the component parts. By designing snap-in parts, HP increased the recyclability of the cartridges by as much as 25%...

Hence, these suppliers were the focus of the company's Supply Chain Social and Environment Responsibility Program (SER) (Refer Table I for HP's SER Policy). The suppliers were required to follow the guidelines laid out in the EICC (Refer Exhibit VII for a brief note on the EICC). In 2003, HP introduced training programs for its managers who interacted with the suppliers. This was done so that the managers could raise awareness of the company's SER program among suppliers, and encourage adherence to the company's policies. HP conducted supplier assessments and audits to understand and gauge the performance of the suppliers. The first step in the auditing process was an annual self-assessment by the supplier...