HP reduced its electricity consumption, total energy use and operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2010, though emissions from employee air travel shot up by 49 percent, according to the company’s tenth annual Global Citizenship Report.
In 2010, HP’s GHG emissions from operations fell by nine percent, from 2,060,300 to 1,865,200 tons of CO2e. The company says it achieved the reduction through energy-efficiency initiatives, including a 12,000 square meter reduction in data center floor area, and through more than doubling its renewable energy purchases.
The company has a goal of cutting absolute GHG emissions from operations, not including travel, to 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2013.
But estimated emissions from product transport rose from 1.7 million to 1.9 million tons of CO2e last year, a 12 percent increase, while emissions from employee commercial air travel rose by 49 percent, from 214,000 to 318,000 tons.
Energy use accounts for 98 percent of HP’s operational GHG emissions, the company says, and represents one of its biggest operational costs. In 2010 overall energy use in HP operations fell by 2.6 percent to 4,140 million kWh, from 4,249 million kWh in 2009. Electricity use fell by 3.8 percent, from 3,850 million to 3,704 million kWh.
But natural gas use rose by nine percent, from 399 million to 435 million kWh.
In 2010, 93 percent of HP’s operational GHGs came from electricity, five percent from natural gas, less than two percent from refrigerant emissions and less than one percent each from diesel and manufacturing emissions.
HP says it is now in the second year of a company-wide initiative to improve the energy efficiency of its operations. Among other measures, it is adapting buildings to support a higher density of workers and a more mobile workforce.
In 2010, HP invested over $11 million in energy-efficiency improvement projects, which it expects will reduce yearly energy use by about 70 million kWh and save $5.7 million annually. Lighting projects alone reduced the company’s energy consumption by about 10 million kWh in 2010, HP said.
This year, HP plans to install an evaporative cooling system at a new Sydney data center, which will replace four existing facilities. The center will have a PUE rating of 1.2.
HP says it is also improving the efficiency of its products, which has helped customers save 1.4 billion kWh of electricity from 2008 through 2010. Last month HP said it had improved product energy efficiency by 50 percent from a 2005 baseline, exceeding a target of a 40 percent improvement by the end of 2011.
HP also says it plans to continue refining its data collection and trend calculation process. In 2010, it began making quarterly energy and water calculations to more accurately reflect changes in its real estate portfolio. Last year HP collected data from 269 sites, accounting for 78 percent of total floor space, and extrapolated data from comparable operations to make estimates for the remaining 22 percent.
