Hewlett Packard Enterprise Releases Annual Living Progress Report
Annual ESG disclosure shows company’s pivot to as-a-service offerings is driving sustainable digital transformation
HOUSTON, Texas, June 3, 2021 /3BL Media/ – Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) today released its annual Living Progress Report for fiscal year 2020, demonstrating its ongoing commitment to help customers drive digital transformations that reduce their carbon footprint, protect human rights throughout its value chain, and help customers and communities weather the unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“2020 was a year like no other, and made clear the responsibility organizations like HPE have to drive change and give back to the world around us,” said Antonio Neri, HPE President and CEO. “The challenges of 2020 have reinvigorated our commitment to being a force for good, using our technology to advance the way people live and work.”
As-a-service pivot driving sustainable transformations for customers
The most substantial impact HPE can have on the climate crisis is to enable its customers to reduce carbon emissions related to their IT infrastructure. The company’s commitment to offering its entire portfolio as consumption-based, as-a-service offerings by 2022 is driving sustainable outcomes for customers. HPE GreenLake’s as-a-service portfolio uses efficient hardware and solutions configured to, on average, deliver customers 30-percent energy savings over five years due to reductions in overprovisioning.
Sales directly related to environmental sustainability engagements rose 44 percent from FY 2019 to $847 million. In one significant example, HPE signed one its largest ever HPE GreenLake cloud services deals with LyondellBassell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals, and refining companies in the world, to drive their digital transformation and environmental efficiency.
Additionally, 50% of HPE’s product portfolio has sustainability and efficiency attributes -- and its portfolio’s energy efficiency performance has improved 300 percent since 2015. For example, HPE SimpliVity servers yield 70% energy savings for customers, and 78 of the company’s supercomputers were named to the November 2020 Green 500 List. At the same time, more than 3 million assets were returned to HPE’s Technology Renewal Centers – which accept any brand of retired or unwanted IT equipment – where 87 percent of those assets were refurbished for a second life.
Creating a culture of inclusivity and responsibility
HPE continues to strive to be a model corporate citizen, with not only its environmental leadership, but also its commitment to ethics, inclusion and diversity serving as competitive advantages in the marketplace. With a long-held focus on ending modern slavery in supply chains, HPE ranked first on KnowTheChain’s ICT benchmark for forced labor, and second on the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark. Human rights is also a priority for HPE in the development, deployment and use of artificial intelligence -- and in 2020, HPE developed a set of AI ethical principles to guide the company in mitigating risks and adverse impacts associated with the use of such technology.
HPE is also committed to reaching net zero emissions across its entire value chain no later than 2050, and it last year achieved a 62-percent reduction in operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to 2016 levels, exceeding its science-based target of 55 percent reduction five years ahead of schedule. HPE also sourced 44 percent of its operational electricity consumption from renewables, and continues to leverage strong partnerships with suppliers to help them set science-based targets and reduce supply chain-related emissions in sourcing, transportation logistics, and manufacturing.
While HPE has long stood for inclusion and diversity, the racial injustices that took place in the United States in 2020 compelled it to join the chorus of voices demanding change. In keeping with the company’s cultural commitment to unconditional inclusion, CEO Antonio Neri launched the company’s Inclusion and Diversity Council – which he chairs – to engage diverse communities across the company and set bold goals for internal and external engagement on topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
HPE’s Board of Directors is among the most diverse in the industry, with 54 percent of Directors identifying with one or more diverse groups. In 2020, HPE increased its female workforce at every level worldwide, including technical and executive roles. Compared to tech industry benchmarks, HPE is a leader in gender representation worldwide and in most U.S. ethnically-diverse categories.
Being a force for good
In a tumultuous year, support for customers and communities took on even greater importance. As COVID-19 ground society to a halt and disrupted the world economy, HPE Financial Services stepped up to offer $2 billion in financing to companies experiencing hardship due to the pandemic, helping them weather the storm and respond to new demands for connectivity and other infrastructure brought on by the sudden shift to remote work. With the pandemic shining a stark light on the digital divide in many parts of the world, HPE donated Aruba connectivity kits valued at $26 million to schools, hospitals, and other institutions, while converting dozens of e-health centers in India to expand access to testing and telemedicine in remote areas of the country.
Finally, HPE put its technology and innovation to work to help fight coronavirus. Building on longstanding partnerships with the U.S. government, HPE provided free Cray supercomputing software to the White House COVID-19 Supercomputing Consortium to help advance therapeutic and vaccine research. Additionally, HPE joined the Open COVID Patent Pledge, joining peers in the industry in making its intellectual property available free-of-charge to researchers working to combat the pandemic.
About Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the global edge-to-cloud platform as-a-service company that helps organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere. Built on decades of reimagining the future and innovating to advance the way people live and work, HPE delivers unique, open and intelligent technology solutions, with a consistent experience across all clouds and edges, to help customers develop new business models, engage in new ways, and increase operational performance. For more information, visit: www.hpe.com.
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