HP has a long tradition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) which goes back to the first $5 donation – an average week’s wage at the time – which was made by company founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1940 to a local charity in Palo Alto, California. The company has grown significantly over the years, as have its CSR programmes.
|
 |
|
Today, HP publishes a comprehensive annual report on its
Global Citizenship activities which covers activities in the areas of Social Investment, Supply Chain Management, Environmental Sustainability and Privacy.
We spoke to Jeannette Weisschuh, Head of Corporate Affairs for HP in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) about the most recent social investment strategy of HP in the region.
|
Q: What is HP’s social investment strategy for 2007?
JW: With our focus on three key areas of education, economic development and the environment, we address major issues such as youth unemployment and access to IT for educational institutions. We would like to make a difference in all communities and markets where we operate, be it through innovative technology solutions that we offer to schools, communities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), or through the expertise of our employees. In 2006, for example, we supported more than 300 education projects in 35 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
|
Q: How is the 2007 strategy different?
JW: We are strengthening further our relationships with selected NGOs, stakeholders and partners to achieve greater reach for our activities, greater visibility for HP and more volunteering opportunities for our own employees. We decided to focus our programmes on fewer markets, but with greater involvement from us.
|
Q: What is your approach in the area of economic development?
JW: We feel that today, one of the big social issues in EMEA is youth unemployment. Nearly 18 percent of young people aged 16-25 are unemployed and this is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed urgently. Our 2007 economic development programme aims to address the needs of young unemployed people in our region.
As we all know, the biggest growth of jobs in EMEA comes from small businesses and micro enterprises, businesses with up to 10 employees. Since 2005 we have been involved with the Micro-enterprise Acceleration Programme (MAP). As part of MAP we have opened 35 training centres together with local training providers to help micro entrepreneurs with their IT skills. An HP curriculum, train-the-trainer sessions and HP technology are the key elements of the programme.
In June 2006, we transferred MAP to the
Micro-Enterprise Acceleration Institute (MEA-I), an NGO that will develop the programme further in partnership with us.
Another example of our work is the collaboration between HP and
Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Europe (JA-YE). We launched a joint annual award, the
HP Responsible Business Competition which raises awareness among students about important issues facing businesses today, such as concerns about CSR. It also recognises students who have set up their own companies based on sound financial and economic principles plus social and environmental principles as well.
|
Q: What about the environment?
JW: Our approach here is mostly about linking in with the work that our environmental team has been undertaking for many years, both on behalf of our customers and from a philanthropy perspective.
As part of a
global agreement with the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced last November, we will jointly develop educational programmes and training modules to raise awareness of environmental issues.
|
Q: And finally, what will you focus on in the education sector?
JW: Our activities here span all age groups, from children at kindergarten or pre-school to pupils at primary and secondary schools and right through to university. We will continue with our
Technology for Teaching grant programme that offers universities mobile technology awards of $70,000 worth of equipment, support and cash. We will be selecting 12 universities in EMEA for awards this year. In addition, we will donate 100 HP mobile classroom packages to primary and secondary schools in selected countries.
Overall we can say that, in 2007, we are changing the way we are allocating resources to allow for greater coordination and steer. We have tied all social investment programmes more closely to our business objectives and we are addressing more clearly defined, specific social issues within the three key areas of economic development, environment and education.
|
|
|
Global Citizenship Reports 2006 (*) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Printable version
