Electronics giant HP has called for more businesses to embrace circular innovation in order to move away from linear ‘take, make, discard’ manufacturing processes.
The call for action came during a HP’s annual sustainability summit yesterday (14 June) in London, which coincided with the release of its 2016 Sustainability Report.
During the summit, HP presented its supply chain goals, set out in the report, and discussed the benefits and challenges of implementing a circular economy strategy within businesses.
(l-r) George Brasher, Judy Glazer, Joe Iles and Marcus Laubscher
The discussion panel included Judy Glazer, global head of sustainability and product compliance at HP; George Brasher, managing director, HP UK; Joe Iles, digital architect, Ellen McArthur Foundation; and Marcus Laubscher, director sustainability at Philips.
Focus areas
Moving away from linear ‘take, make, discard’ manufacturing processes towards a more circular ‘make, use, return’ approach was HP’s theme for the event.
During the presentation, Judy Glazer outlined the circular and low carbon economy as one of three key focus areas highlighted in the report. As part of this, Ms Glazer said HP’s goal was to reduce supply chain greenhouse gas intensity 10%; and, recycle 1.2 million tonnes of products.
Ms Glazer said that although the circular economy has ‘impressive potential returns’ for the global economy it’s ‘not easy to do’.
She said: “We need to focus on practical ways to move from circular economy concepts to circular economy reality.
“I think there are real benefits for our customers for our business and for society at large.
“Working in collaboration with us and others in the room, or other business partners you too can find ways to shift your value chain looking up and down stream in ways that will help accelerate the circular economy and deliver that societal benefit.”
According to Ms Glazer, the rise of the sharing economy, the growing expectations around extended corporate responsibility and population growth along with recognition of finite resources globally, and are all ‘motivators’ to address the circular economy.
Benefits
HP has developed Instant Ink, where used cartridges are collected and the plastic recycled into new cartridges (Picture: HP)
To do this, Ms Glazer said HP’s three ideas are to decouple growth from consumption, introduce new and disruptive business models and digitise supply chains and production.
Illustrating the benefits of implementing sustainable strategies, she explained that HP has developed Instant Ink, where used cartridges are collected and the plastic, alongside upcycled additional recycling materials, are turned into new cartridges. Ms Glazer said the company recycles around 1m water bottles per day.
Alongside this, Ms Glazer said the printer alerts HP when it’s running low on ink and the ink is delivered to the customer. By doing this, she said HP has achieved ‘57% less waste per printed page’.
In terms of digitalising supply chains, Ms Glazer gave the example of 3D printing which she said is able to much better match supply and demand in a move away from a mass production model. She said big corporations such as Mercedes and BMW are looking to 3D printing for production and spare parts.
To conclude, Ms Glazer said there is ‘real potential’ to scale the circular economy and new technologies will help meet the new global challenges and create new opportunities for the future.
Linear
Following on from Ms Glazer, Joe Isles of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a circular economy charity, said the linear economy is reaching its ‘useful limits”.
“We need to focus on practical ways to move from circular economy concepts to circular economy reality.”
Judy Glazer
HP
Mr Iles said: “The way that our world works today is predominantly linear, its take, make, and dispose.”
However, Mr Isles said the conditions that enable the linear economy to work well “cannot be relied upon” in the 21st century, such as plentiful and cheap resources, places to put the waste and customers willing and able to continue to buy the products.
During his presentation, Marcus Laubscher, of Dutch technology company Philips, said there needs to be a change to decouple development from resource consumption. He said the circular economy is the best framework to lower the environmental footprint and increase development.
Mr Laubscher explained how the company had provided hospitals with equipment on a subscription basis. He said this gives the customer flexibility and allows the company to take back the equipment at the end of the subscription and refurbish the hardware components.
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Source: letsrecycle.com General
