HP pledges $80 m to expand partnership with WWF under climate action

31 / 10 / 2021

By Marwa Nassar - -

HP announced an $80 million partnership expansion with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to further its commitment to forest conservation as part of HP’s comprehensive climate action strategy.

By doing so, HP raises the bar for corporate leadership on nature-based solutions as the first company to pilot science-based targets for forests with WWF and becomes WWF’s largest U.S. corporate partner to-date.

While HP already maintains zero-deforestation status for its HP paper and paper-based packaging, this collaboration will support HP’s growing series of commitments to forest conservation around the world. It will also enable HP to make progress on its goal to counterbalance forest resources attributable to non-HP paper used in its products and print services by 2030.

Nearly half of all global forests are under threat of deforestation and forest degradation. This represents a major risk to biodiversity, water, people and businesses that depend on healthy forests.

Research shows that nature-based solutions, such as sustainable land management and forest protection and restoration, can contribute up to 30 percent of the climate mitigation needed by 2050 to meet the Paris Agreement’s objective of limiting climate change to 1.5^oC. Conserving forests is one of the ways HP is combating climate change.

“At HP, we understand this decade is critical for addressing climate change. Given the impact forests have on the air we breathe, habitats for wildlife, and the livelihoods of communities around the world, they are critical for human survival as well as material to our business,” said James McCall, chief sustainability officer, HP Inc.

“This partnership is designed to help counterbalance every page printed on an HP printer by regenerating critical forest ecosystems globally. Forest positive printing has the potential to ensure a better future for everyone, everywhere.”

HP first announced its Forest Positive vision for print in 2019,³ pledging to “give back to the forest more than it takes.” To realize its Forest Positive vision, HP and its partners are working together to conserve vital forest ecosystems.

“To truly solve the dual climate and nature crises, we need companies to go even further than their immediate supply chains,” said Carter Roberts, president & CEO of WWF. “Solving these problems means taking responsibility for emissions and environmental impacts from the entire life cycle of a company’s products. By pledging to address forest resources used for paper outside its supply chain, HP is accelerating ambition for corporate climate and nature commitments. And by helping us pioneer the development of science-based targets for forests, HP is building a road map for others to follow.”

This expanded $80 million partnership with WWF will address 17 million metric tons of paper used in both consumer and commercial HP printers over 10 years. That is equivalent to sustainably managing, restoring and protecting nearly 1 million acres (384,000 hectares) of forest. By regenerating forest health at a scale that considers not just HP brand paper but the total amount of paper run through its printers, HP is making a bold commitment to protect nature as one of the first technology companies to consider its broader downstream environmental impact in addition to its carbon emissions from its own operations and value chain.

This announcement also builds on HP’s support of WWF’s development of science-based targets for forests. HP is the first company to pilot science-based targets for forests by applying a new methodology developed by WWF to estimate the impacts more comprehensively on forestlands from printing. Based on those estimated impacts, HP will protect, restore and improve the management of a requisite area of forests. Models developed with funding from HP will help identify key regions of the world for forest conservation and better estimate the carbon and nature benefits of forest actions. HP is helping advance this new movement to ensure nature-based solutions are informed by the best available science and protecting co-benefits forest ecosystems provide for people, plants and animals.