thoughtleaders
BY MITCH MAC DONALD, GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
THE DC VELOCITY Q&A
HP’s green queen
interview with Judy Glazer
Hewlett-Packard is
on a very public
mission to reduce
the carbon
footprint of its
$50 billion supply
chain. It’s Judy
Glazer’s job
to keep that
effort on track.
ALTHOUGH IT’S WIDELY ASSUMED THAT THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN HAS
pushed corporate green initiatives to the back burner, that’s not always the case. Take
electronics giant Hewlett-Packard, for example. Weak sales haven’t deflected HP from its
mission of becoming a global environmental leader, reports Judy Glazer, HP’s director for
global social and environmental responsibility operations. In fact, in HP’s case, the slump
has had the opposite effect. “In our company by and large,” says Glazer, “the impact of the
downturn has been that we have really pushed to get to the future faster.”
Given HP’s track record with environmental programs, that’s not hard to understand.
Over the years, the company has found that its eco-initiatives frequently bring benefits
that go well beyond sustainability. For example, in 2008, HP began shifting freight to
more energy-efficient transport modes—from air to ocean and from road to rail—to
curb greenhouse gas emissions. That move not only decreased emissions, but also cut
transportation costs and reduced HP’s exposure to energy pricing volatility. And that’s
just one example. Glazer reports that HP’s distribution network and packaging optimization programs have produced similar returns.
Glazer joined HP in 1989 and has held a variety of supply chain and engineering positions at the electronics concern, which she describes as the world’s largest IT company.
Today, she oversees programs to implement social and environmental responsibility pol-
icy into HP’s products and supply chain, from design and materials through manufac-
turing, distribution, and end of life. This charter includes HP’s programs to meas-
ure and reduce the carbon footprint of its $50 billion
supply chain and implementation of HP’s supply chain
code of conduct to raise standards in the elec-
tronics industry supply chain. It also covers
