ANTenna Blog -- Business & E-Business

At Hewlett Packard's Small and Medium Business Event this week, the company told intriguing stories about its green initiatives. I was duly impressed, but I couldn't stop thinking about one of the claims...

HP used the SMB press and analyst event to pitch both sides of its commitment to environmental responsibility.

On the one hand, said Kathy Chou, HP's vice president of worldwide commercial sales, HP has strict internal policies governing the green practices of its vendors and suppliers. Stephen Nigro, Senior Vice President, Inkjet and Web Solutions, called it the "Our House" side of going green.

More important, though is the company's commitment to the greening of its products - what Nigro called "Your House." That includes energy-efficient equipment, resource conservation in manufacturing and supplies use, reusing and recycling consumables, and the fact that "we take our products back" for recycling.Chou said that by 2010, HP will recycle or reuse 2 billion pounds electronics parts and supplies.

But one green claim made me think twice. HP said by 2010, it plans to reduce the energy consumption of the desktop and laptop computers it sells by 25%, compared to 2005. I didn't get details on that, but it occurs to me that HP could meet the goal just through the already occuring shift from desktops to laptops -- and from CRT to LCD monitors. Those are inherently more efficient products, and the market has made a major shift toward laptops and LCD since '05.

That doesn't necessarily take away from HP's green efforts, and I don't believe that HP's initiatives are just greenwashing. But it's important to distinguish between conscious efforts and natural changes in the marketplace.