With an aim to be one of the world’s most sustainable and just technology companies by 2030, HP has a vision to reinvent the future of sustainable printing.

As such, HP large format product application specialist Kevin Gregory took to a recent webinar to provide his insights on HP’s sustainable journey and how HP’s products like its water-based Latex range is designed to ensure a safe operating environment.

“Companies will not only be judged by the profits that they generate, but more importantly, they’ll be judged on the value they create for society. That’s very apt, because we’re putting a lot of focus on sustainability, especially within large format printing,” he said.

Gregory identified three areas of action within HP’s 2030 vision, which includes:

• Climate action: to go completely carbon neutral in the next two to three years
• Becoming a fully regenerative, net zero emission business by 2040
• Circularity: Offering products that are fully recyclable  

“So, 75 per cent of all of the products that we are bringing out to market by 2030 will be made from fully recycled materials,” he said.

“And what we’re finding, especially in large format printing and production printing with our DesignJets and our Latex ranges, is that conversations with end customers revolve around sustainability. I expect a greater focus on sustainable printing at some of the tradeshows like PacPrint later this year.”

“HP is actively certifying many recycled media from our global business unit and locally here in A/NZ. This includes working with the different media manufacturers and vendors to see how well they work with HP Latex and getting them to reach the quality where they can be certified.

“HP Latex was very ground-breaking when it came out, and it is still, to date, debatably the most environmentally friendly, water-based ink in signage. Over the last three years, we’ve changed the generation of ink that we use. It can now take heat much better and can be cured much quicker. That gives us more media versatility, especially for substrates like paper.

“With our third-generation printers that didn’t take the heat so much, we’ve got considerably much lower temperatures in our Latex 700 and 800 series. So, it’s not all about the actual water-based technology itself.

“We’ve also got a certification that was awarded to us a few years back, which is called the Roadmap to Zero, which means that we have zero discharge of hazardous chemicals in the manufacturing process of our inks.”

The Latex 700 and 800 series also come with an Eco logo, representing that there’s no volatile organic compounds coming off into the environment through the exhaust from the printer, and GREENGUARD certification.

“With our HP Latex prints, from day one, or literally, as it comes off the printer, there is no smell that comes off that or VOC smell that comes off the printer itself,” Gregory said.

According to Gregory, the Latex 700 and 800 series printers can also be taken back through a collection scheme, free of charge, where 96 per cent of the machine gets recycled.

And for those using the HP Latex 300 and 500 series, Gregory said that 38 per cent of those cartridges in the printer are made from recyclable post-consumable plastics.

“The majority of the makeup of them are now plastic hangers and plastic bottles, whereas a few years before, they were made completely from virgin plastics. Our aim is to change this completely into 100 per cent recycled plastic products,” he said.

“In fact, many of our DesignJet products have a higher percentage of recycled plastics in them.”

Gregory also spoke about HP’s Eco Solutions Training where for each generation of HP’s printers, customers can use the learning platform for training.

HP is also one of the few technology businesses that has received AAA listing in Climate Disclosure Project (CDP) recognition.   

“We’ve done this for three years running. We’re very proud to be part of that and of course, we intend to keep that going throughout the years,” Gregory added.

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