HP operates in more than 170 countries. We have long been a leader in global citizenship – it has been one of our seven corporate objectives since 1957. We fully embrace our social and environmental responsibilities, and we are committed to conducting our business in ways that positively impact society and the planet. Our Global Citizenship program covers a broad agenda, including governance, environment, and society.

During the coming decade, we intend to continue to focus on:

• Enhancing environmental sustainability across the product life cycle
• Building a leading human rights program
• Driving strong and sustained social and environmental responsibility in our supply chain
• Advancing an accountability approach to ensure respect for privacy
• Addressing global health and education issues through social innovation

Building on the size and scale of our company and our deep history in global citizenship, we are uniquely positioned to create these positive outcomes. Our approach to global citizenship includes:

• Technology HP’s innovative technology provides the foundation for many of our global citizenship initiatives.
• People Our 331,800 dedicated employees worldwide are committed to making a difference. Global citizenship improves our competitiveness and our ability to attract and retain the best people.
• Partnerships Our collaborative spirit creates powerful partnerships across institutions, industries, sectors, and borders. These improve our collective capability to address the serious challenges that the world faces.

Global citizenship reporting

We are committed to transparent reporting on global citizenship that demonstrates accountability to our stakeholders. HP has reported on our global citizenship programs, performance, and goals every year since we published our first Global Citizenship Report for 2001. Over that period, we have progressively broadened the scope, increased the level of detail, and expanded the metrics in our report. We refer to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in the development of our report.

Download HP’s 2012 Global Citizenship Report.

Materiality

In 2012, we commissioned a formal materiality assessment, conducted by BSR and GlobeScan. Our objective was to take a fresh look at the wide range of global citizenship issues that HP faces, to re-confirm our longstanding areas of focus, determine any gaps in our current programs, and identify emerging issues and new leadership opportunities for our business.

Overall, the materiality assessment illustrates the wide scope of global citizenship issues. These are all relevant to how HP conducts business in a way that positively impacts society and the planet. The assessment also helped confirm the issues that HP should prioritize going forward.

Key findings included:

• Product-related opportunities, such as improving product energy efficiency and expanding access to technology, represent the leading areas where HP can create value for society and for our business.
• Managing our operations responsibly – from decreasing environmental impacts and protecting customer privacy to promoting diversity and ensuring ethical behavior – remain important areas for HP.
• Enhancing labor conditions in our global supply chain is among the important ways we can drive sustainable development

Based on this assessment, HP is also expected to focus on issues such as the human rights implications of the sale and misuse of IT products and services.

We plan to use the assessment results to help shape our global citizenship strategy and reporting efforts moving forward, and to help ensure that we continue to focus on areas of greatest importance to HP and to our stakeholders.

For our full materiality matrix, refer to HP’s 2012 Global Citizenship Report.

Global citizenship governance

A company as diverse and complex as HP needs clear leadership and governance to achieve consistently strong global citizenship performance. This begins at the top and depends on active participation and support throughout our organization.

Global citizenship council

HP’s Executive Council retains overall responsibility for global citizenship as part of our business strategy. Our Global Citizenship Council ensures companywide commitment to and alignment with HP’s global citizenship objectives. The council comprises executives and subject matter experts from across HP, and seeks input from all of our business groups and functions, as well as from external stakeholders. It meets at least quarterly to promote and advance global citizenship strategically through risk and opportunity assessment, governance, and policy oversight.

The Global Citizenship Council is sponsored by a member of the HP Executive Council. Co-chairs are HP’s vice president of sustainability and social innovation and the senior vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer.

Topic-specific councils

HP also maintains separate councils dedicated to areas such as the environment, supply chain responsibility, corporate ethics, and privacy. These councils include leaders with relevant expertise from our business units, regions, and functions. Each council meets periodically to evaluate our progress in implementing our strategies and to establish performance goals.

For complete information regarding HP’s approach to global citizenship, please download our 2012 Global Citizenship Report. To view data and goals from across our global citizenship efforts, visit the data and goals dashboard.