HP and energy claims raise questions
HP
becomes the latest company to make ambitious pledges of energy
reduction this week. It says it plans to reduce energy use in its
volume desktops and PCs by 25 percent by the year 2010.Well it is an
ambitious claim. Cutting consumption by a quarter is a great headline
figure and one that various media outlets took from HP and followed.But
you don’t have to look very far in HP’s small print to spot the issue
here. In fact note one of the footnotes (naturally positioned right at
the end of the piece) says quite clearly:“By 2010, HP plans to reduce
the energy consumption of volume desktop and notebook PC families by 25
percent, relative to 2005.”
Ah. So HP is says not that it is
reducing consumption by 25 percent in the next three years (2008 to
2010) but instead over six years (2005 to 2010).Obviously it was never
HP’s intention to mislead on this, surely? So when it writes “today …HP
committed to reduce the energy consumption of its volume desktop and
notebook PC families by 25 percent by 2010” the company knew it meant
five years, did it not? Or perhaps it means that it aims to lose the 25
percent ON TOP OF any savings made in the last few years. As the
company, like others, has spent the last few years trying to find ways
to introduce energy savings I am sure it will.