By Alex Tan, Enterprise Director, HP Inc. Malaysia
Sustainability has been at the forefront of business discussions in recent years, making it an unavoidable topic that every business needs to be aware of as we preserve our world for future generations in everything we do for our people, planet and community. What was interesting from this year is that sustainability proved its role in business sustainability, with businesses making planet-friendly technology decisions demonstrating better resilience to the changing business climate that marked most of this year.
Beyond businesses being sustainable, it’s also important to recognize that this is a global consumer and customer call to action. Consumers are now better educated on sustainability than before and are more likely to boycott, reject or switch brands based on their environmental and sustainability credentials.
What this means particularly for SMB business owners is that being sustainable can impact your business longevity and customer loyalty. Whether you are a trusted global brand like HP, a fast-growing SMB like Grab, a local restaurant owner or a home-baker, it’s time to take action and integrate sustainability in your work, as it can either make or break your business.
Understanding the Key Drivers for SMBs
At HP Inc., we believe that insights can help us support the needs of SMB owners. By understanding why they start their companies, what motivates them and what keeps them up at night, we can then support SMBs with trusted innovation, solutions, knowledge and capabilities that makes a difference and creates impact.
These unprecedented times have hit many businesses, particularly the SMB community, hard. On our road to recovery, we learnt that business sustainability has become one of the major concerns for SMBs, with HP research showing that 79 percent of SMBs feel a sense of duty to protect the environment and 76 percent believing in giving back to their communities. Many are starting to implement sustainable procurement for a start, while bigger companies like HP set our standards for people, planet, and community in alignment with the United Nations Development Programme’s Sustainable Development Goals.i
As more consumers turn to buying online due to an increased need to work and learn from home, SMBs also adapted with technology to digitize their business through PC and Print to suit the needs of their customers. Their actions supported our research, where SMBs identified technology as an integral partner in their business – with 59 percent of SMBs in the country using digital technology to stay competitive. Of these respondents, 8 out of 10 SMBs surveyed own a printer, with 57 percent citing their printers is a key partner in ensuring business operability and continuity.
Helping SMBs Adapt to Thrive, The Sustainable Way
As SMB owners identified cashflow challenges, the need for digital adoption and skilled talent, and the issue of not knowing where to look for solutions to adapt and thrive in this time, HP has stepped up in 2020. We have reinvented our offerings for SMBs with solutions, expertise, flexible financing and resources through HP for Business, as we remain a trusted partner to SMBs who are supporting the future of Malaysia. We believe that this ecosystem will help SMBs adapt to thrive in a sustainable way as they too serve their people, planet, and community.
When it comes to innovation, we’ve made the extra effort to build sustainability into everything we make to create a circular economy. This tenet of sustainability is consistent across all we do, whether it’s creating a new PC or printer, designing the packaging your new product comes in or using recycled materials in our ink and toner supplies.
Enabling SMBs to work smart and fast with the lowest reload costs, the HP Neverstop Laser Printer is the world’s first cartridge-free laser printer with an incredibly quick 15-second reload toner. Made with more than 25 percent recycled plastic by weight for the printer and toner at 75 percent recycled plastic by weight, the printer is designed for entrepreneurs who primarily print black and white pages, and for the savvy cost-saving business goers – with sustainability in mind. To give SMBs total control over their printer’s power, the HP Smart App is the one-stop app for personal customization of each print experience.
It’s how we ensure that SMBs benefit from higher efficiency, productivity, mobility and convenience while getting high-quality prints, ease of maintenance and lower energy consumption and total cost of ownership.
The Role of Original HP Supplies in the Circular Economy
Beyond setting standards on the quality of prints, our goal is to provide customers with amazing printing experiences and prints that stand the test of time. Original HP cartridges are designed to last longer, whilst offering SMBs the best value for their money.
Imitation cartridges pose more damage to SMBs than many realise. They require up to 3x more service calls and cost 10 percent more in the long run. For SMB owners, these represent costs that can be prevented – instead can be flown into business expansion and growth. What’s more, over 30 percent of imitation cartridges have failed either right out of the box or during use with 47 percent deemed low quality. Over 1 in 4 problemsii caused by non-HP original cartridges can even result in damage to the printer.
It is important to acknowledge that unsustainable technology products represent one of the highest contributors to environmental issues. Over 375 million empty ink and toner cartridges are disposed every year – many of them end up in landfills and take 1,000 years to fully decompose. As more people wake up to the impact unsustainable tech products have on the environment, the more the demand grows for a circular economy, where the products are repurposed, recycled or regenerated at the end of their life cycles.
HP Inc.’s Sustainability Pledge states that every HP print will be forest positive, carbon neutral and part of a circular economy. To date, HP has manufactured more than 3.9 billion ink and toner cartridges, using almost 100 million kg of recycled material. Additionally, more than 80 percent of HP ink cartridges and 100 percent of HP toner cartridges now contain recycled content.
Supporting SMBs to achieve business sustainability has been one of the core values celebrated in HP. Original HP supplies are designed with the local businesses, community, and environment in mind.
Making the Sustainable Choice for Your Business
As we all look to adapt and thrive in a period of uncertainty and change, having led a business, I understand the importance of running the marathon and not always winning the race. It’s all about investing in longer-term sustainable choices for your business that transforms your customer experiences, deliver on employee and customer loyalty while giving back to the planet that we must preserve for future generations.
At HP, we remain committed to delivering innovation in service of humanity and it’s what makes us a long-standing trusted brand as we’ve supported the future of Malaysia in the time that we have been here. We trust that together with us, you too can take that step in making a sustainable choice for your business for a better world.
