HP Expands Sustainability Program With Focus On Partners

‘You see more and more customers requesting to work with companies that are more sustainable,’ says Kobi Elbaz, HP’s new global channel chief, in an exclusive interview with CRN.

With more environmentally conscious customers and partners embracing greener practices, HP Inc. is expanding its sustainability program.

HP’s sustainability program, Amplify Impact, funneled $3.5 billion in new sales in fiscal year 2021, a three-fold increase in sales from the previous year, according to the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company. Amplify Impact is a program that falls under the IT behemoth’s Amplify channel program, though the company did not disclose what percentage of those new sales flowed through channel partners.

“You see more and more customers requesting to work with companies that are more sustainable,” said Kobi Elbaz, HP’s new global channel chief, in an exclusive interview with CRN.

Elbaz, who has led the company’s channel program since November, said HP would like to see as much as 50 percent of its partner force join the effort. Already, he said, about 20 percent of partners have signed on, blasting past the targeted goal of 10 percent. “There are some partners that would like to be more sustainable, and some partners who don’t know how to approach it. We have this program to help both. Partners can come to us… it saves them from having to make these investments by themselves.”

Some solution providers said sustainability issues are becoming increasingly important to winning deals.

For Gainesville, Va.-based NCS Technologies, an HP Platinum Partner that has participated in Amplify Impact since February 2021, sustainability is more than a public relations initiative—it could be the factor that wins or loses an important sale.

“A huge driver for our business is communicating the cost savings [from sustainability initiatives] to clients,” said Mike Turicchi, vice president of marketing and strategic relations for NCS. One example Turicchi gave was an initiative to use fewer pallets in shipping, a small move that adds up to a reduced carbon footprint and cost savings for customers. The HP program “opened our eyes and expanded our efforts,” Turicchi said.

Turicchi said HP Amplify Impact helped NCS enact multiple sustainability efforts, including using molded pulp cardboard for packaging instead of foam packaging. “This was an opportunity to measure our sustainability efforts from an external source.”

Amplify Impact works by asking volunteer partners to participate in a sustainability assessment and report new sales opportunities. Partners who are more experienced in sustainability efforts work to assist new partner members.

“HP, as a company, our objective is to be the most sustainable company in the world,” Elbaz said. “We want to make sure we and our channel partners are working together on that.”

[Correction: This story originally said Amplfy Impact had driven $3.5 billion in sales through HP’s channel ecosystem. It was updated to reflect that the figure actually represented overall sales, not channel ecosystem sales.]