Jack caught up with Noëlle Peutat, Global Sustainability Lead for HP’s Large Format Business Unit, to discuss how HP is reframing the ‘green’ conversation, and why true sustainability is actually rooted in everyday commercial efficiency
Noëlle is focused on sustainability and on translating it for HP customers. She also looks at how to make HP products and solutions as sustainable as possible.
Cutting costs is cutting waste
Noëlle is no stranger to industry scepticism. “I have spoken to a wide variety of customers, and some tell me that, for them, everything green is just BS. But instead of preaching, I prefer to dig deeper to understand the frustration.”
When you look closely at how successful print businesses operate, the green agenda is often hiding in plain sight. “When we have customers who do not think they are doing anything towards sustainability, you start asking questions and realise that, fundamentally, what they are doing to be more efficient and cost-effective is inextricably linked to sustainability,” says Noëlle.
“Whether they are trying to reduce media waste, switching over to LED energy, or reusing misprints as packaging materials, they are already participating in the circular economy. They do not call it sustainability, but they are actually working towards it. At the end of the day, for them, it is about being more efficient, cutting costs, and reducing waste. We just need to join the dots.”
Small steps and the commercial reality
Just thinking about what you need to do to be more sustainable can feel overwhelming. Noëlle’s advice is to start with the daily workflow. “Are you using your RIP software to its full potential for super nesting and ink efficiency? Are your machines being properly looked after? Poor maintenance leads to bad image quality and reprints, and this is a waste, not just of time, but of media, ink, and money. Ensuring printers are well-maintained is part of being efficient and helps with sustainability.”
The commercial clincher happens when environmental choices directly improve the bottom line. Noëlle highlights the shift from print-and-mount to direct-to-board printing. By cutting out vinyl and liners, businesses become more efficient and significantly lower their carbon footprint. Quoting a Canadian customer who made the switch to direct-to-board, she shares: “We’ve eliminated the cost of dumping, shipping, and the labour of applying vinyl. Sustainability has actually cut my overall costs.”
“When you present a genuine business case like that, the mindset completely shifts. People are not just buying into HP Latex for the water-based eco-credentials; they buy it for the operational flexibility and performance. The environmental benefit is the added bonus that HP wants to help them leverage,” she adds.
Navigating supply chain pressure
It is not just internal efficiency driving the change; external pressure is mounting. Major brands and retailers now have strict sustainability targets, and those requirements are rapidly making their way down the supply chain to the print provider.
While this sounds daunting, Noëlle encourages printers not to panic. “You can lean on modern tools to help understand these complex brand requirements and to clearly communicate your own value proposition back to the client.”
To help businesses navigate this landscape, HP has launched the PrintOS Sustainability Amplifier. Noëlle explains, “The platform was born from a realisation that while HP is committed to building more responsibly designed machines, their customers did not always know how to leverage that technology to win business. The free tool allows users to complete a self-assessment, identifying where they excel and where they can improve. It centralises resources (such as safety data sheets and recycling programmes like HP Planet Partners) and offers recognition for validated sustainable actions.”
For a busy print boss, the initial assessment takes barely half an hour. But the true value lies in giving businesses a clear, actionable roadmap. A UK customer perfectly summarised this to Noëlle during the pilot phase: “It demystifies abstract sustainability ambitions and turns them into structured, measurable actions.”
To help businesses take these next steps, HP is focused on making the journey as straightforward as possible. “Ultimately, our goal is to really simplify sustainability, show businesses what they can do, and help them realise what they have already achieved,” Noëlle concludes. “It is about demystifying the whole process, making it tangible and structured, so that print businesses can confidently move forward.”