Which strategy did HP employ on its corporate campuses to conserve resources?

Question

Options

• Arequired all employees to shut off their printers before they left for the day
• Bconfigured the default on printers to duplexing for all interoffice communication
• Cturned off the lights after 6 pm
• Dprovided all employees with free city bus passes

• A
  88% (37)
• B
  2% (1)
• C
  7% (3)
• D
  2% (1)

Explanation

There is a factual issue worth flagging here: the marked correct answer (A) appears to be incorrect based on widely documented sources.

HP's well-known corporate campus resource conservation strategy was B - configuring the default setting on printers to duplex (double-sided) printing for all interoffice communication. This is a classic sustainability case study: by simply changing the printer default, HP reduced paper consumption significantly without requiring any deliberate action from employees. The power of the initiative was precisely that it required no employee behavior change - it was baked into the system default.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (shut off printers before leaving): This is not the documented HP initiative, and it addresses energy use rather than the paper/resource waste HP targeted with this program.
• C (lights off after 6 pm): Plausible energy policy, but not the HP initiative referenced here.
• D (free bus passes): Addresses commuter emissions, not on-campus resource use.

Memory tip: Think "default = duplexing." HP's insight was that defaults drive behavior - most users never change them, so setting double-sided as the default conserves paper automatically.

Recommendation: Double-check your source material. If your textbook or course explicitly states A is correct, it may contain an error, or the question may be referencing a different HP initiative than the commonly cited one. The duplex-default case study (B) is the version that appears in most business sustainability curricula.

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