Here’s to Saving the Environment

This business leader:

• Had a salary of $1 last year.
• This year will be paid $1.5 million.
• She is 57 years old.
• Graduated from Princeton University and has an MBA from Harvard.
• Is listed as:
• #296 on Forbes 400
• #15 Power Women
• #792 Billionaires (#264 in United States)
• Spent nearly $180 million on a failed bid for the California governor's office in 2010
• Held positions at: Hasbro, Disney, Procter & Gamble
• Her wealth was self-made through EBay as CEO.

Maybe you guessed that these accomplishments are attributed to Meg Whitman, the current CEO of Hewlett Packard (HP). She became the leader of EBay and grew the company from a start up to an $8 billion company. She did it through implementing and practicing the values that are on EBay employees’ nametags:

• We believe people are basically good.
• We recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual.
• We believe everyone has something to contribute.
• We encourage people to treat others the way they want to be treated.
• We believe that an honest, open environment can bring out the best in people.

Meg is a proponent of saving the environment. At HP she has made it easy for people to recycle their ink cartridges by printing a label online for free and easy mailing or returning them to authorized stores. Since the program began in 1991, customers have returned more than 500 million HP ink and LaserJet cartridges for recycling worldwide. Less of the cartridges go to the landfill, fewer resources are used to make new ones and harmful chemicals are prevented from polluting the groundwater.

Today’s gift was to return my used ink cartridge to Staples. Meg said that HP wants to “positively impact society and the planet.” Here’s to an environmentally conscious company that is committed to sustainability.

In Giving,

Robin