Greenpeace went to HP's annual shareholders meeting in Los Angeles on March 15th to thank them for agreeing to phase out toxic chemicals from their products. We also planned to let them know that we are concerned about the "conditions" they included in their agreement to eliminate certain toxic substances by 2007. We want make sure that their "conditions" do not become loopholes.  We expected to propose that they publicly update their progress on phasing out these chemicals every six months.

However, before attending any shareholders meeting you have to either own shares or have the proxy of someone who owns shares.  Greenpeace had proxies from HP shareholders who support our efforts to detoxify the electronics industry.  With proxies in hand we had no problem attending the meeting. Kevin May from Greenpeace China was our star speaker.  He had prepared a 700 word statement to read to the HP board and shareholders during the question and answer period.  Unfortunately he was cut off after he used up the two minutes alloted to each speaker. I was standing directly behind Kevin and offered to give him my two minutes.  I also asked the chair to give Greenpeace the full 6 minutes that HP meeting rules allow for each subject as we had a third speaker Steve Smith from our media department. Instead they gave Kevin another 90 seconds after which they ejected him for going over time.  Later they ejected me for attempting to hand Kevin's statement to the board of directors while Steve spoke.  This contrasted sharply with the treatment of another gentleman who interrupted the meeting to challenge executive bonuses even before the question and answer period began. He was given four warnings but was allowed to stay.

We were amazed at HP's unwillingness to turn the Greenpeace "thank you" into a "good news" event.  However, the most important news of the day came when HP's CEO Mark Hurd responded to Kevin's statement by saying that HP "was fully committed and will follow through" on their pledge to phase out brominated flame retardants and PVC plastics.

With all the fuss over time, the meeting ended almost an hour early. Steve Smith was allowed to stay and met with reporters immediately following the meeting.  He was also approached by one HP employee who commended Greenpeace's "good work."

The next order of business is which electronics giant will agree to phase out toxic additives in computers and other products: Apple? Dell? IBM? Panasonic? Toshiba?

Greenpeace will be working with allies such as the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Basel Action Network on this next chapter of the campaign.

-Rick Hind
Toxics Campaigner