Top 40 supplier HPG (asi/61966) is now certified as a CarbonNeutral enterprise and has rolled out its Goods2Know sustainable product categorization. Those are just two of the highlights from the Braintree, MA-headquartered firm’s inaugural sustainability report.

“This is the start of a new chapter for HPG, and we have a lot more progress to make,” said Jing Rong, vice president of supply chain and sustainability. She added that the company intends to make more sustainability improvements across “people, processes and technology” in the years to come.

“Sustainability is not another box to check off, but a commitment to improving the long-term interest of our customers, staff, shareholders, suppliers, communities and planet in everything we do,” she added.

This month, HPG said it became a Certified CarbonNeutral company by offsetting the emissions it can’t avoid through its partnership with Climate Impact Partners. In its just-released 2023 sustainability report, HPG noted that it is committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across all of its brands, following the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) standards. By 2028, the supplier aims to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 70%, with 60% of its vendors adopting science-based targets by the same year.

In addition, HPG is striving for a 90% reduction in absolute Scope 3 emissions by 2030. Scope 1 and 2 are direct GHG emissions that come from sources controlled or owned by an organization or are associated with the purchase of heating, cooling and electricity. Scope 3, which typically makes up the largest share of a company’s emissions, is a catchall category that includes any indirect emissions that occur up and down a product’s value chain, as well as things like employee business travel and commuting.

HPG also launched an online ESG hub to empower distributors by providing tools, documents, product links and services aligned with its sustainability initiatives.

As part of its overall sustainability push, HPG has introduced Goods2Know, a searchable collection of over 890 products featuring sustainable attributes, such as being made in North America or crafted with natural and recycled materials. The supplier noted that it has a new Goods2Know section on corresponding product pages, detailing applicable sustainable attributes in plain language to make it easy for distributors to communicate each product’s sustainability features to their clients. So far in 2024, 31% of the new products HPG launched had sustainability features.

HPG also noted that for every order that includes a product made from natural materials, the company plants a tree through Evertreen, a platform that works with farmers worldwide to plant trees to help businesses mitigate their environmental footprint.

Earlier this year, HPG launched a partnership with TerraCycle, a company that helps recycle and upcycle products that municipal recycling centers cannot. The supplier introduced the company’s Zero Waste Boxes to the promo market.

HPG CEO Chris Anderson attributed its sustainability progress to Rong’s dedication and buy-in from the entire team to embed the ESG plans into its regular business practices. “I fully appreciate a complete shift will be a marathon, not a sprint,” he added. “However, I believe we have taken a significant step forward with the host of changes we have revealed today and look forward to meeting the challenges we have set for ourselves in the years ahead.”

Based on reported 2022 North American promotional product revenue of $268.8 million, HPG ranked eighth on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest suppliers in the industry. Across its 11 brands, HPG offers more than 15,000 SKUs. It produces and ships from nine facilities strategically located across North America.

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