HP promised to cut the energy use of its products 40 percent by the end of this year, and now says that it has already succeeded.The goal was to cut energy consumption by 40 percent, compared to the levels of 2005, by the end of 2011. But HP recently announced that it had reached that goal nine months early. HP products are, on average, more than 50 percent more power efficient than they were in 2005, the company said.

The results were figured from a mix of printers, displays, notebooks, desktop PCs, and servers.

HP also announced that subsequent analysis showed that if all makes and models of the printers, displays, notebooks, desktop PCs, and servers that HP shipped in 2005 were recycled and replaced with the latest models, within a year its customers would save about $10.4 billion in energy costs and 40 million tons of CO2 emissions.

Considering the unspoken negative implications about its 2005 products, that's a pretty brave statement, and a lot of companies would not think of making it. Consumer advertising bombards us with a lot of "new and improved" slogans, apparently hoping we won't be bothered by the idea that there was something wrong with the previous generation-or they just repeat the slogans until we forget to ask. But HP embraced the question. That's rare, and shows respect for the customers.

But of course, anything bought in 2005 is by now in line to get replaced and recycled anyway-six years is a long time in information technology. And if HP gets all that replacement business, that's a fine chunk of revenue for them.