Claudia Contreras joined HP as VP of Renew Solutions in 2024. As the head of Product and Offerings, she oversees the strategy and development of the HP Renew Solutions portfolio in its second year, focusing on enabling multi-lifecycle devices and solutions. 

John Shegerian: Do you have a suggestion for a Rockstar Impact Podcast guest? Go to impactpodcast.com and just click be a guest, to recommend someone today. This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com. This episode of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Closed Loop Partners. Closed Loop Partners is a leading circular economy investor in the United States with an extensive network of Fortune 500 corporate investors, family offices, institutional investors, industry experts, and impact partners. Closed Loop’s platform spans the arc of capital from venture capital to private equity, bridging gaps and fostering synergies to scale the circular economy. To find Closed Loop partners, please go to www.closedlooppartners.com.

John: Welcome to another edition of The Impact Podcast. I’m so honored to have with us today Claudia Contreras. She’s the VP of HP Renew Solutions, Product and Offering, and of course, the iconic HP. Welcome Claudia, for the first time on the Impact podcast.

Claudia Contreras: Thank you, John. It’s good to be here.

John: We’ve had HP on before, but we’ve never talked about the HP Renew Program so I’m very excited to get into that. But before we go there and talk about what you and your colleagues are doing in HP Renew, let’s talk about you a little bit. Where did you grow up and how did you get on this very important and fascinating journey that you’re on, Claudia?

Claudia: Oh, well, we don’t want to spend hours and hours on this, but I’ll try and give you the short version. I’m originally from California, the San Francisco Bay Area. And I lived there for a number of years and I ended up doing graduate undergrad in Mexico, in ITESO Jesuit University in Guadalajara. I majored in international business, which made sense doing it that way. I thought I would go back to California and just work in, there was a lot of booming industry, there was a lot of going on in tech and when I landed there, I realized, well, with my profile and what I was interested in, I wasn’t as marketable as potentially someone who’s coding or programming. So I decided to move back to Mexico and I joined IBM and have been in tech since.

John: Wow.

Claudia: Multiple other organizations and many roles that have primarily been focused on supply chain. So did a lot of work within supply chain and supply chain from inventory management to cost and manufacturing side of it. So very much the traditional logistics type of supply chain. And the other big chunk of my experience has been within services and services from warranty, cost management and operations, contact centers, everything it takes to keep a customer experience where it needs to be. Same also in tech. So between those 2 experiences and very much that, there was always this underlining, very purpose driven efforts from my end to reduce waste. So how would we, under the umbrella of cost savings and under the umbrella of we will be more efficient, which is very traditional to the supply chain, there was the sustainability effort before it was called that. So I’ve been doing this for a number of years and again very much focused on circularity and embedded circularity into business. But my background is such and I’ve been very fortunate to have been able to move around roles, corporate roles, local roles and recently leading up the Renew Solutions product and offering group here in HP, where we are focused on circularity as part of a core piece of our business and everything that it means to drive our business towards more of a sustainable IT. In other moments, I am also a mom. I have 3 kids, 2 teens and a 4-year-old, which today is his birthday. And today, I may say, it’s Earth Day. So we’re talking today on Earth Day. And it’s a special meaning to it because when you think of what drives you, why do I do what I do? We spend a whole lot of hours at work. All of us, we spend a lot of time of our waking hours working and doing something knowing that you’re doing something that has so much purpose, so much meaning well beyond just the end of quarter results. It’s a big motivator. That’s what motivates me, that works for me and that’s why I’m having a lot of fun with HP Renew.

John: Oh, well, what’s your 4-year-old’s name today? What’s your 4-year-old?

Claudia: His name is Eli.

John: Eli. Well, happy birthday, Eli, on Earth Day. And it’s so funny when you talk about the earth and you talk about your children, I think you bring up something really important and interesting, Claudia, in terms of we want our children to be a better version of us. We always like when they’re like us, but they’re a better version. And I think with the earth, with people like you and that do the great work that you’re doing and the very important work that you do with your colleagues, I think we all have that common thread through us that we want to leave the earth better than we found it. We want to leave the earth better than we found it. So what a fun day to have your 4-year-old’s birthday on Earth Day and I’m so glad you gave us some time on your son’s birthday today. We’ve had HP on this show before. And HPs always seem to lead the way on circularity. Before when HPs come on, they’ve talked a lot about putting plastics back into, taking their circular plastics out of old recycled goods, having them repurposed, resmelted, and made into pellets, and then put into your new HP products. So circularity from that side of it, from a product creation and development and manufacturing side of it, this is the other side of circularity on the Renew. Can you talk a little bit about Renew, HP renew? What does that really mean, HP Renew solutions? What does that really entail?

Claudia: So, I mean you touched on a point, doing the efforts going through sustainability, it’s a journey that’s not like this 1 destination. We’ve been going down this path for a while. And the most effective ways when you design things to be circular, you design them for longevity, and that’s when you can make the biggest impact of it. So as we’ve been going down the path ourselves and looking at our own commitments, ensuring that we’re getting to the goals that we’ve laid out and we’ve positioned, there’s a lot of learnings and a lot of realization that our customers are going down this path as well, and they’re looking for alternatives to help them get to their goals as well. And this is where Renew Solutions comes in. What we do is we have a very specific portfolio of both hardware and services that are focused on hardware with a lower carbon footprint device, equally reliable, equally backed by HP. We’re talking about refurbished devices, assets that are going through a second life. No compromise is needed when you’re relying on these devices, and services associated to extending the life of products, ensuring that they’re being leveraged and in an optimal way throughout their effective life cycle. So that’s what Renew Solutions is. We are very much focused on decarbonization of IT, multi-lifecycle devices in a much more, less carbon intensive way.

John: So for our listeners, if you just understand a little bit size and scope of HP, over 53 billion sales last year, over 58,000 employees around the world and doing business in 170 countries. And then to find Claudia and her colleagues and everything you’re doing at HP Renew Solutions, please go to hp.com/renew. Claudia, when was this launched? Was this a recent launch or is this something historical? When was this envisioned and launched?

Claudia: The official launch of the portfolio per se, I would say very direct way in which we are positioned and we say, this is what we are going to do. This is such a priority that we want to make this a formal portfolio within HP about a year and a half, 2 years. And it started with that very conscious effort that that is the mission and we will go forward with that and expanding throughout the markets and the products that we are able to refurbish and position and the services we’re able to position, it’s been gradually increasing.

John: What are the 3 most common products that are on the HP Renew Solutions platform?

Claudia: The most common are the ones that you would probably expect. PCs, so are ways in which we can enable PCs for users of multiple sizes. So we have our elite books as an example of refurbished elite books. So it’s HP certified refurbished elite books with the same type of backing and printers. And we are recently, just very recently are now going through that motion of launching within Europe, the EU and we have launched print, refurbished in the US. So those are the 2 most common, or those are the 2 big buckets of the hardware that we are launching globally.

John: So you beat me to it a little bit. HP sells new products in 170 countries around the world. On HP Renew Solutions, how many countries today is it available and what’s your vision in the future?

Claudia: So we have PCs and this is the piece. We started with PCs primarily because a PC, it’s a lot more prevalent within the market. And what we did is we took it and we started off in the US and France. And that was the first round of it. The main motivators why the US and France is, France is regulatory reasons. The French are very much at that forefront of a lot of bringing in an approach in the way that they’re procuring and the way that waste is being managed, that they’ve embedded into directives and things that regulators are pushing on. So I think that motivates a lot and it mobilizes the market to be much more acutely aware of the options of lower carbon footprint. So we have France and the US where we have so much volume. There’s such a large market where we are very well positioned to meet on the requirements there. In the next month, we will be launching in Spain, the UK, and starting to extend our footprint in print in all of the EU as well. So print is already available in the US, but it will now be available also in EU countries in the next couple of months.

John: Claudia, as you said though, you had a long and fascinating journey that’s informed you to this new position with regards to logistics before and sustainability and circularity. So merging all those together, what is it now like to have an iconic and amazing brand with a new solution that you’re offering, and then scaling that on a global basis? Level of difficulty, how challenging, because as we know, the rules and laws, as you just mentioned, the friendliness of the France’s rules and regulations for your original launch there in the US, other countries aren’t as harmonized, and there isn’t a lot of harmonization yet on the regulatory basis when it comes to sustainability and emissions and other things. How difficult is this for you and your team?

Claudia: That’s a great question because I’m going to start off with what you were saying first. You asked about what did my previous roles bring from this? It’s as if it was building up to something like this. And the reason I say this is that when we’re thinking about the reverse supply chain, I’m just going to focus on refurbished hardware just for a second. It is not the same thing to build something from new or virgin, first time materials and produce a product, you spit it out, you distribute, it is a logical way in which it flows. The reverse supply chain is a lot more complex, as you well know. It’s how do you ensure that you’re taking back product? How do you ensure that that product is then pushed, put through a process that gets you a quality product that you can stand by and then support that product beyond the traditional or the first life support structure. So it’s almost like re-establishing all of those pieces in a new and a very different type of marketplace that may or may not have the same customers. So when I think of how my past has helped, for 1, this is all about the services wrapper, the way you support, the way you manage quality and customer experience which is very traditional to warranty management services overall, but then it is very ingrained with a very heavy supply chain function. Because if you are going to stand by a product and its quality and what you expect from it, the supply chain is core to it. So there’s that, the complexity of it all, I think you can illustrate it that way. But the other piece to note is that it’s not a new market. It’s not something that we don’t understand. We as consumers don’t understand. The car industry has been doing this for many years where we’re used to seeing used product and then there’s the certified refurbished or used product. And you know that there’s a difference. There’s a meaning to calling something certified and having it backed by the original manufacturer and the original OEM. And that’s what’s happening now with PCs and print and the business that we’re starting up. So there’s somewhat of a footprint or a way in which it’s existed. What we’re doing now is using our expertise and using a lot of those processes that exist for first life and replicating it on the reverse side, which there is some complexity. I won’t deny that. There is complexity, but we have all the expertise in the business to make sure that that’s possible.

John: The complexity is both though, as you point out, I think we need to parse this out because I think it’s a great point you just made. Complexity is 2 things. The supply chain is totally different for a reused product, for a product you’re going to reuse. Plus, that’s the inside complexity on that whole new supply chain that you’re creating, basically a new industry. But on the outside, it’s also the wonderful countries that you get to sell in are not all created equal when it comes to rules and regulations.

Claudia: Right. Yes.

John: So you’re dealing with interior and exterior complexities and lack of harmonization that stuff that’s never been done before. On the inside, this stuff has never been truly done before. On the outside, they’re all just trying to figure out their own stuff in each country, so.

Claudia: Agree. And you were talking about harmonization and the way that things are interpreted. It is something I think we, all of us in the industry struggle with a bit because there is no 1 standard. And when you have a 1 standard, it’s very cleanly laid out. In this case, there isn’t. There’s some standards. There’s some directional things here but if I say something is excellent, is your interpretation of excellent the same as mine? And that’s a bit of why where we are today, there’s still a lot of education that we have. We’re also in a position that we would say we’re here to also educate and inform. I guess maybe more inform about what those things, what you could look for. What are those things that you as a consumer, you as a interested party of using these types of assets or looking to sustainability services of such, what should you be looking for? Sometimes I think about the way in which our consumers are. Sometimes they know exactly what they need to ask and what they need to know and other times, it’s on us to also help them understand what are the right questions and where should they be focused and how can they make sure that their dollar, the dollar spent is well utilized?

John: Got it. You’re right. And we’re a little bit spoiled here in this country. That doesn’t make us better or worse than anybody, but we’re a little bit spoiled to new products. Used products is something more of the great countries of Europe and even some parts of Asia, even South Korea and Japan, which have sustainability more baked in, generationally speaking, into their culture. So talk a little bit about that. Let’s talk a little bit about the consumer in United States, who is thinking about buying a wonderful HP product from HP Renew Solutions. Talk a little bit about the efficacy and the warranty that comes with that, as opposed to what they’re used to is buying new product. Does this come also with some guarantees that it’s going to be working and it’s going to stay working for quite some time?

Claudia: So I’m going to give you the short answer. The short answer is yes, absolutely. Because if it didn’t, then we would be talking about a second class type of product and it is not. It is not. It is backed with the same type of quality and assurance that a customer could expect from a first life device. Now, I think what is relevant here and as you were asking the question and I was thinking about what you were referring to, I’m going to just draw back to something that happened a few weeks ago. I have teenage daughters and the generational thought process is very different. So my kids told me that they were going to go to a consignment store and that they were interested in looking for certain types of … they were going to go buy something. I thought, really? And I did not for they first mentioned the name of the store and they told me, oh, it’s a consignment store. And I asked him, well, because I just wanted to know, why are you considering this type of product? Some might think and maybe my generation and I might think, oh, well, if you’re buying the used product, you’re trading off. You are not getting as good as new. And there’s that paradigm. And they’re saying, well, I can get the same type of product. There’s good product and less expensive. It fits into what I want, why not? And they said, which I was proud of, that they said less waste. And I thought that in itself just shows you how this, while we are starting off with a business that maybe is now becoming part of our core, it is growing in the marketplace. 1, backed by regulation, but also this difference in the way that our consumers are thinking about it. And these teenagers will soon be the leaders of the organizations where we are all going to work for and they’re going to be producing the products. That paradigm is shifting and I’m really excited to be part of it because you can see how far it can get and for all good reasons.

John: And like you said, your daughter’s generation, they ain’t thinking much more about the environment than my generation did, which wasn’t part of our thing. Plus, also what they’re saying is the stigma is gone. The stigma of a second hand product is gone. There used to be a big, as you said earlier, there was a paradigm, was really a stigma with when it came to second hand products. And no more. No more.

Claudia: Right.

John: That’s great.

Claudia: But I mean, the stigma also has to do with what the point that you made, that if you’re not backed by the warranty, there is a compromise. There’s risk, so you’re well earned dollars, your investment, something you were relying on, especially something like your PC, which becomes … don’t leave home without it.

John: Part of us.

Claudia: It becomes very much part of us, yes. And not being able to have the security or the backing of if something goes wrong, if I need to … I’m not sure about the quality. That’s a tough 1 to swallow and it is extremely relevant when we’re thinking about adopting these types of assets into a normal work environment.

John: What’s the dream? What’s your vision and goal? If we were to have this conversation 2 years from now, how many countries will this expand to in the years to come?

Claudia: I hope to see the day when every time we’re sending a unit out, a new unit out, we’re bringing another 1 back in and we are repurposing that unit to its second life, its third life, and we’re leveraging the resources in full. That would be the dream scenario and I hope to be able to see that. But when it comes to our rollout plans and where we are, we are at the moment focused very heavily right now in Europe. And Europe because there’s multiple countries, multiple markets in which we know that there’s a demand, we know that there’s a need for products like this. 1, driven because of sustainability efforts, sustainability commitments that our own customers for first life are demanding, and others because there’s that shift in the thought process of how to consume and what you are consuming. So at the moment, our main efforts will be in the EU. We will continue with expansion of products in multiple other countries. The same thing looking to our friends in Asia-Pacific in certain countries where we know we can guarantee the quality and we can stand by the refurbishment operations, which is so critical for us to be able to guarantee that quality standard that we’re all used to.

John: Makes sense. Claudia, what’s the HP HOPE program? Really proud of Hope. We actually just reached a milestone of affecting 100,000 users here. Hope is a program that came to be as we were considering refurbished devices and the use of those refurbished devices is very much a vehicle to help us close some of the digital divide. There’s a lot of communities out there in this country and beyond that they do not have access to technology as maybe you and I do. In that effort, we initially started off with a focus on youth. How could we leverage these refurbished HP certified refurbished devices and put them in the hands of those maybe underserved communities or users that might otherwise not have access to this type of technology. And through a donation process from … So the seed units are coming from donors. These are customers that say, I’ve leveraged the asset to where I needed to. HP you can take it, refurbish it and ensure that they get into good hands so they can continue to be used. And the resources are used in a way that helps close that digital divide. That’s what HOPE does. HOPE is we cut recycling futures and it’s very much focused on leveraging HP certified refurbished devices for underprivileged communities to help with that close of the divide.

John: I love it. That’s really awesome.

Claudia: We’re very proud of that. Very proud of it.

John: And who runs that? Is that directly underneath HP Renew Solutions or under a different division or is it co-mingled among different divisions?

Claudia: It takes a village to run programs like this, including a lot of our partners, our refurbishment partners, the donors of the original assets. But it is run under Renew. It is part of what we do with Renew and it’s run this way because we have access to the material. Renew is not only just pushing out refurbished assets, we also have services where we’re bringing in. So we do that reverse motion as well through our ITAD service, which we’re taking as we’re deploying new assets. Many of our customers are saying, I have all of these assets that are going to be displaced. Nobody wants them to end up in a landfill. And by the way, there’s a lot of valuable data in them, so we take them back. And in that motion is when we put that option. If you would like to donate, if this is something that is of interest, HOPE is the way in which we do it.

John: That’s awesome. Claudia, you’re part of a new generation of young people that not only get to make a nice living and take care of your family, but you also get to make an impact on a daily basis in what you’re doing at HP Renew Solutions. Talk to a little bit to our next generation that’s behind you, who are either in high school, college, graduate school, or just coming into the marketplace and they’re looking at you and they see you as inspiration as they want to themselves make a nice paycheck and there’s no shame in anyone wanting to. We live in a wonderful capitalist country here. There’s no shame in saying that, but they also want to make an impact. So like you said earlier, when you go to bed at night, it’s not just about dollars and cents, it’s about making the world a better place. Talk a little bit about advice for the next generation behind you on how to proceed or how to evolve their career so they can also live the same type of great type of career that you’re living.

Claudia: First of all, I appreciate the young person like you comment. Secondly, I work for a large organization and I benefit from working from a large organization. I have had a very fruitful career and I am loving what I do because I find so much purpose in it. This is not done for free. It doesn’t have to be. In fact, I’m a firm believer that it shouldn’t be because there’s value in what we’re doing. And the more that you embed sustainability into core business practices, the more it can continue to live on, it can replicate, and it can grow. If everything that was sustainable meant it has to be for free or out of the goodness or that of a shared just reason because it’s the right thing to do, which is a good motivator. Don’t get me wrong, but it won’t be taking off. I had a conversation with some students at a local university that was speaking to them and asked them the question. They were sitting in a classroom that was about sustainability strategies. And that was part of the question. And my answer is that there is and has to be a good return on investment of this. Meaning, the more that we can ensure that we are leveraging the need for sustainable products, sustainable practices, that regulation is forcing us down this path, or because consumers are interested in it, that is a business opportunity. So leverage that, bring it in, and ensure that return on investment in the different scenarios and the different ways in which you can, which 1, like I used to do, it was cost mitigation efforts. So you’re saving or it is less waste. And if you think of circularity, circular economy and circular overall, it’s all about reducing waste. And reduction of waste means that there’s cost reductions. There’s an ROI. There’s ROI in purpose driven work. You have to find it and when you do, it makes your work so much more rewarding and so much more meaningful with the hours that we spend on doing it.

John: Claudia, those are great points. Is someone like you who loves what they do so much and who has continued to evolve their career, they always find ways, new ways to inspire themselves. How do you get inspired now? Do you get inspired inside of the industry and look to other OEMs for inspiration or do you look outside the industry or elsewhere to continue to inspire yourself to do the important and great work that you’re doing?

Claudia: I think inspiration comes in multiple ways, even these conversations, like saying it out loud. Sometimes we keep doing and doing and going and going and you forget, but you’re doing the same things. But when you step back a bit and you understand that, let’s remember what that is and you refresh your memory, you say it out loud, makes a huge difference. I think 1 of those inspirational things is that I really do look back and I think of when it’s time that I retire and when my kids are picking up the baton and they’re the new leaders of organizations that I can feel proud of impact that I made, even if it was little or if it was a lot that I feel proud of what I did leaving that behind. There’s a lot of really good reading and a lot of people to talk to about this. And this is the beauty of this space. I think you will find even if on the outside and in the marketplace, we may be competitors, we may be competing for the same customer when it comes to sustainability, because it’s such a different level of reasons why we do it, there’s always that understanding of those of us in the industry that are pushing this forward like you are, that there’s conversations that are so fruitful and so helpful to just keep us going and keep us motivated, even if we’re having to swim upstream every single time.

John: You gave away the secret of my daily show, Claudia. You just gave away my whole secret. Oh my gosh. It’s people like you that inspire me and that’s why I keep doing this show, to have you on and host you. And I just want to say, first of all, a couple of things. First, for our listeners and viewers who want to find Claudia and all of her colleagues at HP Renew Solutions, please go to hp.com/renew and support all the great work that they’re doing. Claudia, thank you. You’re always welcome back on this show because as you and I both know, sustainability has no finish line. It’s a real journey. And the journey that you’re on at HP Renew Solutions is fascinating. It’s really important stuff. So I want to thank you not only for your 45 minutes with us today, but more importantly, I want to thank you for making the world a better place.

Claudia: Thank you, John. Appreciate the time.

John: This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Engage. Engage is a digital booking platform revolutionizing the talent booking industry. With thousands of athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, Engage is the go-to spot for booking talent, for speeches, customer experiences, live streams, and much more. For more information on Engage or to book talent today, visit letsengage.com. This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com.