Some people call journalists a cynical bunch. But when you consider some of the stuff that’s sent our way, it’s easy to see why.

This week it was an invite from computer firm HP (well a PR agency actually). They asked if I’d like to fly to their ‘Power & Cooling’ event that takes place in Sophia Antipolis (Nice) on 10 July.

The email said: “Paul Perez, Vice President, Storage, Networks and Infrastructure, will be coming over from the US to discuss what HP is doing in the battle to help businesses become more energy efficient. The HP PR team will take care of booking your travel, transfer and accommodation to and from Sophia Antipolis.”

Now pardon me – I’m not a beardy eco warrior, but I am trying to cull the number of air miles I clock up and I thought HP was taking a ‘green’ stand.

Surely flying people in from all over the world goes a little against the nature of cutting carbon emissions …not least of all to attend an energy-efficiency event.

A further note – HP boasts a very swish video conferencing technology called Halo Collaboration Studio that it could use very easily here. It would have been great opportunity to big up green credentials and the product but HP seems to have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

It’s all very well to bang on about how green you are as a company, but unless the technology industry (which blows out 2% of world’s CO2) really walks the walk, it’s going to be a long time before anything changes.

Update: HP has just contacted me to say it is offsetting the CO2 from all the flights by making a donation. So that’s alright then…?

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