When Kim Hye-sun joined HP Inc. nearly two decades ago, sustainability was something companies talked about in annual reports and occasional press releases. Today, as the tech giant's head of government affairs, public policy and sustainability compliance for Korea and Japan, she watches environmental standards function less like voluntary guidelines and more like border checkpoints — determining which companies can sell their products and which cannot.

The transformation isn't theoretical. More than 60 percent of HP's global revenue now comes from products and services specifically designed to reduce environmental impact, Kim told The Korea Herald in a recent interview. That figure represents a fundamental recalibration of how one of the world's largest technology manufacturers approaches product development, supply chain management, and market strategy.

"Sustainability is increasingly shaping how companies compete — not as a cost, but as a condition for market access and long-term competitiveness," Kim said. The distinction matters. Framing environmental standards as costs suggests they're optional expenses that eat into margins. Framing them as access requirements acknowledges a harder reality: companies that cannot meet evolving environmental benchmarks will find themselves locked out of major markets entirely.

From Voluntary to Mandatory

The shift Kim describes reflects regulatory changes already reshaping global trade. The European Union's incoming environmental disclosure requirements, extended producer responsibility laws spreading across developed economies, and carbon border adjustment mechanisms all function as de facto market barriers for companies unable to demonstrate environmental compliance.

For technology manufacturers like HP, those requirements cascade through supply chains. A printer sold in Germany must now come with documentation about materials sourcing, energy consumption during manufacturing, product lifespan expectations, and end-of-life recycling provisions. A laptop sold to a European government agency may need to meet specific recycled content thresholds or carbon footprint ceilings.

Meeting those standards requires investments that would have seemed extravagant a decade ago: redesigning products for disassembly and repair, establishing take-back programs for used equipment, tracking carbon emissions across multi-tier supplier networks, substituting virgin plastics with recycled alternatives even when they cost more.

The Revenue Calculation

HP's 60 percent revenue figure suggests those investments are paying off — or at least that the company has successfully repositioned its product portfolio around environmental criteria that major customers now demand. The calculation includes products made with recycled materials, energy-efficient devices that meet strict consumption standards, and services designed to extend product lifecycles through repair and refurbishment rather than replacement.

According to reporting by The Korea Herald, Kim emphasized that this revenue mix reflects genuine market demand rather than internal goal-setting. Large enterprise customers, government procurement offices, and increasingly retail consumers are selecting products based on environmental specifications that would have been afterthoughts in previous purchasing decisions.

The shift creates competitive dynamics that favor large, established manufacturers with resources to invest in compliance infrastructure. Smaller competitors without dedicated sustainability teams, supply chain transparency systems, or capital for retooling manufacturing processes face steeper barriers to entry in premium markets.

Asia's Manufacturing Challenge

Kim's role spanning Korea and Japan places her at the center of particularly complex sustainability dynamics. Both countries host major electronics manufacturing ecosystems that supply global markets while navigating domestic energy transitions and industrial policy pressures.

South Korea's technology sector has committed to ambitious carbon reduction targets, but implementation requires coordinating across sprawling supply chains where first-tier suppliers may have robust environmental programs while second and third-tier component makers operate with less oversight. Japan faces similar challenges, complicated by its manufacturing sector's historical resistance to transparency requirements that might expose proprietary processes.

For HP, operating in these markets means balancing global environmental commitments against local supplier capabilities and regulatory environments that may lag behind European or North American standards. The company must simultaneously meet strict requirements in markets where it sells products while working with suppliers in markets where environmental regulations remain less developed.

Market Access as Market Power

The framing of sustainability as market access rather than cost carries implications beyond individual companies. It suggests environmental standards are becoming tools of economic statecraft — ways for developed economies to set terms of trade that favor their own manufacturers while creating barriers for competitors in countries with less stringent regulations.

Critics of this dynamic argue it amounts to green protectionism: using environmental rules to disadvantage manufacturers from developing economies who cannot afford the compliance infrastructure that companies like HP have built. Supporters counter that global environmental challenges require exactly this kind of market pressure to drive industrial transformation at scale.

Kim's comments suggest HP views the trend as irreversible regardless of the political debates surrounding it. Companies that treat sustainability as optional or cosmetic will find themselves unable to compete for the most lucrative contracts and customer segments. Those that embed environmental performance into core product development and business strategy position themselves for markets where sustainability is not a differentiator but a baseline requirement.

The 60 percent revenue figure offers a benchmark for how far that transformation has progressed at one major manufacturer. It also suggests how much further the shift has to go — 40 percent of HP's revenue still comes from products and services not categorized as contributing to environmental impact reduction, indicating substantial room for continued evolution as standards tighten and market expectations rise.

For workers in technology manufacturing, the sustainability transition brings both opportunities and uncertainties. New jobs emerge in compliance, environmental engineering, and circular economy services. Traditional manufacturing roles face pressure as companies redesign products and processes. The transition Kim describes is reshaping not just what companies sell, but how and where they make it — and who benefits from that work.