About

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell is a leading global systems and services company and No. 33 on the Fortune 500.

Strategy

In its quest to be “the greenest technology company on the planet”, in September 2007 Dell announced its carbon neutral goal and a commitment to meet that goal by the end of 2008.

The company has further committed to measuring progress against the most rigorous industry-sanctioned practices and pledged to share results with Dell’s customers and stakeholders around the world.

The guidelines Dell uses to measure carbon-neutrality are widely used by companies including News Corp., Google, Yahoo and HSBC. The company is constantly looking for ways to decrease its carbon footprint and for better ways to help customers and suppliers achieve their environmental goals.

Dell first took an inventory of Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions to better understand the impact of its operations –electricity usage, direct CO2 emissions and employee air travel.

In September 2007, Dell set a transparent, three-tiered goal: 1) increase energy-efficiency 2) maximize purchases of green power and 3) responsibly offset remaining effects going forward.

In August 2008 Dell announced that it had met its carbon-neutral goal several months ahead of schedule.

• Increasing energy-efficiency Dell has prioritized efficiency -- the company’s carbon intensity (CO2/revenue) is less than half   that    of its closest competitor and it has made a pledge to reduce it further. It installed more-efficient light bulbs and air conditioners in its buildings, and timers that turn off lights and computers at night and on weekends. It is also trying to cut down on employee air travel. These moves have reduced Dell's carbon-dioxide emissions by about 4%, or 20,000 metric tons, leaving an overall carbon footprint of 490,085 tons.

• Maximizing purchases of green power Since 2004, Dell’s annual investment in green electricity from utility providers, including wind, solar and methane-gas capture, has grown from 12 million kWh to 116 million kWh, an increase of nearly 870 percent. Dell is also making additional investments in wind-power projects in the U.S., China and India through partnerships with the some of the world’s most reputable green-power providers. Combined with green electricity purchases from utility providers, this equates to 645 million kWh and the avoidance of more than 400,000 metric tons of CO2e.

• Responsibly offsetting remaining effects.Dell is neutralizing the entirety of its carbon footprint by purchasing renewable energy and environmental credits. The bulk of those are composed of so-called renewable-energy certificates, or RECs, from wind-power projects in the U.S. The company is also investing in a forest conservation project in Madagascar.

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