Dell's Green Goal for 2008 (27-Sep-07)

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Full story: Dell's Green Goal for 2008 (27-Sep-07)

Dell has recently announced its plans to go carbon-neutral by 2008. The company is looking to zero out its carbon emissions through a number of initiatives, such as offering businesses recycling of their old computers, operating the Plant a Tree for Me program, using bio-diesel fuels in the vehicles of logistics suppliers and offsetting through renewable energy sources.

Like most companies in the computer business, Dell outsources a lot of production to foreign manufacturers. All that outsourcing makes for a vastly more complex picture of Dell's carbon impact, and all the more difficult to assess.

Dell executives say the effort will focus mainly on power consumption at Dell-owned and leased buildings around the world. The corporation has said its priority is to minimise total energy consumption. Offsets will be used as a last resort.

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Michael Dell says he aims make his company "carbon neutral" in 2008, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.

The computer giant is looking to zero-out its carbon emissions through a number of initiatives, such as offering small businesses and consumers curbside recycling of their old computers, stuffing small recycling bags with free postage into new printer-ink cartridge boxes, and operating a "Plant a Tree for Me" program. Companies implementing carbon-neutral programs can adopt pollution- and energy-management practices in their own operations and/or purchase carbon-reduction credits from other businesses, which, in turn, offset the level of pollution their products or services generate.

Dell apparently is of the same mind as Will Wynn, the mayor of the company's hometown, Austin, Texas. The city is taking steps to slice its greenhouse emissions by developing sustainable-energy practices in a state known for industries heavily reliant on fossil fuels.

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Dell Plans To Go Carbon Neutral By Next Year (26-Sep-07)

Dell says it will become the first PC maker in the industry to make its worldwide operations carbon neutral by next year, Associated Press reports.

For every pound of greenhouse gas that goes into making, transporting or selling computers, Dell will find an equal offset through renewable energy sources, more efficient management of electricity use and other methods.

Dell says the company saved $1.8 million in electricity bills in the past year just by turning off equipment at night, when it’s not being used.

The move certainly points to a PC industry that has changed tremendously in the past few years. “You have IBM Corp., HP and Dell all battling it out on this environmental field, and that’s very different than ‘my processor has a clock speed faster than yours,’” said John Davies, an environmental and sustainability analyst with AMR Research.

The company also announced a new program called “Plant a Forest for Me” that lets organizations worldwide join together with Dell and share best practices, partner and facilitate the planting of millions of trees in reforestation projects. This program is a continuation of the “Plant a Tree for Me” program for consumers.

The founding members of “Plant a Forest for Me” include Dell, ABN AMRO, AMD, Ask.com, Salesforce.com and WellPoint. Each company has committed to offsetting part of their carbon output by purchasing trees for Plant a Forest. Dell partners with The Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org, non-profit organizations that facilitate the tree planting.

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Dell Aims To Go Carbon Neutral (27-Sep-07)

It's portraying itself as at the head of the pack among computer makers with a big initiative to help the environment. How good is the plan? by Arik Hesseldahl

Dell (DELL) is embarking on a broad environmental initiative under which it plans to consume less energy and use more power from renewable sources in a bid to make its operations carbon neutral by the end of 2008.

The announcement came in a speech Sept. 26 by CEO Michael Dell at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Never before in the history of business have we seen such a critical need to build a worldwide community dedicated to improving the environment," Dell said.


Carbon Scorecard

With a statement like that, one might think Dell is aiming to turn his sprawling $55 billion company on a dime into an oasis of eco-friendly industrial practices. But given the details disclosed so far, the move looks more like a baby step for a business of this size.

Dell executives say the effort will focus mostly on power consumption at Dell-owned and leased buildings around the world. For starters, employees' computers will be turned off at night and during long periods of inactivity, says Dane Parker, Dell's director of global environmental health and safety programs. The company estimates these efforts will save $1.8 million per year in power costs and cut annual carbon dioxide emissions by 8,500 tons—about the same amount of CO2 as 1,400 American cars spew in a year.

However, while certainly a step in the right direction, 8,500 tons amounts to just 2.2% of Dell's annual CO2 emissions, according to the latest data released by The Carbon Disclosure Project. The CDP is a nonprofit coalition of financial institutions, including ABN Amro (ABN), HSBC, AIG (AIG), and pension fund CalPERS, that manage a combined $41 trillion assets. The group uses that investing clout to press companies to disclose data on their carbon emissions and then produces an annual report rating companies on their disclosures.

Dell has told the CDP its annual global emissions amounted to 344,000 tons of CO2. That was well below the 2 million tons reported by archrival Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and the 2.8 million tons reported by IBM (IBM), but higher than the 284,000 tons reported by Sun Microsystems (JAVA).


Using Alternative Energy Sources

"It's going to be a big job," says Allison Hannon, corporate engagement manager for The Climate Project, an advocacy group that has worked with Dell on its carbon policy. "First, it's going to have to get its house in order and then work on reductions."

Dell says it's also replaced the lighting fixtures at its buildings in Central Texas, cutting power demands in those facilities by 9%. The computer maker also plans to buy more power from alternative sources such as wind farms. Already, 10% of the power needed to run Dell's facilities in Austin, Tex., come from renewable sources. However, "our biggest constraint with renewable energy is with availability," says Mark Newton, Dell's environmental policy leader. "Availability is a bigger problem than cost." While that increases demand for alternative energy, the immediate impact on carbon emissions is not very significant, says Michael Gillenwater, a climate policy researcher at Princeton University. "A lot of power from renewable sources would have been generated anyway," so there may not be a corresponding drop in electricity generated from fossil fuels, he says.

But since Dell can't eliminate all its emissions through energy savings, efficiency, and renewable energy, the company plans to buy carbon offsets to achieve "neutrality." Carbon offsets—the practice of buying and selling rights to emit C02— constitute a market worth about $100 million in the U.S. But in some cases, the impact of offset purchases can be negligible (BusinessWeek, 3/26/07). "We're working with a team of environmental organizations as we shape this offset strategy to ensure that the offsets are permanent and meaningful," says Parker.

Notably, the initative's cost has been small: So far, Dell has spent about $5 million, or less than one-tenth of 1%, of its fiscal year 2006 sales of $56 billion. Parker says the money spent so far will ultimately produce savings. "In some cases, the return on investment is a year and a half, and in some cases it's longer—like four to five years," he says.


Outsourcing Complicates The Picture

The details were also thin, however, as to how Dell plans to push the companies that actually manufacture its computers to meet the new goal. Dell says it will require major suppliers to report their emissions, but ultimately, the company has a lot more control over how much power it consumes in its own offices and facilities.

Like every company in the computer business, Dell outsources a lot of production to foreign manufacturers. Jeffery Wu, an industry analyst with iSuppli, estimates that more than half of all Dell notebook PCs are manufactured by Quanta Computer, while another third come from Compal Electronics. Dell's desktop PCs and servers are partially built in Asia, then shipped to Dell facilities in the U.S. and Ireland, where they're assembled, configured, and shipped to customers.

All that outsourcing makes for a vastly more complex picture of Dell's carbon impact, and all the more difficult to assess, Gillenwater says. "It's a matter of where you draw the boundaries. Everyone wants to say they're carbon neutral, but then there's the question of what that means. There's no clear definition. There's the problem with measuring the carbon footprint, and the wider out you draw the boundaries, the more complex the picture gets, and the less control a company like Dell has with the information it gets from its suppliers."


Goal: carbon neutral

Dell's logistics suppliers—mainly delivery companies—will be required to use biodiesel fuels on their vehicles. In particular, suppliers sending parts to Dell's campus in Penang, Malaysia, will have the emissions of their vehicles measured. Those that don’t meet Dell's demands, Parker said, will have 10 days to fix the vehicle or risk being banned from Dell’s campus.

In general, computers have a huge environmental impact (BusinessWeek, 9/10/07) from manufacturing, to the energy they consume while in use, to disposal, and recycling. Dell is one of many computer makers, including HP and Apple (AAPL), that have come under fire from activists and others who want the companies to lessen their overall impact on the environment. Lately, Dell has tried to portray itself as being greener than others in its industry, launching efforts like "Plant a Tree for Me," which encourages customers buying Dell products to offset their carbon impact by adding a few dollars to their purchase for charities that plant trees.

Dell is just the latest big name in the technology sector to brand itself with the "carbon neutral" billing. Google (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO) have both promised to make their operations, which consist primarily of huge installations of power-hungry computer servers, carbon neutral by the end of 2007.

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Dell Moves Up Carbon Timeline (27-Sep-07)

Dell Inc. unveiled an environmental plan Wednesday that the computer maker said will make its operations carbon-neutral by 2008, a year earlier than it previously promised.

Dell said it would achieve the goal through a variety of methods, including buying so-called carbon offsets, replacing incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent and requiring parts suppliers to list information on their environmental policies.

Among the gases that contribute to global warming, carbon — generated in the United States mainly in energy production and transportation — is the most voluminous.

For Dell, going carbon-neutral means the company will find ways to offset every pound of greenhouse gas generated in the production, transportation and sales of its computers. Possible methods include using renewable energy sources such as wind, managing electricity use more efficiently and planting trees, which gradually absorb carbon dioxide as they mature.

Dane Parker, the director of Dell's global environmental health and safety programs, said the company has spent $5 million so far on energy-saving efforts. He acknowledged that buying offsets from other entities that have made extra cuts in their carbon production will be Dell's main route to carbon neutrality in the short term.

"Our priority is to minimize total (energy) consumption," he said. But "offsets are what we will do as a last resort in the most responsible way we can."

Parker said specific changes Dell has already taken include turning off computer systems at night and replacing incandescent light bulbs with more efficient fluorescent designs. Such measures have cut Dell's electricity bill by $1.8 million in the past year, company officials said. It was unclear how big a percentage of its total bill that was.

Robin Schneider, executive director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment, said she was encouraged by Dell's news but would like to see data on how many tons of carbon Dell produces and how much it plans to remove.

She noted that Dell has not addressed its production of other greenhouse gasses such as methane.

"I think we do need to see a very clear before-and-after so that it's not just a press release that gets good headlines," she said.

Dell should be lauded for taking the initiative, said Iza Kruszewska of Greenpeace International. But the company isn't addressing the full impact of a computer's life cycle from raw material to outdated e-waste.

"We have to realize that Dell is talking about carbon neutrality only in its operations," she said. "But are you going to go back to the mining of the minerals?"

There's no way to verify a company's carbon neutral claims in the United States, because the federal government doesn't track companies' green house gas emissions, she said.

Company founder and CEO Michael Dell said in an interview that the company's environmental policies were "the right thing to do."

"When you think about our industry, we produce 260 million computers a year," he said Tuesday. "There's a responsibility that comes with that."

The Round Rock, Texas, company's greener push comes amid a turnaround attempt by Dell upon his return to the helm. The company has lost market share to Hewlett-Packard Co., and continues to deal with the fallout of a federal accounting probe.

The company is not alone in trying to do better by the environment.

HP spokeswoman Kelly Newton said her company has long been a leader in reducing overall emissions and was named best in class this week by the Carbon Disclosure Project, an international nonprofit to which companies submit reports on greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental issues.

"We commend others in our industry who are now joining in these efforts," Newton said.

Greenpeace International placed Dell fourth in a ranking this year of the environmental friendliness of 14 global technology companies. It landed behind Lenovo Group Ltd., Nokia Corp. and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. Apple Inc. has disputed its last-place showing; Hewlett Packard finished in eighth place.

John Davies, an environment and sustainability analyst with AMR Research in Boston, said this rivalry shows how important the environment has become for the computer industry.

"You have IBM Corp., HP and Dell all battling it out on this environmental field, and that's very different than, 'My processor has a clock speed faster than yours,'" he said.

Dell also announced Wednesday that it was expanding its "Plant a Tree for Me" program, in which customers can choose to have $2 of a laptop purchase or $6 of a desktop purchase go toward funds to plant trees around the world. Other companies also will be able to purchase trees to offset their carbon impact, Dell spokesman Bryant Hilton said.

The company also is partnering with Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Ask.com, Salesforce.com, WellPoint and other businesses to share information about environmental practices and establish more reforestation projects.


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Dell Unveils Carbon Neutral Plans (27-Sep-07)

The company has announced big plans to make its worldwide operations carbon neutral.

Computer giant Dell has pledged to become the "first major computer manufacturer" to go carbon neutral.

The company hasn't said when it plans to achieve its lofty goal, although many media reports have suggested it is aiming to complete its green mission by the end of next year.

Dell says it will "neutralise the carbon impact of its worldwide operations," with a series of initiatives to reduce or offset its greenhouse gas emissions.

These include a new 'Plant a Forest for Me' scheme, in which Dell and its partners will "plant millions of trees in sustainably managed reforestation projects" to offset their carbon emissions. It's a none-too-subtle sequel to its 'Plant a Tree for Me scheme, in which Dell's customers can opt to plant a tree when buying a new computer.

"Never before in the history of business have we seen such a critical need to build a worldwide community dedicated to improving the environment," said Dell's chairman and chief executive Michael Dell.

He went on to issue a challenge to competing companies to join in "a long-term, carbon-neutral commitment to our shared Earth."

The news follows Dell's June announcement that it plans to become the "greenest technology company on the planet," a position that will not be easily won. Google, for example, has completed 90 per cent of a 1,600 kilowatt solar panel installation at one of its data centres, and has also pledged to become carbon neutral by the end of the year.

Dell will be working with the Environmental Protection Agency to determine the extent of the greenhouse gas emissions from its US operations. The company says it will primarily be investigating the emissions impact created by its electricity use and facility heating and cooling, but will also be purchasing carbon offsets for employee travel.

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Green Dell gets greener with new green initiative (26-Sep-07)

A lot of PC makers are riding the going green pony pretty hard these days, but the folks at Dell — you've got to give them credit — are making a show out of boiling the poor thing down to eco-friendly glue.

Nary a week goes by without Dell reminding us how they intend to sponge off our ravaged Earth Mother. Don't get the wrong impression — nature is wicked rad and all that. And at least Dell has come a long ways from the days using prison labor to scrap their toxic waste. But give our inbox a break.

Today, Dell is claiming it will become the first computer manufacturer to make its operations "carbon neutral."

CEO Michael Dell heralded a series of programs to shrink the company's carbon footprint and offset its greenhouse gas emissions by 2008.

"Carbon neutral!" you might exclaim. "That sounds fantastically impressive."

Well hold your — er — horses a minute. That particular buzzword deserves a disclaimer.

For every unit of greenhouse gas that goes into computer production and distribution, Dell will find an equal offset through investing in renewable energy sources or energy efficiency. Of course, the carbon still going into the atmosphere isn't actually "neutralized" in any real sense. It's an eco-friendly step, but calling it "carbon neutral" is a little like saying 10 - 5 = 0. But we digress.

"I think it's the right thing to do," said Michael Dell. "These are important issues. When you think about our industry, we produce 260 million computers a year. There's a responsibility that comes with that."

Dell said the company will invest more in technology to reduce its energy consumption and participate in programs such as efforts to plant more trees (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/07/banking_carbon/). In fact, Dell is expanding its "Plant a Tree for Me" program for private consumers to "Plant a Forest for Me," for companies buying in bulk.

The company says its Texas operations already get 10 per cent of its energy from "green sources," but wants to increase that percentage. Their efforts will primarily involve emissions impacts created by electricity use and facility heating and cooling. Lighting fixtures will be replaced with energy efficient florescence, and carbon-spewing machinery will be tuned or replaced. Turning off equipment at night when it's not being used has already saved $1.8m in electricity bills in the past year, Dell said. The company also vows to offset the emissions impact of employee business travel.

Of course, much of Dell's supplies come from contract manufacturers who are not bound by the company's eco-friendly guidelines. Dell is trying to account for this by requiring major suppliers to identify and report their emissions impact. The company says it is the first step in a long-term strategy to minimize emissions from supply-chain operations.

But it considers the practice a last resort. "We would just as soon not do any offsetting," said Mark Newton, Dell environmental policy leader. "We would like to make things green to the point where offsetting is not needed."

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Dell joins the tree-huggers

Ian Brown

Dell has announced that it is the first major computer manufacturer to commit to neutralising the carbon impact of its worldwide operations. Speaking at a policy forum organised by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CEO Michael Dell issued a challenge to Dell's peer companies to join in 'a long-term, carbon-neutral commitment to our shared Earth'. The company also announced a new programme called 'Plant a Forest for Me' that enables organisations to join together to facilitate the planting of millions of trees to offset part of their carbon output.

Comment: It would be so easy to be cynical about this - arch-capitalist Michael Dell sees the error of his ways and turns hippy. But while we're sure Dell is very sincere in his belief that carbon offsetting is needed to slow down climate change, this is all about marketing. Dell is engaged in a battle with HP, IBM, Sun and others to prove how green it is. There's no proof that CIOs are actually being swayed in their choice of supplier by the 'green' messaging, but from California to Germany to Sydney, Australia large enterprises are starting to take corporate and social responsibility more seriously. That's what Dell is picking up on. So good, Dell is committed to becoming carbon neutral and doing its bit for the planet. And yes, Dell has to show that it's ready to stand up and be counted. But what we'd prefer to see is practical assistance for customers on how to reduce energy wastage and improve resource efficiency in their data centres. Data centres are notoriously inefficient in their use of resources, particularly computer resources - most have too many servers running too few workloads. The age when IT can afford the luxury of one small workload hogging the resources of its own server are over.

Consolidation and virtualisation are the buzz words for CIOs looking to improve the efficiency of their data centres, reduce energy consumption and, most important of all, reduce costs. For most CIOs that means they'll have to re-architect existing data-centre infrastructure. It won't be easy and many will need help. And it will mean a shift in spending from products to services - help me transform my data centre; run my data centres more efficiently for me; provide me with the computing resources I need on a utility basis.

Dell may be ahead on the offsetting, but it needs to catch up on services and its ability to help customers reuse and share resources, reduce costs and maybe, just maybe, help the planet a little too.

  • Source: [Ovum]

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Dell Steps Up Green Promise

By Tim Stammers

Dell has promised that it will be the first major computer maker to reach some form of carbon neutrality.

The pledge was made by Dell CEO Michael Dell during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC this week, where not by coincidence the White House has also just hosted a climate change conference.

"I'm proud to announce that by the end of 2008, we [Dell] will be the first major computer company to become carbon neutral. We hope we are not the last. I say this with all seriousness. We have a critical need to build a worldwide community dedicated to improving the environment," Dell said.

Dell said that it will achieve carbon neutrality by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, about 95% of which are related to the company's electricity use. It plans to be more energy efficient, and to buy as much power from renewable sources as possible. It will deal with remaining emissions through the sometimes controversial process of "offsetting," or making investments in other organization's green efforts, such as forestation, or the development of green technologies.

The pledge earned an endorsement from US environmental group Ceres, an long-standing organization that combines non-profit groups and over fifty companies, including large corporations such as General Motors, Ford Motor, ITT, Sun Microsystems --- and Dell.

"What's particularly impressive is Dell's focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy as primary mechanisms for addressing climate change, and we look forward to working with Dell as additional environmental initiatives are developed," said Ceres president Mindy Lubber.

A spokesman for another US environmental body, Environmental Defense, said: "This is indicative of something much bigger than Dell, which is that businesses are beginning to take their carbon footprints seriously."

Although Dell will cut its electricity bills by making its operations more energy-efficient, the company will not reach carbon neutrality without spending on offset investments. Currently the company says that it is difficult to know whether the whole project will subtract or add to its bottom line.

"Our energy-efficiency efforts save us money. For example we estimate a power management trial for computers on the company network will save $1.8m annually. The price of renewable power is variable but in some cases has become competitive with more traditional power. Offsetting will carry a cost, which we are currently quantifying," said Dell spokesman Bryant Hilton.

10% of the power used at Dell's Austin, Texas facility comes from renewable sources. But as Dell expands, that percentage might fall. "Our challenge is that as a growing business our power needs will increase in the future, hence we need to expand the supply of and access to renewable power," Hilton said.

Dell has already pinned its colors to the green mast, and in June this year said it planned to be the "greenest technology company on the planet." Alongside its plan to automatically shut down computers at night or when inactive, the company has started fitting office lighting that uses 9% less electricity than existing lights. It also refers to a Dell building in Germany that saves energy through "enhanced insulation and use of LCD monitors." But all of this is not going to make a huge dent in Dell's electricity consumption.

Offset investments sometimes also known as carbon credits -- have sometimes been criticized as fig-leaves that allow businesses to pretend to be carbon neutral at very low, tax-deductible cost, based on inaccurate calculations of environmental damage and the green investment needed to put it right.

Stressing that he was not familiar with Dell's plans, the Environmental Defense spokesman told ComputerWIre: "We support offsets 110% -- as long as they are verifiable and enforceable, and don't just represent business as usual with regards to emissions."

Dell's corporate announcement of its carbon-neutral pledge included this statement: "Dell is working with stakeholders to shape its offset strategy, which will help ensure that offsets are invested in projects that can be monitored and verified. Projects will be evaluated for their long-term viability and assurance that the carbon savings are real."

Hilton added: "We are refining the offset strategy with stakeholders now - it will not all be through reforestation efforts."

As for the criteria that Dell will use to decide when it has achieved carbon neutrality, Hilton said that Dell has reported to the Carbon Disclosure Project for the past four years and that emissions data is part of a Dell annual sustainability report. The company is also part of the US Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders program, and said that the EPA is advising it on emissions accounting

The neutrality promise covers Dell's owned and leased facilities, and its employees' business air travel.

Dell also said that it has extended the tree-planting scheme that it launched earlier this year, under which its customers can help pay for trees to be planted to offset the carbon emissions associated with the hardware they are buying. The company would not say how much it has it self spent on the two schemes, but said that within three months of the launch of the first US program initial donations covered the planting of 20,000 trees. ABN AMRO, Ask.com, AMD, Salesforce.com and WellPoint were joint founders of the new Plant a Forest for Me scheme.

Our View

Regardless of how much cash Dell can save by making itself more energy efficient, it is going to have to spend money on offsets in order to become carbon neutral. And money spent on offsets will be money out the door.

The key decision that Dell will have to make is how much of its profit it is prepared to spend on its environmental beliefs.

That decision will obviously have to take account of Dell's competitive position. If business is tough and the company's recent recovery falters next year, it is going to be harder for it to hold to its promise. That is even allowing for wiggle room in impact and offset calculations.

If carbon footprints really do need to be cut quickly to avoid climatic disaster, the only way to guarantee that this will happen is through government action that enforces a level playing field, and equal environmental penalties to all businesses.

  • Source: [Computergram]

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