Heather Clancy

THE BUZZ

June 06, 2007

Whether you consider it real or rhetoric, Dell and its eponymous founder Michael Dell are pouring a whole lot of fertilizer onto their environmental initiatives. I'm not-so-secretly thrilled, because there has been a lot of me-too-ing among the tech giants, so this can only raise the bar for everyone else.

Specially, the company has adopted a Zero Carbon Initiative that covers its global operations footprint (as well as those of its suppliers), and it also has challenged its customers to help it create the "greenest PC on the planet." You can contribute comments on the green PC here or just read what your customers might be saying (because I know a lot of you still think this green stuff is a lot of hooey).

Internally, Dell reveals that it ran a power management pilot project on more than 50,000 computers on the Dell corporate network. Its goal is to apply what it learned in these tests to future design principles and management policies from desktop to data center. Dell reports that its pilot saved 13 million kilowatt hours of electricity, or 8,500 tons of carbon dioxide. The estimated cost savings was $1.8 million annually.

By the way, it is not lost on me that this press release came out just one day after HP revealed it had created the first business PC to attain Gold status as designated by the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). I still think that's a pretty cool feat that is pretty darn impressive, and I'm waiting for others to match it. (Come on, Apple, please?)

Still, there is way too much to the latest Dell initiative for it to be a mere me-too announcement ala my cynical remark above.

Aside from what I've mentioned, what are the other specifics of its green technology proclamation?

First off, Dell said it will reduce the "carbon intensity" of its operations by 15 percent by 2012. This will come through energy efficiency policies as well as intensified recycling programs. Here's a big scary one for you components suppliers and contract manufacturers: Dell also will police the greenhouse gas emissions of its suppliers, and it will use the data in its quarterly business assessments of suppliers. So, any that don't work on improving their own environmental footprint could find themselves on shaky footing with Dell.

The company is also encouraging its customers to play a part and it has extended its "Plant a Tree For Me" program to purchases of notebooks or desktops in Europe. Michael Dell committed to personally matching any funds collected under the program over the next three months.

Finally, Dell is encouraging the adoption of a measure that contrasts a company's carbon output (as measured by greenhouse emissions) with its annual revenue. A big green thumbs up to that idea.

Who else deserves my green geek attention? E-mail your comments or observations to hclancy@cmp.com.