Of course, carbon-neutrality is in the eye of the beholder. The definition, according to Encarta is: "counteracting release of carbon dioxide: relating to the maintenance of a balance between producing and using carbon, especially balancing carbon-dioxide emissions by activities such as growing plants to use as fuel or planting trees in urban areas to offset vehicle emissions."
Dell calculated its carbon emissions to be 475,000 tons of CO2 a year. This only includes CO2 Dell is directly responsible for, however, not such things as CO2 emitted during the manufacture of the actual components of its PCs, nor the CO2 resulting from the electricity used by its PCs once sold. Still, ... that's a great step, and they didn't just buy credits, either. According to their press release:
Dell met its goal early by implementing an aggressive global energy-efficiency campaign and increasing purchases of green power, verified emission reductions and renewable energy certificates. Since 2004, the company’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. Earlier this year, the company announced that its global headquarters campus is powered by 100 percent green energy.
Dell today also announced that it is making additional investments in wind power in the U.S., China and India. 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.
The company is already saving more than $3 million annually and avoiding nearly 20,000 tons of CO2 through facilities improvements and a global power-management initiative.
Dell is also partnering with Conservation International on a habitat and forest preservation initiative in the Republic of Madagascar. The company will help protect more than 591,000 acres of tropical forestland threatened with destruction, preventing more than 500,000 tons of CO2 from going into the atmosphere over the next five years.
Don't forget that Dell also has the Plant a Forest for Me program which enables organizations worldwide to "share best practices and, as partners, facilitate the planting of trees in sustainably managed reforestation projects."
Dell's partners in the program include AMD, ABN AMRO, Ask.com, CGI, Staples, Salesforce.com, Targus and WellPoint.
As I said, carbon neutral is in the eye of the beholder, and I personally don't think, when you add in everything, Dell is truly so. But they certainly have made some giant strides. Keep it up.
Reported by Tech Ex http://technologyexpert.blogspot.com/
