Today, Michael addressed more than 200 industry leaders, government officials and non-governmental organization (NGO) representatives about the perils that IT complexity holds for businesses and organizations, and the benefits that come with simplifying IT in terms of productivity, energy efficiency and the environment. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)-sponsored discussion was held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.
During the discussion, Michael outlined policy recommendations global leaders could adapt to help both governments and businesses become greater environmental stewards. He also shared Dell’s latest environmental goal—to make Dell the first major computer company to neutralize the carbon impact of its worldwide operations.
There’s been some community debate around an IdeaStorm idea about carbon neutrality from user smotchberry. Carbon Neutrality involves taking inventory of our total greenhouse gas emissions related to the operation of Dell facilities and implementing strategies to reduce and eliminate those emissions. We will be driving additional energy-efficiency in our operations, maximizing purchases of renewable power and offsetting remaining impacts. In addition to neutralizing the impact of the operation of our facilities, we will also be neutralizing the impacts of employee business air travel.
Dell’s working with a team of environmental stakeholders to help shape our offset strategy so that we identify opportunities for offset investments that can be monitored and verified.
This is all part of Dell’s broader climate strategy that I blogged about in June. In addition to neutralizing the impact of Dell operations, we continue to require suppliers to account for and report the emissions impacts of their operations, the first step in a long-term goal of helping suppliers reduce emissions And we remain committed to providing energy-efficient products. When we sell products that use less energy, we are helping cut emissions associated with the production of electricity those products need.
In this vlog, Dane Parker, director of Dell’s Environmental Health & Safety group, talks about what Dell is already doing to improve energy savings. He’s followed by the Environmental Policy Analyst for Dell’s Sustainable Business, Mark Newton, who discusses Dell’s focus on energy-efficient products and explains how we are working with suppliers to improve energy requirements on the supply chain side in the future.
Michael also introduced "Plant a Forest for Me" today, an extension of our "Plant a Tree for Me" program that enables organizations to join efforts to offset carbon impacts associated with the use of IT products and to support sustainably managed reforestation projects. Founding partners include ABN AMRO, AMD, Ask.com, Salesforce.com and WellPoint. We look forward to working with other organizations who want to join this important effort.