Thanks in large part to our customers, employees and suppliers, we’re making significant progress against our goal of becoming the ‘greenest’ technology company on the planet. We offer the industry’s only free and worldwide recycling program for consumers. We’ve incorporated energy efficiency throughout our products and business, and encourage our suppliers to do the same. We’re inviting our customers to share their thoughts and ideas on how together we can create a green future. Several customer ideas have already been implemented, and our work is only getting started.
In September 2007, we set a transparent, three-tiered goal to neutralize and account for the carbon-emissions impact of our worldwide operations by: 1) increasing energy-efficiency 2) maximizing purchases of green power and 3) responsibly offsetting remaining effects. In typical Dell fashion, we committed to measuring our progress against the most rigorous industry-sanctioned practices and pledged to share results with our customers and stakeholders around the world. We were pleased to announce in August that we met our carbon-neutral goal several months ahead of schedule.
A story in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal raises some interesting points about how companies like ours size their carbon footprint and account for reducing their impact on the environment.
We are not the first company to meet a carbon-neutral goal, and we obviously hope many, many more will follow. Yahoo, Google and HSBC have also taken leadership roles in this regard. HarperCollins UK, which, along with the Wall Street Journal, is a News Corporation company, announced in December 2007 that they had met their carbon-neutral goal by pursuing a strategy very much like our own.
At Dell, we welcome and encourage discussion on climate issues. What we do collectively today factors into the health and future our planet and our global economy. Every company should participate in the dialogue and solutions. The Journal story is a reminder that we're at the dawn of an essential and exciting new era of environmental responsibility, one that we're committed to helping lead.
Keep the thoughts, ideas and comments coming. Visit Direct2Dell, IdeaStorm and DellEarth. Tell or show us how we can build on our partnerships for a cleaner environment. The more heads devoted to this cause, the better for all of us. We've already made tremendous progress in 2008 and, with your help, 2009 promises to be our greenest year yet.