Today is a historic day for the entire Dell team. A few minutes ago, we announced that we have met our carbon-neutral goal more than five months ahead of schedule, a major milestone as we strive to become the greenest technology company on the planet. The combination of energy-efficiency in our own facilities, green electricity purchases from utility partners and investments in wind power in the U.S., China and India equates to 645 million kWh and will help avoid more than 400,000 metric tons of CO2e.
We’re also working with Conservation International to help protect more than 591,000 acres of Madagascan forestland threatened with destruction, preventing more than 500,000 metric tons of CO2 from going into the atmosphere over the next five years. As an additional benefit, this project will help protect two of the world’s rarest and most endangered primates, the golden bamboo and greater bamboo lemurs that live nowhere else on Earth.
Our focus on carbon neutrality, energy efficiency, free recycling for consumers and partnering with customers, employees and stakeholders are at the core of our approach to environmental responsibility. Today’s announcement is also a testament to one of our key objectives as a company: delivering technology that helps customers save money while achieving their own environmental goals.
For our primary suppliers, we’ve implemented a policy that requires the reporting of their emissions during quarterly business reviews. For our customers, we’ve set a goal to reduce the energy use of our products another 25 percent in the next two years. We are already the first major computer manufacturer to register an 80 PLUS Gold power supply for servers, which meets July 2009 Climate Savers targets more than a year ahead of schedule. We are also the only company in our industry to provide free and convenient recycling for consumers.
Of course, we must give credit where credit is due, and to this end, we thank our customers, employees and stakeholders for all the work they’ve done to inform us where our environmental efforts should be focused and help us build a global movement. Proof positive that the more heads we have devoted to the same goal the better. It is the result of their continued input and feedback that this is all possible. Keep all the great ideas coming. We are listening!
In the following vlog, Dane Parker, Dell’s Director of Environment, Health, & Safety, talks about how we reached our carbon neutral goal.