14 DAY TRIAL // Dell announced that it managed to become a carbon-neutral company five months before the projected moment. The company has improved the energy efficiency at its own facilities, which allowed it to reach its target. Dell also made some "green" electricity purchases and investments in wind power in the U.S., China, and India, which totaled 645 million kilowatt-hours and resulted in 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide savings.
$3 billion have been annually invested by Dell in green energy, and the past few years marked an almost tenfold increase in the company's consumption of green energy, reaching 116 million kWh in four years. According to Dane Parker, Dell's global environment, health and safety director, the achievements are the result of the company's long-established policy of saving energy, recycling, and other green practices.
Parker said that this is "a major step forward in our commitment to become the greenest technology company on the planet and establishes our leadership position for others in the industry and all other industries across the globe". He also added, "The way energy costs are, they are just not sustainable, so, for business to be competitive in the future, we need constant supplies of green energy, and so we are trying to enable that everywhere we can globally".
Dell's announcement was not welcomed in all areas. Clive Longbottom, from the business and IT analyst firm Quocirca expressed his skepticism, "It really worries me when companies claim they have achieved carbon neutrality, when it's really not possible". And he continued, "You have to question whether they have taken all their workers' commuting into consideration, and the materials (involved) in making a computer, going all the way back to zinc mining".
According to Longbottom, "Carbon neutrality is a large amount of greenwash. Computer companies should be focusing on the developments made in recent years in the reduction of harmful material inside the computers, and reduction in the power that computers use. With these high claims, companies are setting themselves up to be knocked back down again".
Dell also announced a partnership with Conservation International for the preservation of 591,000 acres of rain forest in Madagascar. For the company, the project is supposed to prevent the release of 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over a five-year period of time. The same project targets the protection of the habitat of two of the world's rarest primates, which can only be found in Madagascar.