A press release just landed in my inbox lauding Dell's new Zero Carbon Initiative. It's brilliant to see Dell putting climate change at the top of its agenda and its plan has good stuff - building 'the greenest PC', asking its suppliers to report their CO2 output and more. The company also has a great recycling record, with free worldwide schemes in place already. Now for the rant. I've got to knock the company's emphasis on carbon offsetting, which Friends of the Earth dismisses as a smokescreen and is pretty much the verdict I've come round to (I've changed my tune on that). Dell's Plant a Tree scheme, which just went live in the UK, is particularly lame. Why? Because the onus is on the punter - you and me - to pay for the offsetting. Besides, how far will £1 for a notebook and £3 for a desktop actually go on tree-planting? Yes, it's better than nowt, but it's also a distraction from energy efficiency improvements and serious carbon-cutting. It's cheap PR, not serious change.
Hi - this is Bryant and I work at Dell on environment issues -- in fact the release may have found it's way to you from my email originally.
I did want to weigh in on the Plant a Tree comment - just to make sure our intent was clear. Completely understand that there are mixed opinions on offset plans, including tree planting. We've found though that Plant a Tree is a good way to raise awareness about environment impacts with some consumers, and a simple way for some others, who want to take simple action, to do so.
That said -this would indeed be empty marketing if we weren't backing it up with efforts to make our products the most energy-efficient possible. Our latest business desktop computers use up to 70% less power than previous generations and we're continuning to push those same improvements across product lines going forward.
Hope that helps - thanks, Bryant
Posted by: Bryant Hilton | June 05, 2007 at 07:45 PM
Bryant, thanks for the comment. Don't get me wrong, I'm really pleased Dell's going green in such a big way - I'm just not convinced on the offsetting side of things.
I'd be fascinated if there was any research that suggests people who offset become more eco-aware generally, but my hunch is that most people who offset stuff (which includes me) tend to to do it an guilty fashion and forget about it!
The product stuff - as I've said in the post - that's great.
Posted by: Adam Vaughan | June 05, 2007 at 09:49 PM
I find offsetting a total scam, yes it is grea that some are actually noticing they have to do soemting but offsetting just seems to be a gimmic a way fo just seeming like they are doing something good. planting a tree doesnt do much at all especially as it takes a very long time for the tree to grow to a size where it can actually make a difference.
Posted by: lee | July 28, 2007 at 06:46 PM