Global Corporate Responsibility Report

Welcome to Dell’s 2008 Corporate Responsibility Report.
 Download the full report here ( 10.9MB)

Last year was one of significant change for Dell — just as we grew as a company, so did our commitment to corporate responsibility. In fact, we significantly increased sustainable operations of our business and had some of our most important achievements to date, including:

Committing on World Environment Day to make Dell the greenest technology company on the planet . More than ever before, we are integrating consideration of the environment into our business processes and product design to deliver the industry’s most energy-efficient products, save energy and deploy green power at our own facilities, and maintain our recycling leadership. We know that people of all ages around the globe who care about protecting the Earth expect no less. Pledging to make Dell’s operations carbon neutral beginning in 2008 . We’ll meet this commitment through a program of improvements that save energy, using green energy at our facilities where available and economical, and offsetting our remaining impact. I’m pleased to report that our global headquarters campus in Round Rock, Texas, is now powered by 100 percent green energy sources. Committing to producing energy-efficient products that deliver the most performance per watt for our customers . Energy-efficient products not only help reduce our customers’ operating costs, they can help reduce the associated climate impact of those products. Our estimates are that the changes on our desktop products alone have saved our customers $2.4 billion in energy costs. And we are working with our enterprise customers around the world to make data centres more productive and energy-efficient. Launching ReGeneration.org , a global meeting place that enables people to learn about going “green,” share ideas and protect the environment . Through it, we’re bringing together experts, customers, stakeholders and others to foster meaningful dialogue on the environment — dialogue that will lead to action and results. Continuing our focus on environmentally responsible product design . We continue to take a precautionary approach to materials selection and continue to find ways to reduce product packaging and integrate recyclable packaging solutions. Our Multipack solution for multiple server orders last year reduced collateral materials shipped by 75 percent. It avoids the use of thousands of tons of cardboard and allows more shipments to fit on trucks, thereby conserving fuel in shipping. Joining the (PRODUCT)REDTM  campaign, which raises funds to buy anti-retroviral drugs for HIV-positive individuals in Africa . We are committed to the fight against HIV and to saving lives. This pandemic affects our customers, employees, suppliers and communities around the globe, and the increase in infection rates is of great concern. During the year, we updated our global nondiscrimination policies to include HIV status among protected categories.

We have many challenges to meet on our continued journey. We are making Dell a stronger and greener company. We continue to work with our suppliers worldwide to share our sustainability best practices and ensure they are employing our own high standards for workplace and employee policies and safety.

Our goal remains the same — we want Dell to be the world’s greatest technology company and make a meaningful difference in protecting our planet and building our communities. Thank you for the ongoing support of our efforts to make our company better each year. I’m proud to present this report ( 10.8MB) representing the hard work of the Dell team around the world.

I’m also happy to report that we hired a vice president of Corporate Responsibility to manage our ambitious environmental and social commitments.

Gil Casellas has the experience to align our philanthropic, diversity and sustainability efforts and further enhance our corporate responsibility programs.

Michael S. Dell
Chairman and CEO