Environmental Leader

Dell has released its corporate responsibility report for FY 2008 (PDF).

Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions increased over fiscal year 2007, according to Dell  primarily due to added rigor in the estimation process in fiscal year 2008. The company says that increases in Scope 1 (7,000 metric tons in 2007 and 35,128 in 2008) and Scope 2 (385,000 metric tons in 2007 and 403,210 in 2008) emissions also reflect the addition of new manufacturing and other facilities during fiscal year 2008.

Electricity use increased during the last three years in manufacturing and in the company’s U.S. offices and data centers grouping. Dell says that during the period it opened several new manufacturing facilities and increased capacity in its data centers. Global electricity use increased by 3.6 percent over fiscal year 2007.

During fiscal year 2008, Dell nearly doubled the amount of renewable energy purchased from utility providers in North America, to 22.9 million kWh.

A total of 273 metric tons of landfilled waste was diverted to a waste-to-energy project on a trial basis during fiscal year 2008. Overall, Dell says it achieved just over 95 percent recycling and reuse in fiscal year 2008 – the company has a goal of hitting 99 percent by 2012.

U.S. paper use decreased 15.8 percent during fiscal year 2008 and a total of 26.5 percent between fiscal years 2006 and 2008. At the same time, U.S. employees increased by almost 12 percent from 2006 through 2008.

Dell recently become the first to receive an 80 Plus Gold-certification for a server power supply, meeting the July 2009 Climate Savers targets for servers ahead of schedule.