Company Launches Annual Corporate Responsibility Report Today; Increased Use of Renewable Energy, Spending with Diverse Suppliers and Giving in FY09

To provide increased transparency to its substantial corporate responsibility activities, Dell has nearly tripled the number of Web pages at Dell.com dedicated to corporate responsibility. The company’s enhanced corporate responsibility site, relaunched today www.dell.com/corporateresponsibility, is easier to navigate and features expanded content on sustainable operations, diversity and inclusion and greener products.

The site’s launch coincides with availability of the company’s fiscal year 2009 corporate responsibility report, available today. This annual update covers Dell’s environmental, social responsibility and corporate accountability activities for the past fiscal year and outlines the company’s corporate responsibility goals for the current fiscal year.

“We have recognized for a long time that corporate responsibility is both the right thing to do and good business,” said Michael Dell, Dell’s chairman and CEO. “Our global team is making a real difference in all kinds of ways. We are running our operations with leading efficiency, developing products that are increasingly more environmentally friendly, and doing a number of things large and small to improve customer productivity and enhance their quality of life. We’re pretty determined to achieve even more improvements in these areas.”

The report features updates in three categories:

 

1) Environmental Responsibility. Highlights:

• Exceeded its commitment to recover 125 million kilograms of used computer equipment for responsible recycling in 2008, bringing the company’s total used equipment recycling to more than 275 million pounds.
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    • Dell partnered with Staples to launch a consumer recycling program at more than 1,500 stores nationwide. It also expanded the Reconnect Partnership program with Goodwill to more than 1,400 recycling drop-off locations across the U.S.
• Reduced product packaging by more than 9.5 million pounds and introduced the first Dell curbside recyclable product packaging.
• Expanded its portfolio of energy-efficient products, offering customers 148 Energy Star-certified configurations of desktops, laptops, workstations, monitors, printers and multi-function devices.
• Completed 88 projects to save 17 million kWh of annualized electricity use, avoiding 4,300 tons of annualized green house gas emissions.
• Met goal to become operationally carbon neutral last year, the first in the industry to do so.

 

2) Corporate Accountability. Highlights:

• Completed 46 Dell and Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) supplier audits to help ensure Dell’s global supply chain is implementing labor standards consistent with Dell and EICC standards.
• Spent more than $1 billion with diverse suppliers, achieving “billion-dollar roundtable” status for the first time.
• Released for the first-time ever its list of top-tier suppliers.

 

3) Social Responsibility. Highlights:

• Launched Dell YouthConnect in India, Brazil and Mexico. With plans to expand the program to five more countries this year, the philanthropic effort provides funding and technology for organizations that support youth digital education in emerging countries.

• Donated 145,000 hours of employee volunteer time 

• Contributed more than $24 million to community programs worldwide. 

• Reinstated the Global Diversity Council chaired by Michael Dell

 

Dell engages a range of stakeholders to ensure the report delivers the level of transparency the industry expects. Again this year, Dell partnered with Ceres, a national network of investors, environmental organizations and public interest groups to receive feedback and input on Dell’s report and performance. The company also engaged philanthropy- and diversity-focused stakeholders for additional feedback.