Dell unveiled an initiative today allowing customers to donate to a tree-planting program to offset the carbon impact of electricity required to power their systems.
The so-called "carbon neutral" initiative announced by company founder Michael Dell would include voluntary contributions by customers to a program aimed at offsettingthe impact of so-called greenhouse gases.
Dell said funds would go to The Conservation Fund and the Carbonfund.org, non-profit organisations that will plant trees in managed forests, absorbing carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere from generated electricity.
"Essentially what we're doing is partnering with our customers to help make the operation of their computers carbon neutral," said Dell, who was attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. "We hope to encourage others to do the same."
A customer donation of two dollars for a notebook and six dollars for a desktop will go toward the planting of trees to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, offsetting the equivalent emissions resulting from electricity used during the average three-year use of a computer.
The program is available now to Dell's US customers and will be available to global consumers in April.
"We applaud Dell's leadership for its commitment to offset the carbon footprint of its computers," said Larry Selzer, president of The Conservation Fund.
"Climate change has emerged as one of the dominant environmental issues of our time, and Dell's industry-leading efforts to address this challenge, and its invitation to its customers to join in this initiative, serve as a model for corporate environmental stewardship in the 21st century," he said.
