Abstract

Companies in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector were expected to adopt various measures to improve the energy efficiency of their operations and also to manufacture products that consumed less energy in order to reduce their contribution to the worldwide emission of greenhouse gases. In August 2008, Dell Inc. (Dell) came out with the announcement that it had managed to achieve carbon neutrality a few months before its self-imposed deadline. On the one hand, Dell’s achievement was applauded as it was the first company with a global presence to achieve this landmark. Critics, on the other hand, expressed doubts over the credibility of this claim. They argued that, to assess its carbon footprint, Dell had defined its own metrics that included only emissions from company-owned vehicles, operational electricity use, and employee business travel, and excluded emissions from its suppliers of parts, pollution created during the shipping of its products, and the electricity consumed in the usage of the products. This case discusses the carbon neutral strategy adopted by Dell and the controversy around its carbon neutral claim. It also explores the role of the supply chain in a company’s environmental sustainability initiatives.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Definition, scope, measurement, and disclosure of carbon footprint/carbon neutral status
• Environmental sustainability in the Information Technology industry and its supply chain
• Purchase of renewable energy and carbon credits to offset carbon emissions
• and Corporate social responsibility and corporate communications.

Keywords

Environmental sustainability, Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Dell, Carbon footprint, Carbon neutral, Climate change, GHG protocol, Energy efficiency, Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs), Carbon credits, Greenpeace, Energy Star, Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration (SCLC), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), ISO 14001, Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (EICC)