Expanded ‘Plant a Tree for Me’ Program

Today we’re announcing the expansion of our ‘Plant a Tree for Me’ program to all U.S.-based consumers and businesses with no purchase required and for an extended set of products.

We’ve been encouraged by the response through Dell.com and word-of-mouth and see this as another way to help consumers and businesses make a difference. Dell partners with The Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org, non-profit environmental organizations, to plant trees in sustainably managed forests. As previously announced, 100 percent of donations received go toward tree-planting efforts.

Expanded Portfolio of IT Products
Beginning today, U.S. businesses and consumers with Dell or other branded equipment can donate $40 for a server, $13 for a computer workstation, $6 for a desktop, $4 for a CRT monitor, $4 for a laser printer, $3 for an LCD monitor, $2 for a notebook and $1 for an inkjet printer to cover the carbon impact of the average of amount of electricity used by the device over three years, according to EPA and Dell estimates. We’re also making it easier for visitors to dell.com to make a difference by providing the option of donating $99 to offset the estimated total one-year emissions impact of the average American citizen.

Next month, we plan on expanding the ‘Plant a Tree for Me’ program to include businesses and consumers worldwide.

Environmental Commitment
Dell’s commitment to environmental stewardship has been a longstanding cornerstone of the company’s global business. Last month, the National Recycling Coalition honored Dell with its ninth annual Recycling Works Award for the company’s longstanding efforts to promote individual producer responsibility. We remain the only computer manufacturer to offer consumers free, convenient product recycling—without requiring a product purchase.

We work to make continual improvements in our design, manufacturing and administrative facilities around the globe, and work with a number of stakeholders to help set environmental policies. An important part of our overall commitment is a pledge to eliminate all remaining uses of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by 2009.

Making Your Voice Count
As always, we look forward to your questions, comments and suggestions on how we can work together to protect our climate. We welcome your thoughts on Direct2Dell and IdeaStorm on how we can do more.

Update: To IdeaStorm users, yesterday we posted the question: “How can technology companies affect climate change?” on the IdeaStorm homepage. Clicking on that question will pull up Dell’s Point of View, where Tod share’s more of his thoughts on this issue. We’ve also updated the Ideas in Action tab to include this information as well. LM

To learn more about Dell’s commitment to a clean and healthy climate, please visit www.dell.com/earth.

Update: Here’s a StudioDell video that explains how the Plant a Tree for Me program works.