Mitigating Climate Change Through Forest Stewardship

The link between forests and climate change is clear to us at Dell. Their dense canopies absorb heat, store vast quantities of CO₂ and release billions of metric tons of water into the air every day, generating rainfall and regulating the earth’s climate.

Dell uses tree fiber in product packaging, office paper and direct mail operations. We work to optimize environmental attributes, quality and cost in all of these areas. Recognizing the need to protect the earth’s forests, we take a four-pronged approach:

• Reduce the amount of paper we use
• Reduce the use of virgin tree fiber
• Increase the use of forest-friendly paper
• Support forests directly through initiatives like our Madagascar project

Our Forest Products Stewardship Model serves as a framework to review current practices, address topics within the paper industry that are important to us and establish goals with respect to certain paper products that we use, purchase and distribute. We seek to produce results and increase our understanding in three key areas: protecting endangered forests, improving forest practices and reducing demand on forests.

Our commitment to progress toward our paper stewardship goals is reflected by the following actions:

• Setting goals and benchmarks — We have established baseline starting points and time-bound goals and benchmarks in our Forest Products Stewardship Model to reduce the use of virgin fiber and eliminate the purchase of wood and fiber from endangered forests. This policy increases the use of recycled and alternative fiber and the use of wood and fiber independently certified as sustainable. The preference is for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified wood and fiber.
• Using less paper — Throughout our operations, we promote a culture that encourages people to think twice before printing, thereby curbing unnecessary paper use. Other efforts include having printers default to double-sided printing where possible.
• Increasing recycled-content paper — We continue to expand our use of recycled paper both internally and externally. All large U.S. Dell offices have been using 100 percent postconsumer recycled copy paper since fall 2009. In fiscal year 2011, 100 percent of copy paper in Dell offices worldwide had postconsumer recycled content. For our direct-marketing materials, we use an average of 43 percent postconsumer recycled content paper globally. Certain publications — including all catalogs and free-standing inserts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa — contain 100 percent postconsumer recycled content paper.
• Revolutionizing packaging — Since 2008, we have increased the amount of sustainable content in Dell packaging by 33.3 percent. For example, in November 2009, we began shipping some products in packaging made from bamboo, a highly renewable, certified compostable material that serves as a great alternative to the molded paper pulp, foams and corrugated cardboard often used in packaging.
• Encouraging innovation — We promote innovation in our paper supply chain to improve our environmental performance and that of other catalog producers.
• Engaging directly — We work with Conservation International on a reforestation initiative in the Fandriana-Vondrozo Forest Corridor in Madagascar. Our involvement in the project aims to protect the unique biodiversity in the area and prevent more than 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere by 2014.
• Reporting annually — We report on our environmental progress annually and release this information publicly, on Dell™ Earth and in our Corporate Responsibility report. We are committed to increased transparency and stakeholder participation.