1.09.2007 - 03:40pm ET

(CSRwire) LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 2007--Michael Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) today announced a global carbon-neutral initiative that plants trees for customers to offset the carbon impact of electricity required to power their systems. The first of its kind program, announced at the Consumer Electronics Show here, underscores Dell's commitment to continued broad environmental stewardship.

"The customer experience starts with receiving the best value and continues with the knowledge that we are working with our customers to protect the environment throughout the life of their system," said Michael Dell, chairman of Dell. "Programs like 'Plant a Tree for Me' and our global recycling efforts empower our customers to participate with us in making a difference. It is our hope that other companies in our industry will join us to improve the environment that we all share."

"Plant a Tree for Me"

Dell will be the first global technology company to offer customers the opportunity to offset the emissions associated with the electricity used to power their computers through its 'Plant a Tree for Me' program. Dell is partnering with The Conservation Fund and the Carbonfund.org, non-profit organizations that will use the funds to plant trees in sustainably managed forests, absorbing carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere from generated electricity. The company said that 100 percent of the donations received by the "Plant a Tree for Me" program will be used by partners to facilitate planting trees.

A customer donation of $2 for a notebook and $6 for a desktop will go toward the planting of trees which will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, offsetting the equivalent emissions resulting from the production of electricity used during the average three-year use of a computer.

The program is available now to Dell's U.S. consumer customers making new computer purchases. It will be available to any U.S. consumer for any brand of computer in February and available to global consumers in April.

"Dell is taking significant and inspired leadership toward ecologically intelligent design by initiating the responsible return of its products and its 'Plant a Tree for Me' program. It's a very exciting time; both programs represent delightful strategies of hope for the clean and green future," said William McDonough, author of "Cradle to Cradle" and an internationally recognized environmental expert.

"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."

Dell.com/Earth Launches

Dell also launched a new Web site today, www.dell.com/earth, which highlights the breadth of Dell's environmental responsibility programs. The site contains information on Dell's approach to environmental leadership, links to in-depth information on environmental programs and policies found throughout dell.com. The site also contains an "energy counter" that tracks the accumulated energy and carbon savings impact enabled by Energy Smart features on Dell products.

Environmental Leadership

Dell's commitment to environmental stewardship is woven into the company's efforts to provide quality products with the best customer experience at the best value. Dell makes continual improvements to its business to help protect the environment while making it easy for customers to acquire, own and retire their computers responsibly.

Dell completed a rollout of its global recycling policy in December and remains the only company in the industry to offer consumers free and convenient product recycling, worldwide irrespective of product purchase. Dell will continue to expand product reuse and recycling options for consumers and work with policy makers to promote individual producer responsibility in 2007. The company has a goal to recover 125 million kilograms (about 275 million pounds) of product from customers by 2009.

Dell works with a number of stakeholders to help set environmental policies, and will continue to work to meet the environmental requirements of customers around the globe. Dell shared the No. 1 position when Greenpeace last year released its first Guide to Greener Electronics report. It ranks the environmental practices of the electronics industry, including product recycling and chemical use policies. Updated quarterly, the December 2006 Greenpeace report ranked Dell second, maintaining its position leading the computer industry.

Dell also made significant progress during 2006 against its goal to deliver customers the most energy-efficient products in the industry. Since announcing the strategy and customer energy resource calculators at www.dell.com/energy in September 2006, Dell has rolled Energy Smart settings across the latest models of its OptiPlex(TM) desktop line to enable up to 70 percent system power savings for the OptiPlex 745(1), introduced its ninth-generation PowerEdge(TM) server products using Intel Xeon 5100 series processors that consume up to 25 percent less power than previous generations(2), and introduced two PowerEdge products with Energy Smart settings.

Forest Products Stewardship

Dell recently announced it had exceeded its five-year goal to use 50 percent recycled content by 2009. The company's marketing publications now use an average of 50 percent recycled content paper -- and in many publications up to 90 percent.

The company estimates the increased recycled content paper is avoiding the use of nearly 35,000 tons of virgin fiber paper per year. That is the equivalent of saving more than 250,000 trees or more than the number of trees required to print three Sunday editions of the New York Times. Dell established its Forest Products Stewardship Model in 2004, available at www.dell.com/paper.

Chemical Use Policy

Dell is committed to eliminate in new products all remaining uses of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by 2009, as acceptable alternatives are identified that will not compromise product performance and will lower product health and environmental impacts. Dell also is meeting the requirements of the RoHS directive worldwide (www.dell.com/rohs). Dell's chemical-use policy (www.dell.com/environment) recognizes a precautionary approach to materials selection.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell sells more systems globally than any computer company, placing it No. 25 on the Fortune 500. For more information, visit http://www.dell.com. To get Dell news direct, visit http://www.dell.com/RSS.

(1) Based on average AC power measurements using a Yokogawa Digital Power Meter taken during the SYSmark 2004SE benchmark test performed by Dell Labs in Aug. 2006 on OptiPlex 745 with Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU, 1 GB DDR2 (dual channel) memory, 80GB 7200 SATA HDD, Intel GMA3000 integrated graphics, XP Pro SP2 OS, Dell Energy Smart power management and a 17" Flat Panel Display, as compared with the OptiPlex GX620 with Intel Pentium D 830 CPU, 1GB DDR2 (dual channel) memory, 80GB 7200 SATA HDD, Intel 950 integrated graphics, XP Pro SP2 OS, no power management and a 17" CRT. Actual power consumption will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.

(2) Based on testing performed by Dell Labs in May 2006 using the SPECjbb2005 benchmark on a PE2950 with two dual core Intel Xeon 5160 (3.0Ghz Woodcrest) and 5080 (3.73Ghz Dempsey) processors, 4GB 667Mhz and 533Mhz FBD memory, 2x SAS 73GB/15k rpm HDDs, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS as compared to a PE2850 with two dual core Intel Xeon 2.8Ghz (Paxville) processors, 4GB 400Mhz DDR2 memory, 2x SCSI 36GB/15K rpm HD's, and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS. Actual performance and power consumption will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.

Dell, PowerEdge, Inspiron, Latitude, Dell Precision and OptiPlex are trademarks of Dell Inc.

Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

STAKEHOLDER QUOTES REGARDING DELL

"PLANT A TREE FOR ME" ANNOUNCEMENT

"Walden Asset Management is a long term investor in Dell and has been part of a quarterly dialogue with management over the years on issues ranging from the environment to vendor standards for plants overseas. We have been impressed with Dell's leadership on social and environmental issues and its open approach to hearing shareowner input. This is the latest in a series of steps Dell has taken to improve its environmental performance and minimize its impact on the environment. We applaud this latest move of environmental stewardship and encourage other companies to follow Dell's lead."

--Timothy Smith, Senior Vice President, Walden Asset Management

(contact: Timothy Smith, 617-726-7155, tsmith@bostontrust.com)

"Dell is demonstrating they are serious about climate protection and environmental stewardship with this move. Every business can play a role in tackling this enormous environmental challenge and this is a great example of the creative actions companies can take."

-- Mindy S. Lubber, President, Ceres, a national coalition of investors and environmental groups working with Dell and other U.S.
companies to address sustainability challenges.

(contact: Peyton Fleming, 617-247-0700, ext. 20, fleming@ceres.org)

"Calvert applauds Dell for tackling the climate change crisis. No longer can a company consider itself a leader without addressing the environmental and climate impacts associated with use of its products or services. Dell's new partnership with its customers is a significant step -- and one that we hope can be a model for other companies. We encourage Dell to continue decreasing its greenhouse gas footprint by reducing the climate change impact of company operations and related greenhouse gas sources."

--Julie Frieder, Environment Analyst, Calvert Group, Inc.

(contact: Julie Frieder, 301-961-4753, jules.frieder@calvert.com

"Dell recognizes that offsetting carbon dioxide emissions with tree planting is an effective and inexpensive way to fight climate change. The beauty of this program is that anyone can do it and make a difference."

--Eric Carlson, Executive Director, Carbonfund.org

(contact: Malin Jennings, 202-828-5061, malin.jennings@fleishman.com)



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