Green away

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At a recent briefing, Michael Dell said that while interest in green issues was growing, “CIOs say the energy cost is ‘not in my budget'”.

This has been interpreted in a number of ways, one of which was that the company was bemoaning its departure on the green bandwagon as being a little too early.

While, I would tend to agree to a certain extent with Dell’s assessment, in Ireland in particular, it seems to be only the public sector that is actually putting green requirements in procurement documents as yet, I would not agree with the call of going too early.

Apple had been hit hard in recent months with the accusation of being not green enough in its manufacture, particularly in its small consumer devices. This was a seen as a “bad thing” for a company that relies so heavily on image and Apple has worked hard to redress that situation. Now Dell would not have the same level of exposure as Apple would to the vagaries of public image, but as a large part of its business comes from the consumer market, it is not immured from poor perception by any means.

The decision to go carbon neutral and to aggressively pursue that goal is akin to the drive to become compliant a number of years ago, as the likes of Sarbanes Oxley legislation bore down on many an American and partner company. Now the important word there is legislation, and companies saw fit to spend into double figure percentages of gross income to ensure compliance.

The US has reprehensively dragged its heels on the carbon side of things, allowing others to take the lead. Some US companies have broken from that example and gone it alone, without the push of regulation and legislation, though it must be said, not without the impetus experienced in other markets outside the US. That leaves Mr. Dell in a slightly awkward position. He has spent a lot of money on a disruptive programme of carbon control that will only see benefits to stockholders in a nebulous way for a number of years yet.

As Dell points out, the demand is growing for green equipment and services, but that is a tacit admission that it is not what it should be yet. One would hope that the stockholders can control their own avarice long enough to acknowledge that what Dell has done as a company is remarkable, laudable and a “good thing”, as opposed to hammering the company for mistiming its green transformation.

Read More: Paul Hearns