Dell has released their 2008 CSR report (h/t Environmental Leader) and it has a lot of China content in its 112 pages (40 mentions to be exact), something to be expected as Dell has a large investment in an operation in Xiamen.

For those looking to gain a sense of what Dell finds important as a company, you only need to look at the website itself where Michael Dell lists 4 of their operational achievements/ focuses (2 philanthropic focuses are also listed outside of the below):

• Pledging to make Dell’s operations carbon neutral beginning in 2008 .
• Committing to producing energy-efficient products that deliver the most performance per watt for our customers .
• Launching ReGeneration.org , a global meeting place that enables people to learn about going “green,” share ideas and protect the environment .
• Continuing our focus on environmentally responsible product design .

As you can see, all of these goals are environmentally related, and all very worthy on their own right.

I am going to be interested to learn how they intend to achieve these goals (i.e. will carbon neutral be achieve through 100% solar panels or offsetting?  Are their efforts in product design focused on packaging alone, or are they looking to find ways for consumers to reduce their need to scrap a computer carcass every time their Intel chip dates itself?

China though adds another layer, and perhaps were Michael Dell to write a China report, his comments would reflect the fact that with nearly 80% of Dell’s supplier spend in the region, labor conditions are as important as the environment.

Some highlights from their China supplier portion

• Dell brought in its tier 1 and 2 suppliers to a EICC (code of conduct) training session in Shanghai, with those sessions also including workshops on how to create effective manager/ employee relationships, how to mitigate and address child labor, and hiring diversely
• Another workshop was held in Shenzhen to address business process improvement and the EICC.
• Dell has put in place an internal citizen team that identifies high-risk suppliers, arranges site visits , and conducts ongoing evaluation and training

Through this report, Dell also does a nice job of highlighting how ther programs have regional differences, like their healthy eating campaign, but that they strive as a company to engage employee volunteer.

Environmentally, I have some concerns with regards though.

Devoting a large section of the report to the environment, Dell clearly takes this issue very seriously and has a lot they can hold up as examples of success.  Where I think they need to take this to another level, or where I see gaps in their programs are:

1) Design:

Design products with a focus on: safe operation throughout the entire product life cycle, extending product life span, reducing energy consumption, avoiding environmentally sensitive materials, promoting dematerialization, and using parts that are capable of being recycled at
the highest level.

through this, and in reading into the report, I am still unclear what measures have been taken to extend the life of the computer carcass when 1-2 components found inside go obsolete.  Something I hope is being worked on as a way to reduce waste.

Not address in the report, I would also like to learn more about how they are standardizing accessories (i.e. cables, power cords, etc) that can be used and reused by different machines, regardless of whether it is a Dell product or not.

2) Recycling

Dell does a superb job of recycling their goods:

Manufacturing operations recycle or reuse about 95 percent of their waste, and we are committed to increasing this to 99 percent by 2012.

The question for me is whether or not this waste actually requires more energy to recycle, what their levels of waste are over all, and how they are looking to reduce that even further

3) Carbon Neturaliy

Dell is doing a lot through their products and process to reduce the amount of energy required to produce and power their machines, and that is something that I think is just good business.  To supplement this and to go carbon neutral, they are then having to rely on offsets as a means to cover the gap.

For me, I am of the belief that if the adopt a true cradle to cradle approach and address some of my concerns above, they would actually show more leaderhip that by buying carbon offsets, after all it is better to not spend the carbon in the first place.

If you would like to read the report in full, you can download the PDF here (10.8MB).

Overall, I give it high marks, and i am looking forward to reading their 2009 report to see what they have done in the area of design to further reduce their carbon footprint.