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182 P P a r t I V : a r t I V : C a s e S t u d i e sa s e S t u d i e s

“Plant a Tree for Me”
Your computer is still going to use electricity, and it will still make some sort of impact on
the environment. In an effort to offset the CO emissions generated by a new Dell computer,
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the company has started its “Plant a Tree for Me” program.
The program—a joint effort among Dell, The Conservation Fund, and Carbonfund.org—
allows customers to donate a fee that will be used to plant a tree. The idea is that the tree will
allow consumers to offset the carbon emissions that their Dell computer will use over a 3-year
time period.
Customers can donate US$2 for a notebook and US$6 for a desktop. All of those funds
go toward planting trees and reforestation efforts.
An extension of the “Plant a Tree for Me” project is “Plant a Forest for Me.” This is
a corporate extension of the program where millions of trees are planted in sustainably
managed areas. Many companies—such as Staples and Ask.com—have committed to
participate in the program to offset some of their carbon impact by purchasing trees.

Hewlett-Packard
In the previous section, we talked about Dell. Not even 25 years old, the company started in
its founder’s dorm room has made it a mission to be the tops when it comes to environmental
responsibility. But while that young whippersnapper Dell has been at this green thing for just
a few years, Hewlett-Packard (HP) has been doing the heavy lifting for half a century.
A jaded onlooker might consider the HP of today and say, “Oh, it’s just jumping on the
bandwagon,” but they’d be wrong. HP has been a leader when it comes to social issues,
from philanthropy to labor issues to the environment.
This section covers HP and what it does for the Green IT cause. We’ll look at the
company’s recycling programs and its business practices. But before we get to that, let’s
take a look at HP’s rich history of doing the right thing.

History
HP has a long commitment to environmental responsibility and has been a few degrees
ahead of the curve for a long time. True, it didn’t start recycling efforts and energy
conservation efforts from the get go, but in a lot of cases it was the first company to have
started such initiatives.
Table 9-1 shows a timeline summary of HP’s environmental efforts.
HP’s eco-friendly business practices don’t seem to be slowing down, either. The company
has set a goal to reduce its overall global energy use by 20 percent by 2010. To get below 2005
levels, HP plans to introduce energy-efficient products and services to customers and institute
energy-efficient operating practices in its global facilities.
The goal fits in with the company’s global environmental strategy that addresses three
levels of business: products, internal operations, and supply chain management. Recent
changes that HP sees helping the company reach that goal include:

• The introduction of select HP desktop business PCs that offer 80 percent efficient
power supplies and were the first to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency’s new Energy Star 4.0 requirements. The new power supplies are 33 percent
more efficient than their predecessors.