Dell Acts as a Model

By Staff Writer Hayley Roder

Paul Bell, president of Dell Computer’s global public sector and Katari Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, spoke last Wednesday at a news conference at the National Press Club to commemorate Earth Day 2009.

Dell and ASE have been collaborating for the past three years to work on the ways in which information technology can reduce energy consumption. Callahan noted that by implementing more efficient IT, emissions of carbon dioxide can be reduced by 15 percent globally and by 22 percent in the United States alone.

Bell offered opinions on ways in which the federal government could help in reducing energy consumption. “We have to take the lead and set a standard example for what other countries could follow,” he said.

Dell’s plan involves help from the Environmental Protection Agency as well as the federal government in order to make federal data centers green. One main problem is underutilization of servers, which means that servers in these data centers are not being used to their full capacities and are wasting energy. He suggests requiring federal data centers to be green within five years and require new federal data centers “to set up with the greenest possible footprint.”

“We know it works,” said Bell. “We know server utilization and [a reduction of] power consumption goes in the right direction. We are showing what is possible and making it a reality.”

Dell went carbon neutral in August 2008, which means that they are balancing their carbon emissions, or footprint, with an equal amount of ways to offset them.

One of these ways is their “Plant a Tree For Me” program for individual consumers and “Plant a Forest for Me” for larger corporations. “As you are buying your Dell equipment, we can give you a rough calculation of the carbon footprint of that machine, then you can contribute to a fund that plants trees to offset that,” said Bell.

According to the Office of Sustainability, George Mason University has a goal of becoming carbon-neutral within 20 years. When asked how Mason could achieve the same goal, Bell suggested that any school or business can become carbon neutral with the right leadership and the right plan of action.

He noted that Dell began simply by tracking the right data and by calculating their carbon emissions. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” he said. “You have to look at how you can lower your power use first and foremost, but you can’t do that until you understand what it is.”

In a campaign sponsored by climateculture.com, Mason is currently ranked as America’s greenest campus; students have reduced carbon dioxide by 2.7 percent. A student-led organization, the Environmental Awareness Group, is trying to launch the Patriot Green Fund, whose funds would directly support Mason’s sustainability projects.

Current sustainable policies being employed at Mason include a mandate for “all new office and industrial equipment purchased [to] be EnergySTAR rated,” benefits for faculty and staff who commute using public transportation, and free public transportation, such as the CUE bus, being free to Mason ID holders, according to the Office of Sustainability.

Future plans include “enhancing its building design manual to include more stringent standards for building efficiency, moving to recycled-content office paper, working in implementing an Environmental Management System.”

Energy-Saving Tips from energy.gov

—Always look for the ENERGY STAR® and EnergyGuide labels when shopping for home appliances.

The ENERGY STAR® label is the government’s seal of energy efficiency. The EnergyGuide label estimates an appliance's energy consumption.

—Don’t place lamps or TV sets near your air-conditioning thermostat.
The thermostat senses heat from these appliances, which can cause the air conditioner to run longer than necessary.