As You Sow: Climate - Corporate Reporting and Emission Reduction in Computer/IT Sector

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Climate: Corporate Reporting and Emission Reduction in Computer/IT Sector

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As You Sow has engaged several computer and information technology (IT) companies on climate change to encourage progress on corporate reporting about greenhouse gas (GHG) and carbon footprint assessment, and commitments to future GHG emission reduction in both operations and supply chain. We researched the progress of several companies and were encouraged to find that several leading hardware companies have made public commitments to GHG reduction:

Dell has pledged to reduce carbon intensity 15 percent per dollar of revenue from 2007 to 2012, and to become “carbon neutral” at facilities and activities related to design at its owned and leased assembly facilities.
Hewlett Packard has pledged to reduce absolute GHG emissions 16 percent by 2010 at its owned and leased facilities worldwide based on a 2005 baseline.
IBM has set a goal to reduce GHG emissions 12 percent by 2012.
Sun Micro says it has already met a pledge to reduce U.S. operations facilities emissions 20 percent from 2007 levels by 2015.

These commitments are all welcome. However, the companies use different baselines and assumptions. Further, none yet fully address their global supply chains, where an estimated 70% to 90% of total GHG emissions may occur.

Our shareholder engagement in the IT sector has focused on improving Apple Inc.’s reporting of its carbon footprint and urging it to develop public greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. For details, go to our Apple Shareholder Initiative web page.

We have also engaged several smaller IT companies to commit to greenhouse gas reporting. For details, go to our IT Companies web page.