World’s Greenest Tech Companies

NEWSWEEK Green Score: 74.7%
Environmental Impact: 66.4%
Environmental Management: 88.6%
Transparency & Disclosure: 49.3%

In addition to the standard efforts to stay green, Dell has taken advantage of innovations in packaging—using mushroom and bamboo packaging to wrap the products it ships. The mushroom packaging is biodegradable and can later be used as compost or mulch. In 2010, the company launched an initiative to track the carbon footprints of individual products in order to reduce them in the future. In manufacturing, the company aims to have a 99 percent rate of recycling and reuse by 2012 and it looks like it is on track—for fiscal year 2011, the company maintained a recycle and reuse rate of 95.7 percent. The company provides easy ways for its customers to stay green: Dell’s Reconnect program provides an easy way for customers to recycle old computers and products, by returning them to a Goodwill store for refurbishment, reuse, or recycling. The company says the program has kept more than 190 million pounds of e-waste out of landfills and created 250 green jobs.