Today we're releasing "Values in Action," our annual report measuring the company's progress towards instituting sustainable business practices. We celebrated a number of successes in 2006, working alongside our customers, employees and stakeholders. Highlights from this year's report include:
Free Consumer Recycling
In June 2006, we committed to offering consumers free recycling for any Dell-branded product at any time anywhere. Six months later, the program went global. And while we extended a challenge to competitors to offer "no charge, no exceptions" recycling services to consumers, we remain the only company in the industry to offer consumers the option of recycling their computer for free. Hopefully, this will be short-lived.
Design for Environment
We also enhanced our aggressive programs to continue to minimize the environmental impact of our products. We set a goal to eliminate the use of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from product design by 2009, and successfully met requirements of the European Union's Restriction on the use of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) globally. We also made great progress with our Forest Stewardship Program. Today our marketing publications use on average 50 percent recycled content paper, meeting our 2009 goals three years early.
Customer Ownership
We articulated our belief that the customer experience includes working together to protect the environment. In 2006, we launched Energy Smart—an aggressive product energy efficiency strategy to help customers realize the greatest performance per watt from the desktop to the data center.
We also introduced "Plant a Tree for Me," the first program in the world to enable the offsetting of carbon dioxide generated by the production of electricity used to power computers. The program is now available in six languages on two continents.
Diversity and Ethics
Finally, we renewed our commitment to being an ethical and inclusive workplace. In April 2006, the U.S. Secretary of Labor presented Dell with the Opportunity Award, the nation's highest recognition for voluntary workplace diversity efforts among federal contractors. We also received a score of 100 percent for the third year in a row on the Human Rights Campaign's annual Corporate Equality Index and partnered with our employees to host a global Ethics Day campaign. Going forward, Dell is committed to working with employees, customers and suppliers to drive the highest ethical standards for workplace practices and safety.
Thank you for your ongoing support of our sustainability efforts. As we look ahead, we are more focused than ever on involving our customers globally to help improve our shared environment and communities, as well as encourage new ideas on ways we can enhance our partnership. Take a few minutes to read the report. Share your thoughts and feedback. Visit IdeaStorm and DellEarth. Together, we will continue to make a world of difference!