10 Questions For Michael Dell

By Bryan Walsh

As the founder and chairman of his eponymous computer company, Michael Dell changed the way PCs are made and sold. In the past year, though, rivals have gained on him. So this year he's going for a green advantage: he wants to erase some of the environmental cost of running computers by offering a way to neutralize the carbon dioxide emitted by a PC. Dell, 41, spoke with TIME's Bryan Walsh about climate change, the media and small, shiny objects.

How do you make a carbon-neutral PC?

We're giving customers an opportunity to spend $2--an almost laughable amount of money--so we can plant a "portion" of a tree, and that tree will consume the carbon dioxide equivalent to the energy production required for the notebook computer over its lifetime. For a desktop computer it'll be $6. If you're going to spend $800 or $1,000 on a computer, why not spend another $2 or $6 to be carbon neutral?

Going carbon neutral has become very popular with businesses recently, but there is some concern that it may not be as effective as advertised--that just planting a tree may not be enough. How will the company ensure that this actually works?

The Conservation Fund is the nation's top-rated environmental nonprofit, and they're a great organization to work with on this. Doing this is better than doing nothing, and we think it can actually make a difference. It'll be super easy, like deciding between one gigabyte or two gigabytes, except that it costs a lot less.

Beyond carbon offsetting, what are you doing to make your computers responsible for less carbon in the first place?

We've taken on energy consumption and conservation with more energy-efficient products. We have energy calculators online now, and more and more customers are paying attention to them. You take a typical desktop computer from an old generation and change to a new, more efficient generation, and you can save about $70 per year in energy costs.

You're a Republican supporter. Do you think President Bush should do more on climate change?

There are roles for government to play here in terms of creating standards [for industry]. My belief is that when you have companies competing to do the right thing, you get a better result than when the government takes the lead. We've tried to say, Let's do the right thing, and do it before someone comes and tells us to.

Dell does not have an image as an innovator, as competitors like Apple or even Hewlett-Packard do. Do you see green initiatives as a way to differentiate yourself from competitors?

I do. If you look at the Greenpeace rankings [Dell is tied for first among tech companies], we've been doing a lot in this area. Sometimes innovation is looked at through a fairly narrow lens, in the sense of, O.K., what small, shiny object did you create? That's fine--small, shiny objects are nice--but for us innovation is a bit broader in terms of supply chains and the Internet and all the things we do. The last year was relatively challenging for us, but we still made a few billion dollars. Nothing to be too ashamed about.

Does Dell need to make essential changes to compete in today's marketplace?

There are new capabilities we need to add, and we need to make significant changes to drive that. We have added quite a bit of [customer service] support capacity, particularly in North America. We've done 2.5 million sessions this past year where a customer calls in and we can remotely log into their system and fix it.

Would you take over the day-to-day reins of the company again?

I'd have to give them up first. I haven't stopped being involved with the company all the time.

But taking over as CEO?

No. [CEO Kevin Rollins] and I run the company together. I haven't changed that, and I'm not going to change that.

Do you consider yourself an environmentalist?

I don't like to consider myself very often. I'll let other people consider me. But I do have a lot of trees.

So there's carbon sequestration going on at the Dell home?

I'm sequestering way, way more than I'm using. I have a lot of land and a lot of trees.