During the past few years, we’ve seen tech companies making commitments of varying degrees to eco-friendly technology. During the past few months alone, we’ve seen solar-powered PCs from Lenovo, a green data center from Sun and a pledge from Apple to pursue more earth-friendly manufacturing practices. The latest green overture from Dell CEO Michael Dell, however, just might take the cake. Though many have doubted the company’s commitment to sustainable manufacturing and energy-friendly products in the past, Dell has committed to becoming “Carbon neutral” by the end of calendar year 2008. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, it usually refers to the practice of offsetting activities that release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (manufacturing computers, for example) by committing to activities that reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere (planting trees, for example).

While some have argued that this practice is simply a means for abandoning responsibility without actually changing existing practices, Dell’s announcement still represents an important step for the PC industry as a whole and signals that consumers are looking for companies that utilize eco-friendly methods. In addition to its involvement with carbon offsetting programs, Dell has also committed to a number of other green initiatives, including the creation of more energy efficient products, the purchasing of power from more energy efficient suppliers and the punishing of OEMs in the Dell supply chain whose carbon emissions are considered “excessive.” All in all, this is looking like the biggest green-friendly announcement from a major PC vendor yet–expect the other large vendors to step their game up during the coming year.

For more on the announcement:
– see this Washington Post article