Dell is to discriminate between suppliers on the basis of how green they are and will blacklist those that do not curb their impact on the environment.

The move, the latest effort by the second-largest computer maker to burnish its own green credentials, was announced by Michael Dell, its chief executive, in London yesterday.

The company’s founder gave warning to suppliers “not to underestimate the seriousness of our intentions” on environmental matters. The plans could have large knock-on effects for groups such as Intel and AMD, which supply pro-cessors to Dell.

Despite recent losses in market share to Hewlett-Packard, its rival, Dell, a notoriously fierce negotiator, wields enormous influence among suppliers. Its procurement bill in Taiwan alone was estimated at more than $10 billion last year.

Mr Dell said: “I think that governments and regulators are likely to act [on green issues]. We would like to be well ahead of them.”

His comments follow a trend for green thinking in the technology industry, which is estimated by Gartner, the analysts, to contribute 2 per cent of the planet’s CO2 emissions. Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has invested in ethanol fuel technologies. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, have provided funds for solar power research.

Mr Dell said that environ-mental concerns had become a priority in Dell’s relationships with its customers, both consumers trying to lead greener lives and companies hoping to cap soaring power bills for IT systems. He said that his company’s recent partnership with Wal-Mart, a departure from Dell’s direct sales model, was only the first part of a “massive expansion of retail channels” and that similar partnerships with big British retailers would be announced imminently.

Dell’s latest green initiative, dubbed “Zero Carbon Initiative”, under which the group has pledged to cut the carbon that it emits per each dollar in revenue that it earns by 15 per cent by 2012, comes as Mr Dell seeks to reposition his company after claiming back his position as chief executive this year. His return came after Dell fell behind Hewlett-Packard, the leader in the personal computor market.

Dell also expanded its “Plant a Tree for Me” programme to the UK and the rest of Europe. Dell customers can contribute to the cost of a tree to offset the carbon emissions produced by the use of their computer.

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