Dell has launched a new zero carbon initiative in its products in the latest move by a large hardware vendor to position itself as the greenest supplier.

IBM made a similar announcement two weeks ago, while Sun Microsystems and HP have been emphasising their environmental credentials for some time.

Chief executive Michael Dell says the hardware giant will choose its suppliers on the basis of their green credentials, leading to a potential knock-on effect in the vendor community, and warned suppliers 'not to underestimate the seriousness of our intentions.'

IBM and HP have not made such an overt challenge to their suppliers, but may now follow Dell's lead in the scramble to become 'greenest'.

Dell has committed to reduce the carbon intensity of its global operations by 15 per cent by 2012 and extended its 'Plant a Tree for Me' programme to Europe, allowing computer users to offset the emissions associated with the electricity their systems use.

Dell is also asking customers for their ideas in building the 'greenest PC on the planet.'

Hardware vendors are trying to get ahead of the green regulation wave rather than risk being perceived as trailing in this area, says Dell.

'I think that governments and regulators are likely to act. We would like to be ahead of them,' he said.

Analyst Gartner recently estimated that the IT industry accounted for two per cent of global CO2 emissions.