Dell is a multinational American-based company dealing with information technology. Dell manufactures sells and supports computers and electronic-related services and products. According to Fortune 500, Dell is ranked as number 41 in largest technological corporations around the world. Dell is committed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions from all global activities by 40 percent by the year 2015. Dell is also the first company in its industry to create a product recycling goal and complete the implementation of it. In June of 2007, Dell set the goal to become the greenest technology goal around the world, which included a zero-carbon initiative. Here are just a few of the ways that Dell is making this happen.
1) Dell Ecovative Design for Packaging. In 2011, Dell started implementing a new kind of innovative mushroom based packaging created by Ecovative Design. The mushroom packaging reduces the total amount of solid waste and consumption of fossil fuels. The packaging is made from completely compostable material and only takes one-tenth the total time to produce, unlike styrofoam.
2) Dell India Green Initiatives. Dell offices around the world are starting their own green initiatives, including India. First Dell India fodders a recycling discount coupon to encourage the recycling of computers. Dell customers who send in old Dell systems to Dell for free recycling will receive a special discount coupon on their next Dell purchase. Another program is the Dell Go Green Challenge. This challenge raises community awareness and involvement in green projects throughout India. Dell customers send videos, photographs, and depictions of key environmental and sustainability issues and individuals choose their favorite entries. The top 20 entries with the most votes will receive small gifts and the top three selected by a set of judges and the top one will receive a new Dell laptop while second place receives a Dell Mini and third gets a Dell Inspiron Zino.
3) Dell Partners with La Costa for Green IT. The La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California partnered up with Dell to increase its commitment to environmental sustainability. Because of Dell’s assistance, La Costa won the Green Seal Certification. La Costa partnered with Dell to ensure sustainable practices within the IT department, including reducing energy consumptions throughout all business operations. Because of Dell, La Costa was able to go down to ten servers from 53, cutting energy consumption by a third.
4) Recycling for Home and Business Initiatives. To make recycling Dell products a lot easier, Dell partnered with FedEx to provide an at-home Dell product pickup program. This allows Dell customers to get rid of their old and unwanted Dell equipment and avoid throwing them out where they will end up in landfills. If customers purchase a new Dell product and have an old one, if they select the option for free recycling, Dell will recycle old equipment at no cost and will pick it up from the home or business. The program is absolutely free and can be used for all Dell products as well as non-Dell products if the customer purchases a similar type of product from Dell.
5) Greener Materials to Make Green Products. Dell knows that green products lower the impact on the earth, but to create green products, green materials are needed. At Dell, this includes using a majority of recycled and recyclable material for products and working alongside reliable, safe and environmentally friendly materials. For example, in 2009, Dell shipped an estimated .2 million pounds of postconsumer recycled plastic in select systems and monitors, which was equivalent to recycling over 150 million water bottles. Dell has also integrated the total equivalent of over 9.5 million half gallon milk containers into the packaging of all products.
6) Dell Eco-labels. Dell knows that eco-labels are very important as they assist customers in learning about the environmental impact of various products. An eco-label demonstrates that the product meets a strict set of specific environmental standards. Dell offers a wide range of eco-labels with all their products, including ENERGYSTAR; EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) for laptop and desktop rating for toxic material elimination, recycling design, product longevity, and increased energy efficiency; Blue Angel which focuses on environmental and health-related features; and TCO which focuses on environmental management system, limited hazardous substance use and recyclable packaging.
7) Dell Efficient Data Center to Lower Costs and Environmental Impact. Data centers are very important to today’s more globalized, tech-driven economy. However, the cost for data centers can be high, and not just in terms of money, but also in terms of the carbon footprint created by the data centers. Through Dell’s Efficient Data Center, businesses are able to free up around 50 percent of their IT budget while reducing the carbon footprint created at the same time. the center provides cost effective solutions to optimize the current data center and use technologies that are more efficient when it comes to cost and energy savings.
8 ) Energy Efficiency Initiatives. With Dell, high performance does not necessarily have to mean increased energy consumption. Due in part to a number of energy efficiency initiatives created by Dell engineers, Dell products now use reduced amount of power with each new generation of products. For example, Dell laptops and desktops have saved customers over 25 percent in energy costs since 2008. As well, all Dell products now come with the ENERGYSTAR label, ensuring customers that the products meet strict guidelines in regards to power efficiency as set up by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States.
9) Greener Products and Packaging Initiatives. Dell has implemented their own packaging plan that will not only revolutionize but simplify computer packaging that will eliminate an estimated 20 million pounds of packaging between the years 2008 and 2012. The innovation strategy boils down to three “Cs” – Cube (What is the size of the box and could it be smaller); Content (what is the packaging material made of and can it be made of something much better); and Curb (can the packaging be easily recycled). Since 2008, Dell has shrunken packaging volume by ten percent and increased the amount of recycled content by 45 percent, and recycled packaging material by 75 percent.
10) Green Grid. Dell has been very active when it comes to issues like energy efficiency and providing effective solutions to their customers, one of such solutions is the Green Grid. The Greed Grid is an international association of different IT professionals all working together in an effort to advance energy efficiency throughout enterprise computing as well as promote harmonization of all efficiency metrics. Established in 2007, the Green Grid promotes the total adoption of “power usage effectiveness,” which accurately measures how effectively data centers utilize electricity coming from the power grid.
