HONOREE SIZE & INDUSTRY:  Enterprise – Technology

Texan by Nature is excited to recognize Dell Technologies in the 2020 TxN 20. Dell Technologies was also recognized in the 2019 TxN 20 for their efforts in conservation and sustainability that positively impact Texas’ communities, economic prosperity, and natural resources. Read their 2019 write-up.

COMPANY OVERVIEW 

Dell Technologies helps organizations and individuals build their digital future and transform how they work, live, and play. The Round Rock, Texas-based company provides customers with the industry’s broadest, most innovative technology, and services portfolios for the data era. Founded in 1984 by Michael Dell in his University of Texas dorm room, Dell Technologies is one of the largest technology companies in the world, with more than 165,000 team members located across 180 countries globally. Dell ranked number 34 on the Fortune 500 list for 2020 and is the sixth-largest company in Texas by revenue at $92 B. Dell Technologies makes an impact through collaborative partnerships that help reduce e-waste, encourage recycling, repurpose electronic parts, and restore habitat. To date, Dell Technologies serves 16 million people with technology and technical expertise.

From Dell Technologies’ perspective, there are monumental changes taking place currently in society and the environment that are creating an opportunity to shift the way we all work and live. As one of the largest global technology providers, Dell is playing a unique role in transforming the future for the better. The company is well-positioned with its global scale, broad technology portfolio, team member talent, and customer partnerships. By tapping into all of their strengths, Dell Technologies can activate a powerful movement of change, and yield a meaningful impact on society and the planet over the next decade.

Dell Technologies believes they have a responsibility to protect and enrich the planet together with their customers, suppliers, and communities. To support the conservation of the planet’s natural resources, Dell embeds sustainability and ethical practices into everything that they do because it is a core part of their business and day-to-day operations. Since pioneering their circular economy process for e-waste in Fiscal Year 2015, Dell has used more than 35 million pounds of closed-loop plastics in over 125 models of their products. 

EMPLOYEE LEADERSHIP

Ed Boyd, SVP of Dell Technologies Experience Design Group, leads the global experience design group, which focuses on sustainable product design solutions. This group helps accelerate the circular economy by making what Dell produces recyclable and providing services and solutions that enable Dell’s customers to dematerialize their growth.

Ed also serves as the global leader of the company’s sustainability-focused Planet Employee Resource Group, an organization that boasts more than 20,000 members. Additionally, in Fiscal Year 2019 52% of team members (85,800 individuals) registered at least one volunteer activity in Dell Technologies’ online tracking system, logging 890,000 hours of service – the highest annual total ever and representing a 22 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2018! Dell Technologies matches team members’ charitable donations up to $10,000 per team member per calendar year. In Fiscal Year 2019 $9.1 million in team member donations were matched.

CONSERVATION PROGRAMS

Circular Economy & E-Waste

E-waste is today’s fastest-growing domestic waste stream in the world yet only 20% gets responsibly recycled each year. Dell Technologies is fully committed to accelerating the circular economy and diverting all e-waste from landfills. Correcting this requires a complete rethink of product design to protect the planet and environment. 

 Since 1996, Dell Technologies has provided secure recycling solutions around the world. These solutions protect customer data, reuse precious materials, and responsibly recycle e-waste. From consumer hardware and accessories to outdated business systems and servers, Dell accepts any brand in any condition and with some services can return value back to their customers.

 For Dell, recycling is the backbone of the circular economy, but if recycled materials aren’t put back to work, the whole cycle breaks down. Since pioneering this process in Fiscal Year 2015, Dell has used more than 35 million pounds of closed-loop plastics in over 125 models of their products. 

Dell’s Asset Resale and Recycling Services (ARR) for commercial customers increased collections by more than 30 percent compared to Fiscal Year 2018. This program provides pickup logistics, data protection, and responsible retirement of any brand of owned or leased hardware. It also includes detailed reporting of each system’s journey from collection to final disposition. In Fiscal Year 2019, ARR returned more than $23 million in resale value to commercial customers.

One of their initiatives is working with their suppliers Teleplan and Seagate to recover rare earth magnets from old hard drives that are then reformed into new magnets for new hard drives. Dell also piloted a Trade-in Swap and Incentive Program with Teleplan to give new life to nonfunctioning hard drives collected from used storage products. They are now wiped, rebuilt, and sold in markets rather than being shredded and recycled. This has generated $13 million to date and has kept 303 tons of material out of the waste stream.

Additionally, Dell is working with Carbon Conversions to develop reclaimed carbon fiber technology from waste materials from major aerospace companies, which is used in the Latitude 7300 AE. In the future, Dell will apply the collective knowledge from this initiative to other products within the Latitude and commercial PC portfolio. 

In Fiscal Year 2019, Dell achieved the following: 

• Recovering 2.1 billion pounds of used electronics since Fiscal Year 2008. 
• Maintained their progress for product and services packaging material by weight at 95%.
• Dell’s manufacturing facilities, which account for the largest source of their operational waste, diverted 98% of their total non-hazardous waste from landfills. 
• Eliminate the use of single-use, non-compostable plastic straws across Dell Technologies’ global facilities. At the end of Fiscal Year 2019, 83% of Dell Technologies-provided employee cafés, canteens, and bistros were using paper or other compostable products, or no straws at all. 

Dell continues to look deeper into each product’s lifecycle to identify the greatest opportunities for driving efficiencies. One example is Dell’s laptop energy efficiency gains, with the average electricity cost of running a laptop being approximately $3 annually. 

Water Conservation

Through Fiscal Year 2019, 201 of Dell’s supplier facilities have submitted five-year water risk mitigation plans. This represents a 34% increase compared to Fiscal Year 2018. This increase aligns with Dell’s roadmap for their water goals, which requires collecting water risk mitigation plans from 50 new facilities every year. Additionally, Dell began sharing best practices and lessons learned with suppliers and implementing new tools that make it easier for them to report data and improve its accuracy. During 2018, suppliers implemented 370 projects, ranging from water efficiency to water reuse improvements. These projects reduced the amount of wastewater discharged by 4.56 million cubic meters and saved 560,000 cubic meters of freshwater. Since Dell started tracking the implementation of these plans two years ago, their suppliers have cumulatively implemented 480 projects. These have reduced the amount of wastewater discharged by 6.96 million cubic meters and saved over 1.38 million cubic meters of freshwater. During Fiscal Year 2019, four of Dell’s facilities in water-stressed areas (primarily located in India), reused about 80% of the wastewater treated on-site for landscaping and toilet flushing.

Plant a Tree program

In 2007, Dell and The Conservation Fund launched the Plant a Tree program to engage customers in addressing two of the greatest environmental challenges: habitat loss and climate change. Dell created a convenient way for its commercial customers and individual consumers to add a small payment to their order. These donations help program partners like The Conservation Fund to protect forests and plant trees. Dell has also led multiple marketing initiatives to increase awareness and engage all people, not just customers, to join in. The program has made gifts of trees on behalf of employees and customers, encouraging each of us to join a broader coalition of champions working to protect and restore forests everywhere. In the U.S, Dell’s efforts have led to hundreds of thousands of trees sprouting at wildlife refuges across California, Kansas, Louisiana, and Maryland. Efforts in Texas at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge include over 220,000 native trees that will restore habitat for endangered ocelots. Globally, the program has planted more than 1.6 million trees since its inception.

Sustainable Infrastructure 

Dell earned two Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors from Green Globes®, the Green Building Initiative’s green building certification program, for renovating two floors of the Round Rock 1 building at Dell Technologies’ global headquarters in Texas. The makeover, completed in Fiscal Year 2019, was the latest phase of a multiyear renovation project across both Central Texas campuses. The improvements set a new global design standard for other Dell Technologies facilities. They included LED lighting with motion and photocell sensors for automatic turnoff, low water-use WaterSense®- certified plumbing fixtures, and low-VOC paints, carpeting, and furniture. Renovated areas are expected to see a 50% reduction in the energy used for lighting and a 30 percent reduction in domestic water usage.

Through Fiscal Year 2019, Dell reduced their global absolute GHG emissions, Scopes 1 and 2 market-based, by 38% compared to their Fiscal Year 2011 baseline. This represents a 13% reduction compared to Fiscal Year 2018. This reduction can largely be attributed to a decrease in electricity consumption and an increase in renewable energy purchased. Additionally, in Fiscal Year 2019 Dell sourced 33% of their total electricity from renewables, representing an 8% increase compared to the previous year. This increase can be attributed to additional renewable electricity purchased.

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

By 2030, it’s estimated the global population will grow by a billion people. With more people and greater prosperity, the economy will put pressure on planetary boundaries and social systems like never before.

Dell Technologies believes that they can change the system for the better by embracing a circular economy, one that’s based on designing without waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use for as long as possible, and finding ways to regenerate natural systems. Technology will play a key role in this shift by unlocking the power of data combined with the human spirit to propel the positive forces needed to create change.

Dell sees the circular economy as a smart business model for their collective future. They consider environmental opportunities and challenges at every stage of the product lifecycle – from design and development, manufacturing and operations, to product use and recovery. Products are designed to include environmentally responsible materials, using efficient designs that require fewer materials and maximize reusability and recyclability. In between manufacturing and end of life, Dell Technologies wants their products to stay in the economy as long as they can be useful.

Dell is proud of their past accomplishments and pace, but last year they outlined their intent to do much more. In the long-term, Dell’s goals are to:

• Reuse or recycle an equivalent product for every product a customer buys by 2030. 
• Make 100% of packaging from recycled or renewable material. 
• Have more than half of their product content made from recycled or renewable material. 

These moonshot goals commit Dell to accelerate the circular economy on multiple fronts, from taking back electronics for recycling and reuse, to the use of recycled and renewable content in their products and packaging. And Dell isn’t just focused on products, their sustainability goals extend to targets for emissions and renewable electricity all the way to their supply chain.

TEXAN-LED CONSERVATION

Michael Dell founded Dell Technologies in Central Texas, which has always been a great area to attract talent. Fortunately, there are many excellent universities around the state that provide a strong supply of students as well as the 14 million people in the state’s labor force. As more companies are looking to grow and expand in Texas, the business environment is very competitive and helping to drive innovation.

 Dell is always looking for the next generation of great thinkers who can guide their business forward, today and tomorrow. Dell has recruiters working with universities worldwide throughout the year to showcase full-time, rotation programs, internships, and MBA opportunities for interested students. 

Learn more about how Dell Technologies advances sustainability. 

Definitions

– A circular economy is an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources.

– VOC or Volatile organic compounds are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects.