Dell Inc has released its annual 2020 Legacy of Good update, continuing the company’s long-term commitment to society, team members and the environment.
The report summarises efforts during fiscal year 2018. The report and corresponding activities are rooted in Dell’s acknowledgement of its responsibility to realise a sustainable and prosperous future.
Dell’s purpose as a company is to drive human progress through technology. One of the ways the company brings that to life is through its Legacy of Good commitment – to put Dell technology and expertise to work where they can do the most good for people and the planet.
For Dell that means investing in innovation that reduces environmental impact, supports a transparent supply chain, ensures an inclusive future workforce and advances underserved communities.
“The Legacy of Good programme reflects what’s possible when people and technology come together with purpose,” said Christine Fraser, Chief Responsibility Officer, Dell. “Our customers, partners and teams care about this work now more than ever, and we will continue to seek innovative ways to deploy our resources, design out waste, celebrate inclusion and address the greatest need.”
Sustainable design and innovation
Dell believes transitioning to a circular economy is critical to enable human progress in the future. The company’s deep supply chain expertise, design strategy and global electronics recycling infrastructure puts it in a unique position to advance a circular model.
Dell has pioneered sustainable design innovation in a multitude of areas, including:
- Closed-loop recycling: In the reported period, Dell brought closed-loop plastics recycling to its enterprise portfolio in Europe, recycling more than 35,000 lbs. of plastic from e-waste into new enterprise products. Cumulatively, Dell has used £73 million of recycled material in new products since 2013, keeping the company on track to meet 2020 goal of £100 million.
- Gold reclamation: At the same time, Dell closed the loop on gold, upcycling used gold from e-waste into new motherboards in the Dell Latitude 5285 2-in-1 and into a jewellery line, The Circular Collection, in partnership with Bayou with Love, founded by Nikki Reed.
- Global e-waste tracking: This year, Dell is piloting the use of global tracking technology to monitor the responsible recycling of used electronics. In addition to piloting its own electronic tracking programme, Dell has partnered with Basel Action Network to deploy trackers across Dell’s consumer takeback programmes. Results will be reported in approximately 12 months following the pilot period.
- Intercepting ocean-bound plastics: Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1 laptop ships in packaging made with recovered ocean-bound plastics. The packaging, which received a Best of Innovation Award at CES, will begin shipping on the broader XPS line and commercial product portfolio later this year. To scale the work, Dell in partnership with the Lonely Whale created NextWave, a consortium of companies dedicated to scaling use cases for ocean-bound plastic materials in manufacturing while creating economic and social benefits for stakeholders. NextWave hopes to divert £3 million of plastics over five years, the equivalent of keeping 66 million water bottles from washing out to sea.
Enabling the workforce
The only way to ensure that the innovation we put in place today carries through to tomorrow, is by engaging everyone we can in today’s workforce and ensuring the next generation is equipped with the skills to thrive in an increasingly tech-centric world:
- Dell donated a US$ 650,000 grant to benefit more than 400,000 youth and 3,000 educators in 422 locations in Ethiopia. The entire project, through a partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry for Education and Camara Education, will deliver more than 30,000 PCs to more than 1,000 schools, benefitting 1.2 million students between 2016 and 2019. The US$12 million innovation project will also include more than 16 million hours of information and communication technologies education training to more than 3,000 teachers and school leaders.
- The company continues to build a flexible work environment that serves a diverse set of work styles. More than 58% of Dell team members used Dell’s remote work opportunity at least one day per week.
- More than one million people have gained access to technology and technology skills through Dell strategic giving programmes this year. The company has helped a total of 11.2 million people since 2013.
- Since 2014, US$50 million has been committed to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) initiatives focused on underserved youth.
Investing in a transparent and diverse supply chain
Dell is committed to maintaining an innovative, diverse, ethical and transparent supply chain that ensures good working conditions and a sustainable approach for their suppliers around the world.
Highlights include:
- A new virtual reality experience that allows users to look around an actual supplier factory, see the living conditions for workers at the factory and observe an engagement session featuring customers and workers. The 360-degree videos are available on Dell’s supply chain site.
- More than US$ 3 billion invested annually with women- and minority-owned suppliers and small businesses in the past six years.
- More than 200,000 workers in the company’s supply chain are monitored through the company’s weekly working hours monitoring programme.
