Dell's Three C's and Sustainable Packaging
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California 
on 12.17.08
Photo via Tom Purves
That Dell…always greening up something around the office!
The latest news is that Dell is turning its focus to the three C’s – Cube, Content & Curb – and is making its packaging more efficient and sustainable over the next four years.
Read on for what the heck cube, content and curb mean…
Dell is looking to accomplish three goals in the next four years:
- reduce desktop and laptop packaging materials by 10% worldwide
- increase sustainable content in cushioning and corrugate packaging by 40%
- ensure that 75% of packaging components are curbside recyclable.
While we wish that the timeline was sooner and the percentages higher, we give snaps to Dell for taking better packaging seriously. The changes will help to eliminate 20 million pounds of packaging material, which is the same as about 150,000 trees. That puts gleaming smiles on our TreeHugger faces.
So back to those C’s.
Cube means shrinking the packaging for the Dell Inspiron 1318 by 50% through redesign. So….what about all the other computer models? Hopefully they’ll redesign those in the near future as well.
Content means changing the packaging material to lighter, smaller and recycled materials. For instance, they estimate about 33 million recycled milk jugs will go into desktop and laptop packaging by 2009.
Curb means making packaging that is curbside recyclable, encouraging recycling habits even more.
This kind of rethinking of packaging along with the other eco-efforts Dell makes earned them the second highest score in the Technology section of the Ceres Report.
From the report:
The Ceres report found that select companies in various consumer and technology sectors are responding to the risks and opportunities presented by climate change, primarily by setting GHG emissions reduction targets, boosting energy efficiency efforts, expanding renewable energy purchases and integrating climate factors into product design. But the report found that many other companies are still largely ignoring climate change, especially at the board and CEO level. For example, only 11 of the 63 companies have their boards receive climate-specific updates from management, only seven of the CEOs among these firms have taken leadership roles on climate change initiatives and none of the companies have linked C-suite executive compensation directly to climate-related performance.The mixed performance was evident in the report's final scores. Using a 100-point scale, the three highest scoring companies were IBM, UK-based grocery retailer Tesco and Dell, with 79, 78 and 77 points, respectively. More than half of the 63 companies scored under 50 points, with a median score of 38 points.
Congrats to those who scored relatively highly, and for all the others…Pick up the pace!
More on Dell as a Greenie:
Dell Reaches Carbon Neutrality Goals, 5 Months Ahead of Schedule
Dell to Transition All Laptop Displays to Mercury-Free LED Backlights
Dell Says No to Major Data Center Overhauls
Dell’s Free Computer Recycling Expanded to Virginia, Wash D.C.
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I handle a great deal of Dell products at work as they are our sole source for Desktops and laptops (over 1000/year) and many projectors and other accessories. I'm glad they are doing more but I'm disappointed in a lot of their packaging. Here are my suggestions (which are portable to other manufacturers as well):
1. No one cares if the power cable is placed in a small zip lock bag. They are awful shiny and nice looking when we unpack them. I'm sure the dust bunnies behind the desks appreciate that. This goes for all cables.
2. Get rid of Styrofoam.
3. Put a small card with a URL to all the manuals, drivers and such in the box with the PC. Each PC I unpack has 3 DVDs/CDs and three small books. I go through about 1000/year (that's 3000 disks and books). When I unpack them the disks go directly into the recycling bin (which is not curbside and is expensive) and the books into the paper bin.
4. Skip the bag on the keyboard. Right now the keyboard is as follows: inside a plastic bag, in a box, in another box in the big box. Seriously?
5. laptops are a travesty... There are so many small accessories iin there each in a plastic bag, then in a nook in a box that is then in the larger box. And ALL the plastic is different, some #2 some #4 and too much #7. Here the #7 must go in the garbage.
6. Lose the foam wrapped around the VGA and DVI cable ends... they have a cap that protects the pins already... then they have a piece of (unidentified therefore garbage) foam wrapped around the heavy plastic held on by a rubber band. The ONLY reason I can see for this is to prevent scuffs. See #1 above.
I hope they continue on the right path because it not only cleans and greens their products, it should make the packaging cheaper and the cost to their customers (sorting time, recycling etc) cheaper too. It's a win, win, win!
Just curious, is this an ad, or an article? Sounds like ad-washing to me. Cutting back on packaging is good for sure, but reducing 10% within 4 years is small stuff, hardly new. That's cutting back on 2.5% of unnecessary packaging per year, for a company who's been notorious for overpackaging for years.
I have this computer. My computer looks exactly like this picture.
It's pretty tight. I got a lot of compliments and...it sets me apart
from everyone's elses laptop (well most of them, I'm the only one
I've seen with this kind of laptop). Yeah, plus
if my computer just happens to be in a row of other laptops...I'll
instantly know which one is mine. :)