Follow the Leader: Dell - ‘the greenest technology company on the planet’?

Tod Arbogast is leading Dell's environmental initiatives

Tod Arbogast is Dell’s Sustainability Director. It’s a challenging job in the IT sector, although Dell has publicly welcomed the challenge. It claims it will be the greenest technology company on the planet, but Arbogast boldly announces at the start of the interview that he believes: ‘We are today the greenest technology company on the planet.’

Arbogast recognises that what he terms ‘environmental leadership’ - i.e. the one with the most green clout - is something that many in the industry lay claim to. So why should we believe that Dell is the real environmental leader? Arbogast believes that leadership can be distinguished on the basis of actions, explaining: ‘Ultimately we view our leadership as one of concrete actions.’

Dell isn’t a green company in terms of its primary purpose, so why is sustainability important to Dell? ‘I think they actually go hand-in-hand,’ says Arbogast. ‘I think today being a leader as an IT company also necessitates being a leader with respect to sustainability.’ To illustrate Dell’s commitment to sustainability, Arbogast cites the example of delivering of energy efficient products, taking into account the total cost of ownership of IT products, particularly as energy costs have increased by 56 per cent worldwide since 2002. He tells us that the M-Series Blade products consume 10 per cent less than comparable HP products and 11 per cent less than comparable IBM products. ‘Leadership in sustainability also drives leadership in terms of product’, says Arbogast.

A second area he is keen to highlight is avoiding waste. ‘Today we avoid about 94 per cent of our waste, which is leading edge in our industry, and we are committed to 99 per cent waste avoidance by 2012.’ Arbogast recognises that working towards sustainability benefits the company in other ways. ‘There are business reasons, there’s cost avoidance reasons and there’s also an element about doing the right thing.’

‘Doing the right thing’ in an environmental sense is, not that we’re complaining, rather fashionable right now. So how do we know if Dell has actually got a conscience or just good business sense? ‘Individually there may be different motivators behind each of the environmental initiatives, whether it be waste avoidance, cost reduction, product enhancement’, says Arbogast, ‘but holistically all of those actions combined will drive [environmental] leadership.’

Arbogast points to going beyond specific customer demands and legal requirements as an indicator that Dell really is a true leader. For example: ‘We are one of the few companies committed to a precautionary approach to our chemical management, going beyond the regulatory minimum requirements.’ That, he tells us, includes a commitment to the elimination of PVCs and BFRs from Dell products, ‘which is not currently regulated anywhere in the world, yet we’re committed to the elimination of these materials.’

In the December 2007 issue of Greenpeace’s Green Electronic’s Guide, Dell is one of the higher rated companies, but it lost out on points because ‘there are still no products on the market without the worst chemicals’. So how does Greenpeace’s assessment match-up with Dell’s leading stance on chemical elimination? ‘We’ve engaged with Greenpeace for several years and we value the relationship as well as the guidance,’ says Arbogast. While one of Greenpeace’s two main focuses in the current guide is implanting a precautionary approach to chemical management, Arbogast is keen to draw attention to the second main thread which is taking responsibility for products that are end of life. ‘Dell is the only company that anywhere anytime in the world will take back our products. . . [and] we are the only one in our industry doing it.’

He also believes Dell is aligned with Greenpeace’s goal of eliminating the worst chemicals, and is, ‘focused vigorously on finding viable substitutes that meet the needs in terms of continuity and supply. We are working not only with NGOs but also within our industry to collaborate to help find those viable substitutes.’

Transparency is vital if customers are to believe ‘green’ claims, which means being open about what still needs to be done, and not just glossing over them. Is Dell as humble about what challenges still lie ahead as it is grandiose about its achievements to date? Arbogast assures us it is. ‘Our sustainability report is very robust and it details our actions as well as our challenges. It’s through our challenges that our greatest opportunities for collaboration is, and eliminating PVCs and BFRs is a really good example where we could stand alone and try and find substitutes but instead we’ve chosen to work within our industry.’

Collaboration is an interesting notion for a company claiming to be the industry’s environmental leader. If other companies replicate won’t that mean Dell loses its niche as the ‘greenest’? Arbogast reveals an altruistic ideal. ‘We want others in our industry to participate to the same degree or greater with respect to environmental considerations.’ In fact Michael Dell has challenged the rest of the industry to follow its lead in offering a comprehensive no-charge worldwide take back program. Arbogast tells us that so far no-one has taken up the challenge, ‘but we still have that invitation out’.

Arbogast believes Dell’s own biggest challenge is in doing a complete assessment on a life-cycle approach, as opposed to looking at individual actions. Although one individual action he has been proud of is the paper procurement policy. Dell now has a forestry stewardship model, which, while there’s still a way to go, has seen the introduction of recycled content and FSC certified virgin fibres used for its paper requirements. Arbogast feels that areas such as these would not be identified unless you look at the environmental impacts across the organisation.

So a holistic approach is important to Arbogast, but how does that filter down from his role as Sustainability Director to each and every employee of Dell? Arbogast’s team of five is small by design. ‘Our job is to help understand the challenges, prioritise actions we should take, help find some of the answers and then most importantly determine who in the vast network of Dell is the most appropriate to own and drive sustainable change as a core part of what they do every day.’

Influencing and directing employees is one thing, but what about customers. While it’s all well and good having initiatives, like the take-back scheme for example, how easy is it to get customers to actually utilise Dell’s green initiatives? Eighty five per cent of Dell’s customers are business and institutional customers, which according to Arbogast are asking Dell what actions it’s taking, ‘so they’re driving it’. Consumers, which make up a lesser, yet significant, 15 per cent of Dell’s customers and are not making sizeable requests to the company with respect to environmental attributes. ‘We’re still driving and leading the focus’, says Arbogast, ‘just often the attributes are not known by the consumers.’

He believes that the millennial generation is more focused on environmental considerations than any other generation before. ‘So as the millennial generation grows and begins to mature and begins to enter the workforce, I do believe that environmental attributes will become more and more of a purchase criteria for consumers and businesses.’

Dell has committed to being carbon neutral, however after the energy reducing initiatives have been taken into account, there’s still an negative output, which is offset. Offsetting is the easiest way to make any activity carbon neutral, so is it a permit to pollute? ‘Our first focus is on reducing the amount of energy we consume. We have the lowest carbon intensity of anyone in our industry,’ says Arbogast. Dells ‘three R’s’ are Reduce, Renewable, Responsibly offset. As the vast majority of Dell’s carbon impact is through the electricity it uses, it aims not to reduce the usage but also to work towards using 100 per cent renewable sources, and hopefully the remainder which is offset will become a smaller and smaller remainder.

Future plans are a continuation of what’s already in motion. ‘We’ll continue to focus on delivering the most energy efficient products on the market place, we’ll continue to focus on purchasing and developing renewable energy as part of our climate change strategy, and you’ll see us to continue on building a broader framework on environmental leadership,’ enthuses Arbogast. Importantly for Arbogast, Dell will maintain its leadership position by doing all these things of its own initiative, not because it’s being asked.