By Chris Buchanan, Client Solutions Director Dell Technologies South Africa

We live in the era of the conscious consumer – whether it be for purchases made individually or a commercial relationship built with a supplier. Collectively, customers are becoming increasingly interested in the environmental impact associated with making the products they purchase.

Dell Technologies is committed to driving human progress and creating a positive and lasting impact on humankind and the planet. Our 2030 Progress Made Real goals reflect our core purpose as a company, and our supply chain plays an integral role in our vision. We recognise that now, more than ever, our customers care not just about the products we make, but how we make them. We embed sustainability and ethical practices in our supply chain to protect the planet and the well-being of the people on it.

We integrate sustainability into our supply chain through our procurement strategy, potential supplier screening, supplier onboarding, and by addressing risks when we find them. We collaborate with our suppliers to help them develop their own in-house sustainability capabilities and consistently engage stakeholders to address common environmental challenges. Our Continuous Improvement Model helps us partner with our suppliers throughout our relationship, including through 10,000 training hours we provide annually to processionals at supplier factories on social and environmental responsibility. 

By proactively managing environmental issues within our supply chain, we are safeguarding the continuity of sustainability at the heart of our business by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, water stewardship and addressing waste.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions

• Since 2017, we have worked with our suppliers to improve the measurement and reporting of their emissions, using cross-industry tools like CDP Global’s Climate Change disclosure.
• In 2019, we announced a new commitment to partner with our direct material suppliers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% per unit revenue, as part of our Social Impact Plan for 2030. To achieve this, we are engaging with key suppliers to help them set their own science-based targets and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our engagements have focused on supporting suppliers’ efforts to reduce energy consumption, improve energy efficiency, and source cleaner energy. For instance, we hosted training for suppliers to learn more about energy efficiency. We also provided on-site consultations with suppliers to identify opportunities for energy efficiency.
• In 2019, 275,130 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions were reduced through energy consumption reduction projects at 59 supplier factories we tracked.

Water stewardship

• We follow the principles of water stewardship to responsibly and collaboratively manage water resources. This includes both understanding water use within our supply chain and understanding and engaging in efforts to address risks across other water users in the catchment areas that our supply chain operates.
• For the past five years, we have worked with factories to jointly analyse their water performance. Factories have used this analysis – alongside water management training we provide – to develop and implement plans to reduce freshwater use and wastewater discharge. In 2019 alone, 231 factories in our supply chain actively implemented water risk mitigation plans based on this work. Collectively, these factories saved 29.9 million meters of freshwater and reduced wastewater discharge by 26.2 million meters in 2019. We’re continuing to build on this work by tracking the ongoing impact of these water plans and providing continued capability building.
• The water risk mitigation plans developed by factories include engagement plans for working with stakeholders such as city water providers, local community members, and wastewater treatment plants. We have also been encouraging suppliers to become certified by the Alliance for Water Stewardship, which is a standard for how to address challenges across a water catchment. In 2019 we engaged with eight supplier factories on water stewardship best practices.

Addressing waste

• One way we address waste is by asking suppliers to be transparent about their own environmental impacts by publishing sustainability reports in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Last year, 93% of our direct material suppliers (by spend) published these reports. Based on this information, 51% of Dell Technologies’ direct material suppliers (by spend) have reported progress in reducing waste from their operations.
• To help divert waste in our supply chain from landfills, last year we conducted a pilot with five of our final assembly manufacturing factories. The pilot aimed at building their capabilities in managing waste, with the goal of diverting over 90% from landfills. Suppliers used this expertise to develop waste management systems and divert more waste from landfills through recycling, compositing, anaerobic digestion, reducing, thermal treatment with energy recover, and biofuel. Based on our work in 2019, we plan to engage and build a system to benchmark diversion rates in our supply chain.
• We are committed to transparency and require our suppliers to respond to environmental risks such as public penalty records and report Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR) data. Last year we worked with suppliers to mitigate 100% of the risks identified.
• By 2030, for every product a customer buys, we will reuse or recycle an equivalent product. In addition, all our packaging will be made from recycled or renewable material and more than half of our product content will be made from recycled or renewable material. For example, the Dell Latitude 7300 was designed to be 24 grams lighter than previous generations and we advanced its total recycled content to 18 percent. And, we conducted a pilot expansion of our closed-loop plastics program that reused 4,500 pounds of plastic resins, which were used in display products.

We are committed to increasing the visibility and mitigation of supply chain environmental risks. One of our practical solutions has been the development of an environmental risk heat map. This map automates our capture of big data from media and government sources, allowing for 24x7 monitoring of information that indicates if a factory in our supply chain is at risk of environmental non-compliance. This gives us a holistic view to proactively identify high-risk suppliers and work with them to instigate action plans early.

Protecting the environment is a critical concern for our current and future stakeholders, team members, customers and the communities we serve. We believe technology can be a key part of the solution. It’s why we’ve established long-term goals focused on reducing emissions in our supply chain, targeting the use of renewables in our operations, and looking at how our technology can help our customers and communities meet their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These goals reflect our deep understanding of where Dell Technologies has the greatest opportunity and ability to positively impact the planet. We have made progress, but we understand there is still a lot to do. It’s a responsibility that we take seriously – and will continue to hold our suppliers to high sustainability standards.