Dell announces best ever PC recycling result

To co-incide with World Environment Day Dell overnight announced it had recovered more than 102 million pounds (ie 46 million kilograms) of computer equipment worldwide in 2007 -- its most ever in a single year and a 20 percent increase on the previous 12 months.
I say well done all!
I know I've said it before but, having been involved in the issue, I've seen plenty of commitments and good intentions from people on e-waste over the last two years but it was Dell that delivered action.
PC users/buyers, if you're seeing your PC brand of choice now moving to reflect your own values on the environment, you've got Dell to thank for it, particularly those in Australia and New Zealand.

Dell, mini-notebooks and social media

You know, there are times I miss working at Dell -- and today is one of those. Take a look at this story from the Wall Street Journal but don't just read what the journalist wrote, read the comments like:

"Lionel Menchaca, and the rest of the Dell blogger team, are the best example of consumer outreach and engagement."

I've read dozens of comments like that in blog posts, stories about social media and even a recent episode of This Week in Tech -- and I haven't even really been looking.
It's hard to believe the team there has gone from this rocky first week to that WSJ story in just two years -- I don't think they get enough credit for it in PR circles.
Of course there are probably many more negative posts from people who haven't had a great Dell experience. But to me the point is no company is perfect, people and businesses make mistakes, and Dell's really succeeding in identifying and doing something about them.
Of course, the other thing I'm really missing this week is my staff discount now that images of the the upcoming Inspiron mini are out (kudos to David Flynn, the only Australian reporter to meet with Michael Dell in Austin this week, his take on the mini is here).

Saab not that green: watchdog

It will be interesting to see if the ACCC is successful with this action (I don't know the facts of the matter of course) but at the very least it is a reminder to organisations of the need be able to substantiate green claims -- and for consumers to not to take them at face-value.
It's tempting and comparatively easy to claim 'green-ness' -- you only have to look at the avalanche of people committing to become carbon neutral in the last 18 months to see that -- but you if haven't done your homework too you're exposing your company's reputation to a disproportionate risk (not to mention misleading people).
My former company, Dell, became the first IT hardware vendor to commit to becoming carbon neutral last year but did so only after having thoroughly understood its carbon footprint and committing to lowering its overall carbon intensity 15 percent by 2012.
(Carbon intensity in this case means the ratio of carbon emissions to company revenue and is, I believe, a more useful measure environmental impact than the volume of emissions alone, since large a company will logically produce more carbon than a small one.)

read more digg story

PC recycling: where to in Australia in 2008?

One of the last things I was able to achieve before leaving Dell at the end of 2007 was to take a small number of journalists to visit the facilities of Dell's recycling supplier, MRI. Some early takes:

• Liam Tung at ZDNet
  
• Kylie Field at Sustainability Matters
  
• Charlie Brewer at news.com.au

Personally, the lasting impression I had from my I visits to MRI is just how much manual work in involved -- you begin to understand why the process of recycling costs more than the value of what is recovered.
Where to in 2008? I'd be both surprised and disappointed if by the end of this year Dell is still the only vendor to offer free recycling options to consumers and small businesses nationally.
There are signs they wont be:
- there's the Victorian Government's Byteback trial, in which 10 major vendors are now participating, lead by the AIIA, including HP (who've been involved since 2006) and Dell.
Unfortunately, at least one major brand does not participate or offer a recycling service of its own (starts with an 'A' and is not headquartered in the US, oh hell, no need to be coy now, it's Acer).
- late last year Toshiba quietly introduced a recycling service for consumers -- not sure why they've not yet done more to tell people about it, after-all a recycling service no-one uses is of little value.
- in 2006 HP produced a glossy document with the NSW Government committing to offer free recycling on HP products sold in the State. Presumably they'll be ready to implement this in 2008.
- IBM launched Project Green mid-year with a research paper that said recycling was the number one green concern among Australian businesses -- presumably they're listening and working on that now.

On leaving Dell

Woke up this morning knowing my days at Dell are behind me rather than in front -- it's a curious feeling and one which will take some getting used to. My initial thoughts are that I'll miss it -- no company is perfect but I can say with all honesty that I loved working at Dell.
Looking back I've been incredibly fortunate since coming into IT in late 2000. I've had the opportunity to work at IBM and Dell, two of the most influential companies in the industry.

Things didn't start out that well. When I first entered the industry I had only a few weeks to get my feet under the desk before the March 2000 Tech Wreck -- and all of a sudden the industry was on the nose.
But I joined IBM in September 2000 -- yes, in time to pick up some tickets to the Olympics -- right around the time the company was really embracing Linux and open source.
Over the next four years I got to talk to many very smart people within IBM (particularly Academy Members like Glenn Wightwick) and hopefully even retained a few fragments of what I learned.
What I learned at Dell was very different. Dell changed my views about what a company could be -- and set my expectations permanently higher.

Dell XPS One

Must say I'm puzzled by some of the responses to Dell's XPS One announced today, specifically comments on some blogs saying citing 'lack of expandability' and the integrated, non-upgradable display (which I would have thought was the point of an all-in-one). Am puzzled because there is another device with a fixed display and limited upgrade options for memory, storage and optical -- it's called a notebook its actually selling quite well I believe.
Granted all-in-ones aren't as portable as notebooks but how many notebooks actually leave people's desks these days, particularly15 and 17 inch desktop replacement models, and how many mainstream consumers actually do upgrade their machine after they bring in home? Certainly the all-in-one design isn't for everybody but take a look at the phenomal growth in notebook sales in the last couple of years, not to mention exisiting AIO models like the iMac, and tell me again there's no market for a products that looks like this? Personally, I think its the best looking product Dell's produced to-date!
Disclosure: I work for the company.