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Environment Idea List0

1860

Corporate Responsibility in Marketing By tannemills, Nov 30, 2009

Today I have just received via courier a Dell laptop Charger in a massive box as part of a marketing campaign.

This contributes to e-waste and carbon emmissions in producing the charger and then shipping it to me in a ridiculously over-sized box.

That catch phrase of "corporate responsibility" that is touted all over the Dell website needs to be addressed with the Australian Marketing and Business Development teams!

Dell Laptop charger as part of marketing campaign in Australia - how wasteful!

Dell Laptop charger as part of marketing campaign in Australia - how wasteful!

Comments: 2
Categories: Advertising and Marketing Environment

Status:Acknowledged

Packaging-Air Cushion Technology By timbo7251, Jan 23, 2010

I understand that Dell is using air cusion technolgy in Europe for protecting their product during shipping.

I think that Dell should consider this for all of its protective packaging applications whenever and wherever possible.

In 2009 the market was flooded by new films used in air cushion technology which claimed to be made of a biodegradable material. 2 types mainly: starch based similiar to corn starch packing peanuts and the other contained an additive that attracts micro-organisms which would excellerate the breakdown of the material.

The problem with this is that in order for biodegradation to occur certain environmental factors must be present such as air, light, and moisture.

So we now uncover the dilemma......landfills do not sustain these factors. Hundred year old newspapers remain intact and fully readable when uncovered........and if a newspaper does not breakdown under the conditions of a landfill, then most certainly any film labeled biodegradable will not break down either.

Though I find it irritating that the marketing of air cusion technolgy can be at time misleading, it is still the more appropriate product in comparision to other materials when working towards environmental stewardship.

I make a case for using air cusioning technology versus any other packing material based on these points:
Re-use, Reduce, and Recycle.

Reduce- Air technology will reduce the amount of material used in packing. Why? Air does not mass in a landfill. Paper, peanuts, foam, and other material do.

Reuse- People are more apt to reuse an air product than any other because it is cleaner than paper and isn't messy like peanuts.

Recycle- There are brands of air cushions available that use a very high content of recycled or reclaimed resins.

I am curious as to what others think about this topic and encourage feedback.

Comments: 0
Categories: Environment

Status:Acknowledged

13560

Recycle & refurbish old Dell PCs back to Dell for 10% discount By reg, May 18, 2007

Recycle your old Dell back to Dell for a 10% discount on new equipment. Dell can then secure overwrite erase the hard drive, install Ubuntu + hardware drivers, then donate the hardware to unemployment, food stamp, and welfare offices Nationwide. The social services offices then can pass out the refurbished used equipment to its clients, and Dell can be given BIG tax breaks by the State and Federal Systems.

1. Recycle - Turn it in, don't landfill it.
2. Reuse - There is still life left in that old hardware
3. Reduce - Buy new electronics less often, get 5 years use out of every PC.
4. Refuse - wasteful spending, wasteful practices & wasteful companies.
5. Refute - Once wasteful practices or procedures are identified, correct the problem with Action!

Comments: 57
Categories: Environment Sales Strategies

Status:Acknowledged

510

Build and Advertise Printers that don't lie, cheat, and steal. By jmxz, Dec 24, 2007

Inkjet printers have earned a well deserved horrible reputation as "filthy, lying thieves". Quoting that article "Printers routinely report that they are low on ink even when they aren't, and in some cases there are still hundreds of pages worth of ink left." I have the best printer from that study - which still wastes "only" 9 percent of ink - and has the annoyance that it'll even refuse to print "black and white only" when one of the color cartridge's is dry.

Printers also have earned the well-deserved horrible reputation as devices that are"Spying On You". Advertise which of your printers spy on customers and make at least some models that don't.

One of Dell's competitors is currently getting lots of bad press over their $8000-per-gallon printer ink. This means the timing could be perfect for Dell to challenge them in the Printer market.

This is an *excellent* opportunity for Dell to fight back with "The Honest Printer". Make a printer that

Doesn't lie about being out of ink when it's not.
Has reasonably priced ink - even if the printer may cost more.
Encourages rather than discourages environmentally friendly refills
Doesn't spy on you.

It'll build up Dell as a Brand That Can Be Trusted - something that's been sorely lacking for quite some time

Comments: 2
Categories: Advertising and Marketing Environment Printers and Ink

Status:Acknowledged

Alienware Computers Go GREEN! By gramirez4527, Jan 25, 2010

As we all know all to well laptops and their batteries need a new makeover! Why not combine the Green technology of today with newest technology of tomorrow?
Solar pannels and more efficient battery life. by attching a solar pannel onto the back of the screen so that it can charge even during use!

Comments: 1
Categories: Environment Alienware

Status:Acknowledged

210

Innovation MUST be OPEN - Dell needs to support this! By phubert, Apr 9, 2008

As this article reveals, all TRUE innovation for the future MUST be open.

Save the planet? Open!
Education? Open!
Resolve world conflict? Open!
FIX government IT? Open!

How Open Source (Ideas) Can Win the War and Save the Auto Industry

"The great products of the future are going to be built on platforms for innovation. Products with broad appeal developed by one company behind closed doors are going to be the exception not the norm. Open products will thrive on open ideas developed transparently and without pride in individual ownership." ****

http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/archives/080407-105255.html

Comments: 36
Categories: Dell Education Environment

Status:Acknowledged

190

Its official: Vista Causes Global Warming By jorge, Aug 10, 2007

Report: Vista causes global warming

See the second page of this story from Network

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080907-vista-high-def.html?page=1<it's about how Vista frigs up high-def video and audio content. But this Australian researcher says all the overhead in Vista has a more damaging side effect: “It’s a bit of an extreme claim, but you could say Windows Vista causes global warming, because it’s burning so much power with all this nonsense."

What can I say? Yet another reason to buy Unix Computer. Al Gore is on the case, pushing the federal government to drop Windows Vista in favor of Unix in all government offices and all schools. Gore's theory is that Gates is intentionally drawing extra power and trying to heat up the planet, so he can cash in by investing in carbon offsets. Darn you, Beastmaster!

(Edited due to not reading what I was writing till now :) )

PS: Incase the admins can't decipher, the idea is to remove Vista from their OS offerings or at the very least offer a Unix replacement to avoid selling a Anti-Green OS, Dell did ask us to give them Green Ideas after all. No-OS is the Greenest of them all!

Comments: 38
Categories: Environment Operating Systems Sales Strategies

Status:Acknowledged

470

Make documentation and discs optional By sensei, Dec 2, 2009

We order lots of new machines from Dell and every time I open a new box the first thing I do is throw a huge stack of product manuals, quick setup guides, and other paperwork in the recycling bin and toss a couple of OEM CDs or DVDs in the trash. I also just received a replacement keyboard for a Dell Latitude D530 keyboard (a part I've replaced dozens of times and takes less than a minute to replace) and it had a 42 page book outlining the process in the box!

Could you add an option to your ordering and warrant replacement processes to allows companies to opt out of receiving this documentation? I'm sure this would reduce your costs as well as reducing the carbon footprint of every machine that doesn't come with unnecessary docs and discs.

Comments: 4
Categories: Environment

Status:Acknowledged

180

First place on Greenpeace's "How the companys line up" By jak, Feb 6, 2008

Greenpeace is comparing the products of different companies by the aspect of how "green" they are. You can see it on this site.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-...
Dell is at the moment on the third place and I it would be great if it could become the greenest company in this ranking.
That would be great and a great step to a better future.

Comments: 4
Categories: Dell Environment

Status:Acknowledged

130

Dell should invest in Fluidic Energy By jervis961, Nov 5, 2009

Fluidic Energy, is a spinoff from Arizona State University that "aims to build a Metal-Air Ionic Liquid battery that has up to 11 times the energy density of the top lithium-ion technologies for less than one-third the cost." According to the article in Technology Review they have received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy last week for $5.13-million to continue their research. Dell should make an investment in the company in exchange for partial ownership. Sometimes its the small investments that pay off the best.

Comments: 1
Categories: Dell Environment Laptop Power

Status:Acknowledged

190

Promote laptops for home users By aromerofeijoo, Mar 26, 2007

Laptops are quite less consuming (or quite better at energy savings if you prefer). They are built with less metal and plastic (this also helps energy saving!) They need less space when delivered and recycled. For most home users a laptop screen is good enough. For games and films you can just connect them to TV screen. And don´t forget to give your old PC to a recycling institution! (in my country its up to local councils)

Comments: 3
Categories: Advertising and Marketing Environment Laptops

Status:Acknowledged

100

Optional detailed system manuals for a "plant a tree" fee. By kld3, Aug 17, 2008

This seems like a no brainer, I mean my DVD player includes a better paper manual than my Dell, but it would be really useful to have a detailed system manual to refer to when you have the machine open while upgrading components. Yes, I can always download and print parts of the manual online but I end up with a lot of loose pages I'm always losing (and having to reprint). Why not offer the option of including a detailed manual for the specific system? Use recycled materials and environmentally friendly ink. Also add a "plant a tree" fee to the cost of the manual. That way for every manual requested a whole tree is planted. Also give people the option of planting more than one tree.

Comments: 1
Categories: Advertising and Marketing Environment

Status:Acknowledged

Making things greener By Chengy, Nov 18, 2009

The biggest rage is going green and I for one am all for it. I would like to see things just more environmentally friendly. I for one say use more sustainable products for casings. I think a bamboo casing option would be amazing. If I recall Dell used to sell something similar to that but it didn't stick.

Bamboo grows quickly and there is no shortage of Bamboo growing in the world. It is very sustainable. It is way more environmentally friendly than the plastics that are encasing most laptops today.

I think it would be awesome to have a bamboo encased laptop. For one no other company even makes one. People will see someone using a bamboo laptop and will ask about it and it will strike up conversation.

All in all I think that Dell has the opportunity to fill the Green niche that is lacking in the computer industry. Despite the claims Mac isn't all that green. Dell has a unique opportunity to capitalize with that opportunity.

Comments: 0
Categories: Environment Laptops

Status:Acknowledged

15020

Sell more desktops without monitors, keyboards, etc By gordonbrown77, Feb 16, 2007

Make it an option to not get things people may already have when upgrading a PC such as monitors, mouse, keyboard. This would be good environmentally and save people some money if they already have theae things and will not be keeping the old PC.

DELL/

Status Update

Please see chris_m's comment

Comments: 39
Categories: Desktops Environment Sales Strategies

Status:Partially Implemented

250

Use Lithium Titanate Batterys By headless, May 5, 2007

Litium Ion batterys are a liability to the whole computer industry. Using them has cost Dell, HP, Sony, Apple billions of dollars. There is new battery technology available. It is called Lithium Titanate and utilizes nanotech to make anodes with an enormous surface area which is also free of the carbon which promotes thermal runaway and the subsequent distortion, smoke, flame and explosions. These new batteries have a calendar life of 12 years, can be recharged 18,000 times and can be recharged in as little as 10 minutes to 80% or more. I found this on the altairnano.com website. The company is building electric car battery packs for Phoenix Motors and have an exclusive contract with them but I believe that arrangement is limited to large battery packs and doesn't include other contracts for small batterys. Their product is called "Nanosafe". Should the computer industry wise up to this new technology and use it, it would have the side benefit of helping Altair Nano ramp up production volume and bring us all closer to having all-electric cars with 250 mi. range and 0-60 mph acceleration in the 4.0 second range. What's not to like about this. Everybody wins. Given this new technology, I find the computer industry's love affair with the Lithium Ion battery completely insane.

Comments: 2
Categories: Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) Environment Laptop Power

Status:Acknowledged

Battery with Solar Power By oodai, Apr 19, 2009

It would be Great if we can use Solar power for Charging batteries so that we can make best use of Environment.

Thank you.

Comments: 1
Categories: Environment Laptop Power

Status:Acknowledged

-50

Carbon Offset By plewislinux, Jan 10, 2008

How hard would it be to install a photovoltaic panel on the lid of a notebook. Wouldn't that be a start towards offsetting it's total carbon footprint? In the long run wouldn't the use of these panels by Dell cause the overall price of said panels to drop? I know the panels couldn't replace the "normal" power supply ,but how much would it help in the average life cycle?

Comments: 8
Categories: Environment Laptop Power

Status:Acknowledged

120

Going green with power adapters By PxPlus, Nov 24, 2008

Hi Apple,

This morning I happened to be unplugging a PC power adapter and an Idea came into my head that I thought I would pass on to you.

Currently being 'Green' is on everyone's mind so as I unplugged the I thought -- what a waste to have the power adapters continue to run once the laptop is fully charged. This lead me to an idea that perhaps you could implement.

What if you had a feedback mechanism in the power adapter that would shut the whole power adapter off once the battery level reached 100%. Then, have the laptop battery drive some form of power monitor circuitry so that if the battery level dropped below 90% it would turn the adapter back on?

Ideally it could be designed to do this all the time so you could leave your PC plugged in permanently and it would only draw power -- any power -- when the battery level was below 90%.

While the drain that a power adapter puts on the power grid is little, every little bit will help not to mention it might be a great marketing concept.

Regards
Michael F. King
PVX Plus Technologies

Comments: 7
Categories: Environment Laptop Power

Status:Acknowledged

130

Fuel Cell Powered Laptops By Zach_Zivkovich, Jan 19, 2009

As a leader in the Green Revolution, Dell should be the first manufacturer to produce and market a fuel cell powered laptop. Microfuel cells that run on small amounts of methanol, such as those discussed in the lower half of Manhattan Scientifics alternative energy page, http://www.mhtx.com/alternative-energy.htm could be used to power laptops for far longer periods than current batteries can. Dell could use its manufacturing prowess to make this technology feasible, and its unique business model to supply the fuel directly to customers.

How cool would it be to be the first person you know who owns a fuel cell powered laptop!?!

Comments: 1
Categories: Environment Laptop Power

Status:Acknowledged

190

1cell light weight battery option By pell, Jun 21, 2007

As far as I know a lot of people use their notebooks only at home/work/hotel where a power outlet can be easily found. So their notebooks are almost always plugged to an external power source.

Thus a lot of notebook users really do not need their heavy batteries and 2-3-4-etc hours of mobile computing but only pseudo-UPS option which can be granted with a light weight 1cell battery.

Also 1cell battery can save:

(a) money

(b) weight

(c) environment (afaik modern batteries are not "green" devices)

Comments: 8
Categories: Environment Laptop Power

Status:Acknowledged

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