On January 31, Dell’s global product packaging procurement director Oliver F Campbell said in an interview with SOHU IT recently that Dell has chosen China’s unique bamboo as packaging raw materials for more and more computer products. Fulfill your environmental commitments. He revealed that Dell has been investing a lot of resources in the research and development and utilization of new materials to meet environmental protection requirements in the complete production and supply chain. “If we don’t pay attention to environmental issues, we will sacrifice more than just money. Whether it is for the earth, the future, or our children, we all feel that it is worthwhile to work on environmental protection.”
Bamboo is the best choice for implementing environmental protection ideals
Before the interview, Mr. Campbell showed SOHU IT a video shot in the US Pavilion at the World Expo. Among them, Dell’s booth was bamboo-themed and full of green elements. Dell uses bamboo as raw material to manufacture computer packaging materials, instead of cardboard and foam plastics commonly used in packaging. Not only is the raw material more environmentally friendly, but it can also be naturally degraded and converted into fertilizers. This initiative has won a lot of attention on the video.
Bamboo has not only made innovations in environmental protection, but also has a Chinese cultural charm. Mr. Campbell said: “When you talk about bamboo, people think of China, and bamboo has a special symbolic meaning for China – integrity, which is why Dale chose bamboo.” Not only Chinese people love bamboo, he said that in other regions when it comes to using it Bamboo packaging materials, Europe and the United States and other users are also very interested.
Using bamboo as raw material for product packaging seems to be a very magical thing, but in Mr. Campbell’s view, this is almost an inevitable choice for Dell to implement its own environmental protection philosophy. He believes that there are 4 factors that made Dell decide to use bamboo as raw material. First, China is an important production base for Dell’s notebook computers. Dell wants to source materials locally instead of transporting materials from long distances for processing. Second, crops such as bamboo The growth cycle is relatively short, and it is easy to find, and the entire supply chain is relatively stable; third, the strength of bamboo fiber is better than steel, which meets the requirements of packaging materials; fourth, Dell’s bamboo packaging has been identified and can be converted into fertilizer, making customers Can be disposed of in an easier and more environmentally friendly way.
Technology Change for Eco-Friendly Bamboo
In November 2009, Dell took the lead in launching bamboo packaging in the personal computer industry. Bamboo is tough, renewable and convertible into fertilizer, making it an excellent packaging material to replace pulp, foam and crepe paper commonly used in packaging. Previously, Dell spent almost 11 months doing research on materials and processes.
Although there are many products using bamboo fiber, Mr. Campbell said that a large number of bamboo fiber products, such as towels and shirts, are made of bamboo fibers to a very short extent; but in the packaging industry, cushioning packaging requires a long fiber. , in order to have good connectivity. Therefore, Dell’s packaging bamboo products and ordinary bamboo fiber products have the opposite processing requirements, which also increases the difficulty of research and development.
Environmental protection The pursuit of the entire production supply chain
Since its application for a year, more than 50% of Dell’s INSPIRON series notebook computers have adopted bamboo packaging, and Latitude series products have also begun to be applied, including Dell’s latest 7-inch tablet PC Streak 7. Mr. Campbell told SOHU IT that when new materials are introduced into new projects, the team needs to communicate with the purchasing department, foundries, suppliers, etc. This is a gradual process. “When I came to China for business this time, I communicated with many foundries and held a meeting with Dell’s colleagues in charge of regional procurement in China to discuss which new products can be applied to bamboo packaging. Dell will continue to use bamboo packaging for other products. Types are not limited to netbooks and laptops.”
“Dell’s efforts and investment in environmentally friendly packaging have never stopped, and now we are always looking for other materials that are more efficient and more environmentally friendly.” Mr. Campbell said, “A key job of Dell’s packaging team is to combine different Some good local materials are used in the field of packaging, which is environmentally friendly and does not increase costs. The key direction is to try to use convenient and easy-to-obtain local crops or their wastes, and turn them into packaging materials through some technical efforts.” Said that the bamboo attempt has been successful, and in other countries, Campbell’s team has many candidates, such as rice husk, straw, bagasse, etc. are all within the scope of testing and research and development.
Weighing to make environmental protection and low cost also win the market
When it comes to environmental protection, it is easy to think of cost, because many cases fail because of the inability to balance the relationship between environmental protection and cost. In this regard, Mr. Campbell is very confident, “Bamboo packaging will cost less than the previous materials. We believe that in addition to the environmental protection requirements, the price must be advantageous to implement and win the market.”
On the trade-off between environmental protection and cost, Dell has his own thinking, “If we don’t pay attention to environmental protection issues, we will sacrifice more, not just money. Whether it is for the earth, the future, or the children, we all feel that it is worthwhile. Make efforts in environmental protection.” Under this premise, economic benefits are also an inevitable issue when choosing new environmentally friendly materials. “That’s why we have to compare in terms of economics, including improved designs or formulations, even in the same environment. Dell wants to make sure that it can be environmentally friendly without increasing the cost to the end consumer.”
Dell has a packaging strategy called “3C”, the core of which is volume (Cube), material (Content) and convenient recycling (Curbside) of packaging materials.
Post time: Oct-28-2022
