Deb Albers is a hero of mine because she took on sustainability within her company in a way where she and like-minded employees could contribute. Her initiative led to a lot more employee involvement and a lot more sustainability progress for Dell. She didn’t think of herself as ‘just one person’, but someone who had a passion to contribute on sustainability through her day job.
OK, you say, ‘she works for a big company and can do this kind of thing’. Phooey. We need small and medium business employees to realize their potential to contribute in their day jobs and in their companies. It is a volunteer or community service type of opportunity to help your company move to more sustainable operation, actively using business to drive environmental and social change.
The business sustainability action summary is below. It is not a story about Dell, but rather another testament to what ‘just one person’ can trigger. I hope the inspiration Deb Albers gave me can also inspire you.
Deb Albers, Dell
Project Description
Deb created and led a green team at Dell’s round Rock Office Campus to decrease cafeteria waste. Her Green Team in partnership with Dell Facility and Maintenance Management, as well as their external cafeteria vendor, Compass, focused on employee behavior resulting in an incredible 45% reduction in cafeteria waste from 3905 tons FY2007 to 1793 tons FY 2008. This Green Team partnership also increased recycling as a percentage of total waste from 16.6% FY 2007 to 27.2% FY 2008. More work is going on in 2009, e.g., pilot testing a composter to use food waste for property fertilization. This very fast and significant success has led to more Green Teams of at least 10 people each zeroing in on Transportation, Utilities, Recycling, and Materials. The Cafeteria Green Team continues its work to hold and improve on the gains.
Position
Call Center Process Manager and Green Team Leader, now Corporate Social Responsibility Manager and still a green team leader
Professional Development
Deb is passionate about sustainability and lives it in her daily life. She knew she could make contributions to sustainability at Dell with just 10% of her time. Her leadership and success led to becoming a member of Dell’s Corporate Social Responsibility Group where she works sustainability with Dell’s business units and both internal and external stakeholders.
Industry
Computer Electronics
Company
Dell listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. As a leading technology company, Dell offers a broad range of product categories, including mobility products, desktop PCs, software and peripherals, servers and networking, services, and storage. According to IDC, Dell is the number one supplier of computer systems in the United States and the number two supplier worldwide.
Dell is a Delaware corporation and was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell on a simple concept: by selling computer systems directly to customers, we can best understand their needs and efficiently provide the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs. Over time Dell has expanded the business model to include a broader portfolio of products, including services, and have also added new distribution partners, such as retail, system integrators, value added resellers, and distributors, which allows Dell to reach even more end-users around the world. Dell’s corporate headquarters is located in Round Rock, Texas, and they conduct operations worldwide through subsidiaries. To optimize their global supply chain to best serve our global customer base, Dell has manufacturing locations around the world and are expanding our relationships with third-party original equipment manufacturers. Dell operates principally in one industry, and manages thebusiness in four operating segments: Americas Commercial; Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”) Commercial; Asia Pacific-Japan (“APJ”) Commercial; and Global Consumer.
Advice for Intrapreneurs
- Understand that you can make a significant sustainability contribution from the job you are in now whether in ways you rework your job or job process, or through championing a sustainability effort , e.g., Green Team, at your location within your company.
- Assume success. I asked my boss to allow me to use 10% of my work time to work sustainability within Dell. Even if I had had to make up the work time, I still would have taken the opportunity to contribute. All the employees on our Green Team has some sort of support for working sustainability within Dell.
- Don’t take on the world in your first sustainability efforts. Connect with people that have the same drive to make sustainability progress, but look for low hanging fruit, i.e., projects that can be initiated within a short period of time, you can measure, and can expect short term results. Success breeds success. Even though Dell is very active in relation to sustainability, our cafeteria waste project spread awareness and showed employees that they could have impact.
- Don’t assume you know what needs to be done. Be humble. I sought out Facilities Management because I knew for the Round Rock Campus, they were accountable for our energy, waste, and water services. They helped me understand that there focus was on the hard stuff (light sensors, more energy efficient bulbs, etc.), but were not addressing employee behavior. Further they pointed me in a priority direction and made sure I knew that I needed to work with the Campus Maintenance Team, since they were responsible for recycling. Do your research on what is going on in your company in relation to sustainability and talk to the managers that most likely would have an impact on the company’s sustainability.
- Read on sustainability and sustainability issues for your company, its functions, and products. Reading only one book a month for a has proven that the reader knows as much or more than 85% of the experts. Part of being a sustainability champion is being a general resource on sustainability. You don’t have to read 12 books, but get familiar with the breadth and depth of sustainability. Make sure you understand a basic sustainability framework to help guide your strategies, projects, and/or decision-making. The Natural Step Sustainability Framework is marvelous because it is based in fundamental science, is easy to understand, and intuitive as you begin to understand it.
- Make very sure you don’t let the project get too big and take too much time from your employee volunteers. Their day jobs are important and can’t suffer due to poor project and or time management of your team.
Setting The Stage
Initially, Deb wasn’t sure where to make a contribution, so she visited the Environmental Health and Safety Director. The Facilities Team was highly focused on efficiencies that are critical to sustainability success. The Director highlighted that Deb should look at reducing waste generated by the Round Rock Campus cafeterias. She needed to involve the maintenance team too, since they have recycling responsibility. How was Deb, her Green Team with facilities and Dell’s maintenance group all do it?
- Deb contacted people she knew had interest in environmental action and asked if they were willing to dedicate 10% of their time; she quickly got 15 people to join her cause.
- She enlisted expert support from the facilities, cafeteria and maintenance teams.
- Her Green Team’s first step was to brainstorm ideas where they could make an impact. Of the resulting list of about 50 ideas, the team then narrowed them down to three key focus areas:
- Educate employees, cafeteria staff and facilities and maintenance teams.
- Reduce the amount of materials that the cafeteria uses.
- Increase recycling efforts.
The overarching focus for the Green Team was driving behavior change, since the facility department was rightfully focused on implementing efficiencies, not behavior change. They determined their impact would come from educating employees by making the location’s waste tangible and by providing actions and alternatives for employees. They ran different weeks of awareness and education in the RR cafeterias with booths addressing a number of areas. For instance, the Green Team collected plastic utensils thrown away weekly and displayed them en mass for people to visually see the amount of waste. They did the same with cups, take-out containers and water bottles. They had trivia games, green product giveaways, and compared the heat emission of a normal light bulb compared to an energy efficient one. They supported the entire program with actions the employees could take advantage of and that the cafeteria could execute.
Delivering Results
In addition to total waste reduction of 45%, their collective effort resulted in a large increase in recycling for the Dell Round Rock Campus as a percentage of total waste, i.e., from 16.6% in FY 2007 to 27.15% in FY 2008. For 2009, Dell is conducting a pilot at the RR Campus where they will invest in a composter to use food waste for property grounds fertilization.
Success bred more action and the Round Rock campus; this location alone now has 4 green teams of 10 people each aimed at having a recurring annual impact in the areas of Transportation, Utilities, Recycling, and Materials. They continue the work of cafeteria waste green team because they know they have to hold the gains and build on them. Commitment within Dell is very strong for this program and it continues to thrive.
Debbie Deland, PMP, Six Sigma Black Belt
Sustainability Expert, Systems Thinking Practitioner
President, Greater Orlando Net Impact Professional Chapter
Green Leader Panel Member
Tags: Dell, Sustainability
