Technology is one of the fastest growing business sectors, driven largely by customers’ insatiable appetite for faster processing, slicker design, and exciting innovations.

With rapid growth comes responsibility for improving the environmental performance of technology, and that’s where Scott O’Connell comes in. He and his team are charged with scrutinizing the entire life cycle of Dell’s technology solutions, from tablets to data centers, with an eye to energy efficiency, resource use, waste, and environmental health. He brings to the job a firm belief in the power of businesses to help solve environmental problems—a direct outgrowth of his education at the Nicholas School.

His work has led to the incorporation of recycled water bottles in the plastic for some Dell desktop and display products. Taking this concept one step further, his team is working with suppliers to develop closed-loop plastics from recycled electronics for use in future Dell products. 

Sometimes, Scott’s team introduces changes that improve a device’s overall performance. For instance, a few years ago Dell eliminated CCFL bulbs (which contain mercury) from laptop screens, switching to mercury-free LED bulbs, which also happen to be less energy-intense. That decision was a triple win because it eliminated an environmentally sensitive substance, improved energy efficiency, and extended battery life.

When an environmentally sound idea also benefits the consumer financially, so much the better. That’s why the batteries in Dell’s new tablets are not permanently glued in place. Now, batteries, which can have a shorter life than the rest of the device, are replaceable, extending the life of the product.

Dell has also engaged in a relationship with the nonprofit Goodwill, which will take donations of used computers and devices and either refurbish them for sale at Goodwill stores or responsibly recycle them. It’s a program that creates jobs and has since 2004 kept 250 million pounds of e-waste out of landfills.

Scott O'Connell

While customers’ desire for the “latest and greatest” technology has them frequently upgrading to a new device, Scott and his team see this as an opportunity. “What we’re chartered with is to be sure that the next generation of products is better than the last” from an energy efficiency and resource use perspective.

Nowhere is this more dramatic than in the multi-billion-dollar server sector. Recently, Dell was first to market with new Fresh Air technology that enables servers to function at temperatures as high as 114 degrees Fahrenheit. While large data centers formerly required expensive, energy-intensive chillers, Dell’s engineering innovation has enabled eBay to install a data center with Dell PowerEdge servers on a roof in Phoenix, Arizona. The environmental story is compelling, but equally compelling is the cost savings that a company can enjoy when it doesn’t have to install or operate chillers within the data centers.

A biology major at the University of Texas at Austin, Scott found his pathway after working first in a cell biology research lab and then at a chemical company in Dallas. “It was an introduction to the environment/business intersection, using science to improve products’ efficiency and environmental performance.”

At the Nicholas School, he was strongly influenced by the late Ronie Garcia-Johnson, a political scientist who studied the role of industry in promoting environmental ideas. “She said it was the responsibility of businesses to be champions and leaders in this arena, not the government or consumers. I questioned it at the time, but now it rings true,” Scott says.

A summer internship with Intel was his leap into the technology industry, and his résumé features stints at leading U.S. technology companies, including Cisco Systems and, of course, Dell.

In his leadership position there, he finds himself frequently reaching out to his peers at competing companies and technology providers. That’s because he believes the innovations his team is introducing should be industry standard and that they can also learn best practices from others. He uses the word co-opetition to describe this dynamic: “We are competing, but we sometimes will cooperate for the betterment of the industry and the environment.”

 

 

Links

Dell’s Corporate Responsibility Statement on Environment

Dell Reconnect: Donate Any Brand of Computer to Goodwill

Nicholas School Faculty Experts in Environmental Economics

Dell Environment

Dell Recycling


Education

  • 2001, MEM, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University. Master’s Project
  • 1996, B.A., Biology, University of Texas at Austin

Work

  • 2011-present, Director, Environmental Affairs, Dell
  • 2010-2011, Manager, Environmental Affairs, Cisco Systems
  • 2002-2010, Environmental Strategist, Dell
  • 2001-2002, Environmental Engineer, Intel