Dell Lands on Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s Top 100

 Dell Powering the Possible
I am delighted to share that Dell has landed at No. 46 on Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens list. The ranking represents many sectors of publicly traded companies, and is based on disclosure, policy and performance in a number of areas — everything from environmental performance and philanthropy to employee relations and corporate governance.

The ranking is an honor to all of us at Dell. It is also a testament to the innovative programs and services we launched last year, as well as the amazing volunteerism of our team members. I’ve recapped some of our recent highlights below, and you can read more about what we’re doing behind the scenes in the world of CSR here.

  • We substantially surpassed our community service goal, as our team members volunteered more than 700,000 hours in FY13. This was an almost 70 percent increase in volunteer hours from the year prior. Moving into FY14, Dell aims to make even stronger strides in the world of employee volunteerism, as we commit to working 750,000 hours or more with charitable causes.
  • We launched an exciting new program, the Dell Education Challenge. This is a spotlight competition extending our partnership with the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, which encourages students from around the world to find solutions to some of today’s most-pressing social challenges. The winner of the challenge, Forward Tutoring, has created an online platform where students earn credits for volunteering in their communities and redeem those credits for tutoring from other qualified students.
  • We announced the Dell Smart Grid Data Management solution: a bundle of servers, storage, networking, and high-performance computing and security services to manage data and provide actionable results in real time. Extending our work in the smart grid space, we’ve also joined Pecan Street Inc. in advancing its work in energy big data.
  • We exceeded the packaging goals created in 2008 as part of our 3Cs (cube, content, curb) strategy. We did this by reducing the size of packaging more than 12 percent; increasing the amount of recycled and renewable content in packaging up to 40 percent; and ensuring that up to 75 percent of packaging is recyclable at curbside. This work eliminated 20 million pounds of packaging material and saved Dell more than $18 million.

These are just a few concrete examples of what we have achieved over the past year. We know, though, that there’s always more to do, which is why we are constantly evolving, learning, and looking for new ways to innovate in the world of corporate responsibility. I invite you to keep up with our journey by following us at @dell4good or visiting Dell.com/poweringthepossible.

About the Author: Trisa Thompson

Trisa Thompson is the Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Dell, with responsibility for Dell's global giving and sustainability. Previously at Dell, Trisa served as Vice President, Legal, for the Global Operations, Marketing and Product Groups, and was a member of the Legal Team for 12 years. She was the founding co-chair of the Women's Networking Group, W.I.S.E., at Dell, and also serves on the PRIDE Executive Board. She is also a member of the Global Giving and Sustainability Councils. Trisa joined Dell in June 1998 from the Washington, D.C. office of Seyfarth, Shaw. Trisa was a partner with Seyfarth in its Government Procurement Law practice. She specialized in federal, state, and local procurement law and litigation. She joined Seyfarth directly out of law school in 1986.