Dell Loves Pandas: Our Bamboo Packaging Story Shared at #TEDxAustin

Recently, we had the pleasure of sharing our bamboo packaging story at the second annual TEDxAustin event.

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One of the key takeaways for me was the fact that Dell really did their homework on the bamboo packaging project. The team researched native panda habitat and carefully made sure they were not impacting the panda’s habitat.  Dell’s bamboo harvesting site is far, far away from the bamboo forests pandas call home (see map below). This is not only a green solution, but a very panda-friendly solution as well.  Another bonus is the bamboo site is near Dell’s factories, so there is minimal transport-related emissions.

Map of Bamboo Forest in China

At TEDxAustin, Dell’s X-Lab display featured the Bamboo Packaging lifecycle:

1. Bamboo “Chips” – this looks a lot like wood chips. 

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Bamboo “Pulp” – this looks a lot like tree root fiber – stringy texture and a bit stinky too.

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3. Bamboo “Packaging” – this what Dell uses for product packaging that ships with many of our laptop, tablet and smartphones boxes.

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4. Bamboo “Compost” – this is the post-recycled state, which looks a lot like good ol’ fashioned dirt in clumped form.  

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Many of the TEDxAustin attendees were equally intrigued and really enjoyed the educational bamboo lifecycle experience. We hope you got a chance to stop by and experience the Bamboo Lounge.  If so, what was your take away from the event?  Did you know Dell was using Bamboo in it’s packaging? What do you think of it?  What are your ideas to improve it?  We want to know… share your innovative ideas with us… we’re listening!

Note: Once the TEDxAustin photos and video content are made available for sharing, we’ll update this post.

Panda Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fortherock/3898353585/sizes/m/in/photostream/

About the Author: Susan Beebe