Dell’s Latest Packaging Innovation Helps India Breathe Clean

If you’ve travelled to places like India and China recently, you know that air quality is a serious concern. Growing up in Delhi, I’ve personally witnessed the rapid decline in air quality over the years. In November 2017, Delhi’s air quality was so bad that it was similar to smoking 50 cigarettes per day.

So when Chakr Innovation came to Dell’s internal Innovation Olympics last year to pitch us on a business solution that addresses this very issue, we were all ears.

Dell's latest packing innovation

*Source Wikimedia.org

Chakr Innovation is an India based start-up with a purpose very similar to Dell’s- enable human progress. The company was founded by three young engineers who believed that our quality of life depended on the quality of air we breathe.  The team developed a technology that captures the soot from diesel generators and turns it into a carbon black used to make ink.  Dell now uses the ink on 1.5 million Dell boxes that ship out of India each year.

Overall, Dell ships approximately 8.4 units per second. At that volume, it is imperative to design our packaging and shipping processes around efficiency and waste minimization. This invites the opportunity for innovation – highlighting the value of innovators like Chakr so we can help Dell and our customers reduce their waste through creative design, innovative material choices and better logistics.

Here’s how Chakr’s process works…

  • Diesel generators are retrofitted with the Chakr Shield to capture particulate matter from the exhaust.
  • Carbon black is extracted from the soot.
  • The carbon black is then mixed to create the ink that Dell then prints with.

*Photos courtesy of Chakr Innovation

We estimate that our use of the process will help clean the equivalent amount of air breathed annually by about 110,000 people.

We see many other applications for this ink, and will continue to seek ways to substitute more sustainable solutions in pursuit of our goal of achieving 100% sustainable packaging by 2020.

It’s these types of innovations that Dell loves to support and help scale. We’re all about supporting companies offering solutions that can assist with different environmental and social issues that impact our society. If you have an innovative product that helps us meet our 2020 Legacy of Good goals we invite you to share with us @dell4good #legacyofgood or legacyofgood@dell.com.

About the Author: Piyush Bhargava

Piyush Bhargava is a Vice-President Global Operation at Dell Technologies. He leads a global organization responsible for procurement and partner management of Dell’s Server and Data Center businesses. He also manages Dell's global packaging procurement and engineering organizations. Mr Bhargava has been with Dell for over 18 years and has managed strategic sourcing of various high-spend commodities over the years. He has worked for Dell in the US, China and Singapore and has held various senior leadership positions, including being a founding executive sponsor for Dell’s Asians Employee Resource Group. He is a recognized thought leader who excels in formulating strategies that enable organizations to leverage the supply chain and procurement functions as a source of competitive advantage. He serves on the boards of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council, FIRST in Texas Foundation, the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan and the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego. Prior to joining Dell, Mr Bhargava held various management positions at Intel, General Motors and Siemens. His interests include volunteering on non-profit boards focused on youth and STEM education as well as contributing to a sustainable and strengthening circular economy. He received a bachelor of engineering degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology, a master of science in manufacturing systems engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.