If there’s a bright side to our current global situation, it’s that it has reminded us of our humanity. Since March, I’ve met countless customers’ children and pets thanks to Zoom. I’ve sat across dining tables and on front porches with shareholders and analysts (virtually, of course). My grandkids’ rendition of If You’re Happy and You Know It has been the soundtrack to more than one team call.
In some ways, our social distance has made us more connected and more human to each other. It’s a surprising byproduct of the pandemic, and one I hope we keep.
At Dell Technologies, humanity is at the core of our purpose as a company. We exist to create technologies that drive human progress, and that commitment is reflected in how we engage in our communities, protect our planet, and operate our company.
In July, we released the FY20 Progress Made Real Report. It lays out our comprehensive plan for meaningful and widespread social impact by tracking our progress against 22 ambitious goals focused on:
- Advancing sustainability
- Cultivating inclusion
- Transforming lives with our technology, talent and global scale
- Upholding ethics and privacy
I encourage you to read the report and listen to this recent investor call featuring Dell Technologies’ Chief Diversity Officer Brian Reaves and Chief Responsibility Officer Christine Fraser.
We’ve put some big stakes in the ground, as evident in our 2030 Moonshot Goals. In some cases, we don’t yet know how we’ll achieve them, but that’s okay. We have a mantra at Dell—what gets measured gets done—and our annual reporting will keep us accountable and our stakeholders informed of how we’re tracking to our goals.
Today, it’s more important and more urgent than ever for responsible businesses to lead the way. At Dell Technologies, we are, and we’re doing so with a commitment to:
- Transparency by keeping our stakeholders informed with in-depth tracking and consistent reporting;
- Partnership as we work closely with ESG experts like Ceres, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and our customers and team members to align our efforts to the global agenda;
- Adhering to industry standards and, as appropriate, partnering with our peers to help define those standards in areas where we lead.
There is much work to do, but we are focused on delivering on our purpose to drive human progress. We do that through our industry-leading technologies. For example, our advanced computing clusters are helping scientists accelerate the genomic analysis of COVID-19 in search of effective treatments and vaccines. Our client solutions have been instrumental in helping commercial customers keep the lights on through the economic crisis when, overnight, much of the global workforce pivoted to work from home.
But the other way we drive societal progress is through our steadfast commitments to environmental, social and corporate governance.
We were the first in our industry to earn UL Environment certification for our closed-loop process, recycling plastic from old computers into new parts. Continuing to drive the circular economy is a crucial tenet of our long-term sustainability strategy.
We are also focused on helping customers reduce their environmental footprint by producing energy efficient products. Since 2011, we’ve reduced the energy intensity of our entire product portfolio by nearly 70 percent, and we have our sights set on 80 percent by the end of this fiscal year.
We are working to level the playing field for the underserved and underrepresented by bringing more people into the digital economy. We’re doing this with innovations like our Dell Solar Learning Labs, and by partnering with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to build and retain a diverse global team that better reflects the customers and communities we serve.
We are also listening to our shareholders and evolving our governance model by declassifying our board and aligning the economic interest of all share classes. And we are holding ourselves and those with whom we do business to the highest ethical standards, earning for the seventh time the World’s Most Ethical Company Award from Ethisphere Institute.
We believe our broad portfolio of leading end-to-end technology solutions combined with our ambitious, high stakes social impact commitments are a formula for long-term value creation for our stakeholders. But even more important, they are a force for human progress on a global scale.
