After my little rant yesterday about Nestle's "Eco-Shape" plastic water bottles, I'm happy to report on more positive steps in the packaging world (While one might interpret those remarks about Nestle as purely bashing the company, it would be more accurate to interpret them as a knock on the greenwashy marketing and on the bottled water industry as a whole. But I digress.).

In the last few years, computing and electronics giant, Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), has established itself as a company with a strong green gene -- and that focus on sustainability extends to making advancements in materials and packaging.

In December 2008, Dell announced a plan to transform computer packaging. And in that time, the company has increased the amount of recycled content in its packaging by approximately 32 percent, including the introduction of bamboo packaging. To achieve the company's larger packaging goals of increasing recycled content in its packaging by 40 percent by 2012 the company is implementing a strategy based on the three Cs: Cube, Content and Curbside.

“Establishing these packaging goals has transformed my team from great packaging engineers to inspired environmental champions,” said Dell’s senior manager of Global Packaging, Oliver Campbell.

Dell outlines the three Cs strategy in their recently released 2010 Corporate Responsibility Summary Report (pdf):

Cube

Reducing the size of product packaging has required changes ranging from putting fewer items in the box, which allows for smaller packaging and a simpler "out-of-box" experience for customers, to using engineering tools to run various “what if” scenarios.

Using these tools, Dell says it has optimized its Inspiron 15 laptop packaging so that 63 laptops fit on each shipping pallet, up from 54 before the retooling. More laptops on each pallet means fewer shipping vehicles and a smaller environmental impact from shipping

Content

As mentioned above, Dell has increased the amount of recycled content in its packaging. For heavier products that require sturdy support, the company has stepped up the use of recycled foam versus using virgin product.

Dell has also increased its use of post-consumer recycled plastics, integrating the equivalent of more than 9.5 million half-gallon milk jugs into its packaging.

In 2008, Dell embraced bamboo as a strong and compostable alternative to the molded paper pulp, foams, and corrugated cardboard often used in packaging. Starting with its Inspiron Mini 10 and 10v netbooks, the company now uses bamboo packaging in its new 5-inch hybrid device, Streak, and for several of its Inspiron laptops.

Curbside

A critical part of any sustainable packaging strategy is closing the loop. Ensuring its product packaging is curbside-recyclable is part of that commitment. To reach its goal, Dell increasingly selects recyclable materials for its packaging, including PCR plastics and molded paper pulp.

While bamboo is still not accepted by many municipal recyclers for curbside pickup, Dell is teaming with Georgia Pacific, Unisource Global Services and Environmental Packaging International in an effort to certify its bamboo packaging for recycling.

According to Dell's Campbell, “The progress we’ve made has kept a lot of materials out of landfills, made responsible packaging disposal easier for customers and is making Dell a more environmentally responsible company.”

via: Greener Packaging