Progress from FY18

From stone tools and steam engines to spaceships and supercomputers, technology is the common thread in the history of human progress. We see it every day in the inspiring stories of our customers who are doing world-changing work, like building vertical smart farms to feed the hungry and delivering life-saving precision medicine to cancer patients via the cloud.

And yet, I believe the best is yet to come. In the future, rich data plus new technologies and computer sciences, like artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things, will make it possible to solve virtually all of the greatest challenges facing our world.

That’s the opportunity we see and strive for at Dell Technologies. That’s what inspires every bold move we make to better equip our customers, partners and team members for the future.

While we firmly believe we will advance human progress through our industry-leading technology, we also see enormous opportunity to partner and create new ways of doing business that protect and sustain people and the planet we share.

That commitment is the foundation of our Legacy of Good plan, an ambitious, long-term set of goals that fundamentally shape how we operate and engage with the world.

Fiscal year 2018 was a year of tremendous progress, including groundbreaking circular economy initiatives, continued growth and expansion of our global recycling program, and remarkable community volunteerism and disaster relief donations by our team members.

We had the honor of being listed again among the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute, we earned a perfect score in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and, for the first time ever, we made Fortune’s Change the World list.

At Dell, we are on a mission to build the greatest technology company in the world — and to do so in a way that ultimately builds a better world.

The stakes couldn’t be higher or the opportunity greater. That’s why I consider it such a privilege to do what we do. It’s an exciting time to be human.

Our 2020 Legacy of Good Plan captures our commitment to putting our technology and expertise to work for the good of our people and planet, a founding principle of Dell’s purpose: to drive human progress.

Stepping into the Chief Responsibility Officer role this year, I’m truly honored to represent this commitment and an impressive body of work that reflects the integrity, passion and entrepreneurial spirit of the global Dell team. Together, we remain committed to putting our solutions and expertise to work in innovative and meaningful ways that will have a lasting impact on the communities we serve.

As you read through the FY18 report, you will see a reoccurring theme: collaborative innovation. Because it takes all of us to create the positive change our world needs. From our product teams and our services teams, to our sales teams and our operations teams, we’ve been focused on solving some big global problems. And our customers and partners have been with us every step of the way.

Some of my favorite initiatives include:

• Convening leading manufacturers, academics and nonprofits to create NextWave, a coalition committed to using ocean-bound plastics in packaging and products and establishing the world’s first commercial-scale, open-source supply chain to use these waste materials. We estimate that together, we will divert more than 3 million pounds of plastics from entering the ocean within five years — the equivalent of keeping 66 million water bottles from washing out to sea.
• Partnering with the Government of India and customer Tata Trusts to build the Dell Digital LifeCare solution in India, facilitating a digital system for auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM) and doctors to screen, treat and track patients while helping the government spot health trends and needs. This project originated from a commitment by 70 Dell team member volunteers to develop a platform to support better care for citizens of rural India; today thousands of ANMs and hundreds of doctors across 20 districts have been trained to do health screenings using Digital LifeCare, which is expected to impact nearly 37 million people.
• Collaborating with actress and entrepreneur Nikki Reed and her company, BaYou with Love, to pioneer a circular gold jewelry line using gold recovered from Dell’s electronics recycling services to raise awareness for the importance of recycling technology. In addition to this jewelry line, we have started recycling gold into new motherboards for our products, marking the industry’s first closed loop for gold.
• Committing to support the next generation of technology innovators with more than $50 million in donations to advance science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — education for underserved youth since 2014. We’re investing in a diverse and inclusive workforce of the future that will drive our digital economy.

While collaboration and innovation are key to driving positive change, deeply rooted in Dell’s soul is the compassion of our team members. In a year that saw record-breaking natural disasters around the world, including record flooding in India and significant devastation to Dell’s home state of Texas, I was so inspired by the lengths our team members went in supporting their communities. Our team members donated generously while also organizing supply drives, connecting people to vital services, volunteering on-site and even flying planes to deliver supplies.

It is the innate compassion that I experience every day at Dell, and in my conversations with customers and partners, that makes me more optimistic than ever about our collective potential to shape a future that enables all. By working together to design out waste, celebrate inclusion and keep a constant eye toward the greatest need, I’m confident that we can drive the positive change that our planet and future generations depend on.