The world is in the throes of a climate crisis right now and whether we want to admit it or not, today's major companies are the ones with the most influence over the incorporation of sustainability practices.
Dell Technologies is one of the companies meeting this challenge head on, as best evidenced by Concept Luna, a laptop prototype specially designed to reduce e-waste and carbon footprint associated with production. Per Dell, the laptop was created to test what's possible, and serves as the first prototype in the company's efforts to accelerate "circular design".
Concept Luna is a smarter approach for customers who are focused on sustainability
When it comes to laptops, the motherboard is one of the more intensive components to make. To address this matter, Dell has reduced its size by 75% and the number of components on it by 20% to reduce its carbon footprint. The company has also relocated the motherboard to a cooler part of the laptop to take advantage of passive cooling to help reduce power consumption. a addition, by utilizing an aluminum chassis processed using hydro power and using stamped aluminum construction requires less energy and produces minimal scrap.
Concept Luna will be easier for Solution Providers to repair
There is no glue used in the Concept Luna prototype, and there are fewer screws than a normal laptop uses (10 x's over, in fact). What's more, the battery is lithium iron phosphate, which has twice the life cycle of the more traditional lithium-ion battery.
All of this is by design as Dell wants to make repairing the laptop easier. You see, as technologies like laptops and smartphones become more advanced, they're also becoming harder to fix. Components that used to be easily accessible and thus replaceable by the customer are now instead soldered into place, or otherwise attached to expensive, near-impossible-to-fix components.
Making it easier to repair and maintain limits waste which, in turn, reduces the technology's overall impact on the environment. Easier-to-repair laptops are also good for solution providers who work to fix their customers' computers. Less time spent replacing broken components means more time can be spent working on incorporating smarter, more efficient workplace solutions.
Improved recyclability will benefit Solution Providers and customers
Of course, when you talk about sustainability, you must address recyclability, and Dell believes Concept Luna will help address today's e-waste and climate change problems. After all, a laptop that is easier to repair and upgrade means the end user is less likely to buy a new machine -- a new machine that would require resources to make. And when the user purchases a new machine, the old one is typically disposed; however, not all components are easy to recycle.
Dell designed Concept Luna with the idea that its components be easier to break down and harvest components from. Ideally, solution providers would order new parts for their customers, install them, and then send the old components back to Dell.
When will Concept Luna hit the shelves?
Concept Luna was not designed to be manufactured or sold, but instead to test what is possible in Dell’s products. The learnings from this project will be analyzed and evaluated for opportunities to integrate across our portfolio at scale.
Today, Concept Luna is an example of what's possible. It's not something Dell is doing to demonstrate its engineering prowess. Instead, the company believes that this is the future of its work -- how the company will build on the existing circular economy across its entire product portfolio to examine, re-examine, and reconsider every step of the product lifecycle, and ultimately deliver more sustainable products in the future.
For more info on Dell Technolgies' committment to sustainability visit here.
