Innovation is everywhere, but what does it mean? For me, it starts with a great idea and builds to result in something that can make life better – whether that’s making the complex simple, increasing productivity or driving positive societal impact. At Dell Technologies, innovation is part of our DNA and we cultivate, inspire and encourage our teams be creative and innovative in bringing their ideas to life.
As a designer, I’m particularly proud of the work of our Experience Innovation Group to accelerate sustainability in our products in support of our commitments to climate action and the circular economy. The goal of this workstream is to drive revolutionary design ideas and solutions to minimize our environmental impact and scale positive outcomes for our planet.
Last year we revealed the first physical prototype to come out of this workstream, Concept Luna. A vision for the future of sustainable laptop design, Concept Luna explored and tested a range of ambitious design ideas to accelerate the reuse of products and materials, reducing waste and emissions for the future.
Here are just a few of the innovative design ideas we are exploring with Concept Luna:
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- Looking at brand new ways to increase energy efficiency, deliver better power and cooling, and experimenting with materials that have a smaller carbon footprint to deliver decarbonized technology.
- Exploring things like using aluminum made with hydropower instead of coal and shrinking the size of the motherboard – just two examples of how we could achieve an estimated 50 percent reduction in overall product carbon footprint if all the design ideas in Concept Luna were realized.1
- Reducing the number of screws needed to access internal components for repair or reuse from hundreds to just four.2 This provides fast access and replacement of all components with simple tools in less time – with no adhesives. In fact, our internal studies showed this design would result in a staggering 16x faster keyboard exchange.3
- Testing an advanced deep-cycle cell battery, which provides a long charge and could be maintained across many years of use, increasing refurbishment and reuse well beyond its first product life.
Recently, we had the opportunity to showcase Concept Luna on the third season of America by Design: Innovations, a series that shines a spotlight on American ingenuity and design excellence. It was an amazing and eye-opening experience, providing an opportunity to see how design can turn incredible ideas into reality across multiple industries.
Looking to the future, we will continue to drive innovation and share our progress. This first iteration of Concept Luna is part of a longer-term plan to build on our existing leadership in sustainability to explore new ways to dramatically accelerate progress against our goals and uncover ways to drive circularity at scale.
We will apply the learnings across our entire business where the ideas generated can drive sustainability forward. Some elements may not apply across the board, and some learnings might not be able to cascade at the same rate – but all will inform future design and manufacturing considerations to deliver even more sustainable products in the future.
You can tune in and see Concept Luna on America by Design: Innovations available on CBS News Streaming Network from November 19, 2022.
1 Baseline used for comparisons is Dell Latitude 7300 Anniversary Edition.
2 Baseline used for comparisons is Dell Latitude 7300 Anniversary Edition.
3 Internal studies showed 4 minutes for Concept Luna design compared to 64 minutes for a Latitude 7000.
