Dell – Jeremy Foster – 2009

Goals

Jeremy Foster spent his summer as a Climate Corps fellow at Dell in Austin, Texas. Foster, a MBA student at Yale, focused on energy efficiency investments within Dell as well as throughout its supply chain.

Solutions

Within Dell, Foster worked to improve the company’s process and tools for evaluating and funding internal energy efficiency investments. He discovered that the established processes could work more effectively for the facility managers and they weren’t always clear on the availability of capital for energy efficiency projects. Based on interviews with the facility team, he proposed a re-designed template to streamline the process and clarify the availability of funding for these projects.

Potential Impact

Dell plans to use this new template and encourage facility managers to apply for energy efficiency project investments. Foster also explored opportunities to reduce energy use and costs in Dell’s supply chain. By conducting a supplier efficiency improvement pilot, Foster estimated that Dell could help its direct suppliers save millions in annual energy costs.