Dell is routinely at or near the top of the list for the “greenest” companies on several studies including this one from Greenpeace.

I had the opportunity today to host a Twitter Q&A (Has tag #DellSus) with Bruno Sarda, Director of Global Sustainability Operations, and he talked about the many initiatives that have made Dell one of the greenest and most sustainable companies on the planet.

Here are just three of the impressive sustainability programs we discussed.

• Dell’s Reconnect e-waste recycling initiative with Goodwill, which has created over 250 jobs and diverted more than 200,000 pounds of e-waste from landfills
• Their revolutionary mushroom packaging for Dell servers, made of 100% organic material (The packaging, not the servers)
• The Dell Social Innovation Challenge encourages and nurtures social innovator college students to help bring transformative ideas to pressing problems throughout the world.

Here are highlights from the Twitterview.

Q: What initially sparked your interest in corporate sustainability?

A: Our world needs help. Corporations are a huge force for change & am convinced sustainable business is better business.#DellSus

Q: @Dell is a leader in #sustainability. What is one thing Dell does that many companies forget in their initiatives?

A: @MichaelDell has inspired many of us at @Dell to drive positive change. Great to work for co that enables u to do ur best work.

Harness passion of stakeholders. We collaborate w/ suppliers, customers, competitors, academia, govt, civil society, etc.

Together we are stronger, faster & smarter. EICC, @TSCNews,@TheGreenGrid are good examples.

Q: What CSR achievements with Dell are you most proud of?

A:  Picking only one proud outcome is tough – we have many success stories in supply chain, ops, packaging, product, customers, etc.

Would say am proudest of our e-waste takeback & recycling leadership globally. The results are powerful!

Too many people still don’t know why or where to recycle used electronics. Need to improve collection rates.

Q: Your e-recycling leadership is seen in Reconnect consumer computer recycling. Why is @Goodwill a great partner in your e-waste initiative?

A.  @Goodwill is great partner b/c of our shared goal to create a positive impact on participating communities and environment.

Q. One recent accomplishment is Plant-a-Tree w/ 1/2 million+ trees planted! @carbonfundorg @ConservationFun. What can we expect next with Plant-a-Tree? 

A. @Dell customers are true heroes, we’re so grateful to them. They donated $2M+ to help reach this milestone. Our commitment to environmental conservation goes beyond Plant-a-Tree. You can expect more in the future.

Q: How does reuse play into Dell’s sustainability strategy?

A. Much of what is collected in takeback program can be and is reused – either in whole or in part.

Q: Overall, @Dell4Good refers to a lifecycle approach to sustainability. What does this mean exactly?

A: Means being aware of all the things you touch, and to look to reduce environmental impacts at every step.

We recently produced a short animated piece to illustrate what it means @Dell

Q: What patterns or trends are you noticing from you customers as it relates to sustainability?

A:  Seeing grt interest frm govt & corp customers to green their supply chain but also their operations. We help them w/ both.

Q: What green/sustainable efforts do Dell employees practice internally? 

A: Employees full of passion for #green. Many locations globally have green teams working locally. Inspiring!

Q: As a corporate leader in sustainability, how has@Dell4Good inspired responsible change in other corporations?

A: We collaborate openly w/ suppliers, customers & peers. We’ve seen our best practices adopted & we’ve adopted others’

Q: Can you talk a bit about the mushroom packaging@Dell4Good has employed recently? Why mushrooms?

A: Packaging innovation is always on our mind. How we got to mushrooms is a great story, check it out.

The best packaging protects your product while embellishing it and leaving the smallest possible footprint in the process.

Packaging matters to our customers big & small. We’ve innovated on many fronts with phenomenal results. 

 Q: What patterns or trends are you noticing from you customers as it relates to sustainability?

A: Seeing grt interest frm govt & corp customers to green their supply chain but also their operations. We help them w/ both.

Q: How does everyday consumer benefit from@Dell4Good sustainability initiatives?

A: Many ways! Consumers care most abt packaging & recycling, and we also help them save on energy use.

B2B customers care most abt energy efficiency to reduce carbon footprint & operational costs. 

Many products have biggest environmntl footprint during customer use. Important to design w/ that in mind.

We’ve achieved great progress helping all types of customers reduce their IT footprint as a result.

We used to focus most on what we were doing internally to be#green. Now, we focus most on how we help our customers do same

Q:  You’re also a professor @ASUgreen. What have ur students taught u about sustainability? Any of their ideas brought to @Dell4Good?

A: @ASUgreen students r full of great ideas. Definitely learning frm them. Many ASU entries in the Dell Challenge?

Q: What can we expect to see on@Dell‘s corporate sustainability report for 2012?

A: Continued transparency in a more attractive format that’ll make it easier to track our progress & understand our commitments.

If you missed our Twitterview today and have a question for Bruno, please ask it in the comment section below. I guarantee you’ll get an answer, and one you’ll probably like.

With a swipe of your finger it plays back the flatulence-dampening sound of a shower without actually running one, so you can do your thing without the resounding ring. And, it shows you how much water you save in the process.

“Silly, useless app,” you say? The new Fake Shower app is from Brazilian water company, Akatu. Apparently the thin walls found in domiciles in many countries leads to embarrassing bathroom “noises” polluting living rooms. In Japan, for instances, I’m told it’s a common occurrence for bathroom dwellers to run showers while cleaning their pipes, so to speak. Now they have a fun app to run instead.

Wonder if we can gamify it?

Photo from the Cafeteria Culture Blog

“Last year, I participated in the prerequisite class for Intern/Mentor, Independent Research, and researched the effects of Styrofoam on the environment and am currently still working to rid my school system of the Styrofoam lunch trays.  I have decided this year to study green marketing and how marketers reach the maximum number of consumers. I want to know how companies make their advertising and marketing greener and how these changes affect their clients.”

1. What do you find are the key factors to a successful green marketing campaign?

Too many companies are jumping on the green marketing bandwagon and not doing a particularly good job at telling their stories about sustainability. They forget the first five rules of marketing anything – green or not – from the consumer perspective:

1. Do I want and need it?
2. Does it work exceptionally well?
3. Do I get a ton of value for the price?
4. Is it convenient to buy and easy to use?
5. Is it good for my family?

Only then do the majority of consumers care about: Is it good for the planet?

Most green marketers still don’t get it, and that’s why “greenwashing,” even though most of it is inadvertent, has become such a nasty nemesis to the credibility of promoting sustainability.

Thank you, Audrey, for including me in your research for your important project of ridding your school district of styrofoam trays. It is gratifying to see young stewards like yourself know that they can make a real difference in this world. Keep up the great work.

Is it because Goodwill’s workforce development programs are a great cause, and they know that the sale of their used items will help put people back to work? Or perhaps it’s because they know their used clothing and household items will help families that are less fortunate, especially in this rough economy? Or by donating to Goodwill do they feel they are doing their part to keep their items out of landfills?

Although altruism is an important motivator, the proximity of stores and ease of dropping off donations drop are the top reasons people donate. In short, it’s all about convenience.

Click on the image to hear the bag.

Another great example is Frito-Lay. They created a marvel, one of the first compostable consumer packaged goods bags for their Sun Chips. Did consumers embrace this remarkable innovation? No, they repelled from the noise it made. Forget what it does for the planet. The loud rustling of the bag, the first brand touch point for consumers, was just too obnoxious for most Sun Chips fans.

This unexpected sensory experience was, in its own way, too inconvenient for consumers and they stopped buying the product.

Forget about the deliciousness of the chip, it being a healthier alternative to other snack items, the renewable energy used to create it, and it’s overall “Greenness.” The sound the bag made trumped all of those brand benefits in consumers’ minds, or ears. Frito-Lay had to pull the compostable bags to, ironically, insure the sustainability of their product.

They have recently launched a new, quieter compostable bag.

Where have you seen consumer convenience trump all other aspects of a green product or service?

If you can shop from home on the internet and help the planet, why go to a store?

Is environmental responsibility beginning to trump convenience, product selection and price as a reason to shop online?

Shop.org recently published a survey that said 35% of respondents believed that online shopping is better for the environment than store shopping. Wait, it gets even better for online stores. 60% of those who believe they are being greener by shopping online plan to shop more often on the web versus traveling to a store.

Other notable stats from the emarketer.com article include:

1. The Green E-Commerce: Gaining Momentum report traces the many ways the Internet is spurring eco-consumerism and how brand marketers are responding.
   
2. The recession has surprisingly little effect on buying green. Eight out of 10 respondents in a Cone survey said they planned to spend at least as much on green products today as they did in the past.
3. Manufacturers more than doubled the number of eco-friendly product launches in 2008 compared with ’07, according to Datamonitor.

So, I put the “Green Online Shopping” mentality to the test and asked our staff why and where they shop online.

Tarah Eland, Production Manager: My favorite online store. . .Etsy is an absolutely lovely site ). They sell everything hand made. I would think it’s green! I don’t have to use gas to get myself to the store and there are more green products at your fingertips that aren’t available in stores nearby.

Kim Hodge, Film & Video Manager: My favorite on line shopping store is a UK based department store called John Lewis www.johnlewis.co.uk they offer everything from furniture to baby gifts to glorious handbags.  They provide free standard shipping within the UK right up to Christmas, so even relatively last minute gifts to my family are easy to choose and delivered on time to get under the tree for Christmas Day.   It saves me a bundle on international shipping, and time in line at the post office.  Green?  You bet I think it’s greener.

Jon Hrach Web Designer: Great topic. I assume it uses less resources to shop online since you don’t have to physically drive yourself to the store, but the product still has to be delivered to your house, so I’m not sure. bhphotovideo.com: good prices and used equipment. Interesting note: B&H is a Jewish business, and doesn’t do business on Saturdays. Their online store is actually closed on the Sabbath. Newegg.com: Good prices on computer hardware. I guess most of my online shopping is motivated by price.

Leslie Quinn, Bookkeeper: My daughter is a ballet dancer and goes through about 2 pair of pointe shoes a month…  We purchase through discountdancesupply.com who sells them for approx $15-$20 less than any of the dance stores (although still quite expensive at $55/shoe)  here in the Valley.  They usually ship within a few days and she can expect them at our door within the week.  It’s been a beautiful thing, and a savings of both time and money!!!

Tiffany Franquemont, Account Intern from Univeristy of Missouri: My favorite online store is Forever21.com.  Shipping is free after spending $75 or more and it’s quick. After I buy clothes from the website, my clothes are at the front door within days. I think that buying online is the green thing to do because it is a gasoline saver. With the gasoline prices rising, shopping online not only saves consumers money, it reduces fuel burning.

Parker Howell, Video Intern from Chapman University: Threadless.com. Though, oddly enough, I’ve never bought anything from there. Does that count? I like the community, both looking at others’ designs and showing off my own.

Josh Feig, Interactive Writer: I really dig iTunes. I think it’s still the best, most usable online store there is.

Got a favorite site where you shop? Do you think online shopping is the green thing to do? Let us know below.

Say hello to a self-described “Miserable Green Git,” Rob Manuel (Yes, he’s about to eat his cat). Check out his offbeat video from the terrifically creative site: DoTheGreenThing.com.

BTW, I had to turn to Kim Hodge, our film & video manager who hails from the U.K., to translated “Git” for me.  A git, roughly speaking, is an opinionated, old man who is a bit angry about something: In this case, the “We can all save the world” kumbaya of greenies.

The Goode Family is created by Mike Judge, the brains behind Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill.  The show takes an arguably hilarious shot at about every green, sustainability and politically correct social norm out there.

The Goode Family premise from their Wikipedia page:

The Goodes are an obsessively “green” family who live an overly politically correct lifestyle. They have solar panels on their house, harvest rainwater for use in an outdoor shower and plant-watering, garden in their front yard, drive a hybrid car, recycle, reuse shopping bags, etc. They are also vegans. The family lives by the motto “What Would Al Gore Do?”, a spin on the Evangelical Christian motto “What Would Jesus Do?“.

You can catch it starting this Friday, June 12, at 8:30 pm on ABC.

Once you watch it, overlay the sarcasm over your own green initiatives and see how you stack up.

Does this show make you want to run for eco cover, or do you think it’s actually good for environmentalism?

After years, (make that decades), of the same old expected utility advertising, Arizona power company, APS, has scored big time with its Sunspower campaign. They did it by drafting Steve Nash to promote their solar energy programs. Now all though the NBA is kind of going through the motions with its “Green Campaign,” APS did a smart thing: They capitalized on a hugely popular local sports star, and probably the NBA’s best green ambassador, and leveraged his cache for their renewable energy push.

BTW, did you know that Nash plays every game in a custom shoe made by Nike called “Trash Talk”. The shoe itself is made from 100% manufacturing waste produced from Nike’s normal shoe production line. In addition, Nash drives a hybrid vehicle and has installed solar panels into his own home. He also has a pretty happening website.

Tip of the sweat band to APS for finally using a run and gun offense to make green fun, solar relevant, and its big, and sometimes awkward, utility a little more human. You can see the other four spots here.

Introducing the first “21st century” green pizza box that’s eco-friendly (patent #7051919). With innovation like this, perhaps the guys at Eco Incorporated should take over GM.  Here’s 10 marketing ideas on how some “eco-conscious” companies might leverage the ingenuity behind the green pizza box for their sustainability campaigns.

1. United Auto Workers could co-brand boxes with Sharpie to offer laid off Chrysler employees convenient “Will Work for Food” signs.
2. Gatorade could sponsor “Whats for Snack?” promotion at little league baseball games and re-purpose the pizza plates for  eco-friendly bases.
3. Wells Fargo’s student loan department might up-cycle sections of the green box as mortar boards for high school slackers whose graduation gowns didn’t get ordered because nobody thought they’d actually graduate.
4. Martha Stewart Living can demonstrate how to create wicked Origami potholders.
5. Hush Puppies could re-use little storage containers as “Blue collar” shoe trees.
6. Band-Aid could add their logo on recycled box parts for LARPing armor and shields.
7. Greasy pizza box  plates could be branded and re-purposed by Blizzard as speedier mouse pads for WoW.
8. Nike could outfit inner city soccer kids with shin guards.
9. The Clean-Burning Coal Industry can include instructions on how to create simple cardboard blinders with the use of a coat hanger.
10. Eddie Bauer, employing plastic bag wire-ties,  could market a new line of “His & Hers” sustainable urban flip flops for after-dinner stroll.

In every half-baked “eco-friendly” product is a whole menu of green things you can do to make our planet happy. What can you do with the big green box?

Download Your FREE Daily Water Conservation Tip Widget

In celebration of Earth Day, the Water – Use It Wisely conservation campaign has launched it’s FREE water-saving tip widget. Load it on your site or blog and every day you you and your followers will receive a new water-saving tip (there are more than 100). You can see how it works at the bottom of my blog. Click on it, and you will link to WaterUseItWisely.com, which offers a clearing house for ways to save water. You can also receive a daily water-saving tip by following the campaign on Twitter @WUIW.

Also, check out the outdoor water use campaign that was just lanched in Arizona using legendary animators from Disney by clicking here.