Capturing the Invaluable Impacts of World-Class Zero Waste Events: Dell Technologies Forum 2024 — Mumbai & Bangalore

Executive Summary

The growing scale of corporate events, conferences, and exhibitions continues to generate significant environmental impacts.

From outsized carbon footprints due to travel to excessive waste generation, material consumption, and shipping and transportation pollution, corporate events are known to be resource intensive.

Recognizing that events also act as key opportunities for organizations to showcase their commitment to responsible environmental practices, Dell Technologies — with strategic partners Saahas Zero Waste and Kestone Global — set out to host two, world-class events in India that could be measured and verified for superlative waste diversion efforts. This was a critical component of the company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy.

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The Challenge

While zero waste events aim to diminish environmental impact by diverting and repurposing waste, most major corporate events lack data-driven systems to measure and report these often hidden or even invisible accomplishments. As Dell prepared to host its 2024 Dell Technologies Forums in Mumbai and Bangalore, the company committed to reach new milestones of tracking, data accuracy, and transparency for waste management and reduction that would harmonize with Dell’s greater sustainability vision. For stakeholder acceptance, they also needed to ensure credibility of their efforts.

The Approach

To mobilize this vision, Dell turned to waste management leader Saahas Zero Waste and integrated marketing and sales agency Kestone Global to orchestrate and oversee an effective zero waste strategy for the events. Because an independent, objective verification of the events’ waste reductions and diversions would be an essential part of the strategy to ensure credibility, organizers engaged third-party certification body SCS Global Services to assess the events against the Certification Standard for Zero Waste. Developed by SCS Standards, this standard measures the amount of waste diverted from landfill through reduction, recycling, and re-use as a percentage of total waste generated. The event organizers forged ahead with this goal in mind and established key diversion activities to conform with this standard.

“The events were an integrated approach with the teams involved to juxtapose sustainability with technology. We wanted to develop a format for the events that was truly forward-thinking and could set a model of sustainability and zero waste for future events to come.” - Rubin Roy | Head – Innovation and Impact, Kestone Global

Solutions Provided & Milestones Achieved

Kestone Global and Saahas Zero Waste developed a meticulous plan for the 2024 Dell Technologies Forums, bringing forth a number of solutions that paved the way for significant zero waste milestones:

On-site waste, recycle, and compost receptacles categorized and captured waste so that reductions and diversions could be calculated every step of the way — and in real-time.

On-site audit during the events verified successful diversion of waste from landfill through on-site sorting teams, recycling, composting, waste-to-energy, resale, and reuse of event materials.

Participants used sterilized, reusable, and recyclable water bottles.

Sensors at water bottle filling stations documented quantity of single-use plastic bottles avoided.

All results of the events were measurable, transparent, and grounded in a holistic, data-driven approach backed by a rigorous and independent zero waste certification standard.

Both events achieved official Zero Waste Event Certification from SCS Global Services.

The event in Bangalore achieved an impressive waste diversion score of 92.88%, while the event in Mumbai achieved a remarkable 98.64% waste diversion.

““When you implement zero waste initiatives, the benefits can be significant — reducing waste generation and recovering valuable resources. We knew that third-party verification of our efforts was essential for the validity of the claims and their impacts.” – Wilma Rodrigues | Chief Transformation Officer, Saahas Zero Waste