Green IT: What is Dell’s Recycling Strategy in Data Centres?
What does it take to strengthen sustainability for data centre operations?
Dell Technologies is pushing to answer that question, with solutions ranging from next generation servers to advanced cooling innovations and recycling programmes that extend the life of IT equipment.
Jennifer 'JJ' Davis, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Dell Technologies, outlined the company’s approach during Dell Technologies World 2025.
“We talked about it in our press conference and Michael [Dell] said, ‘Circularity and recycling are taking back old equipment when we sell new equipment,’” said Jennifer.
“We’ve been doing this for as long as I’ve worked here, 25 years almost. It is really core because… when you upgrade, we need to help you do something responsible with that unit and we need all the parts from within that unit or a server or a storage array because we want to turn trash into treasure.”
Circularity in data centre infrastructure
Circularity remains central to Dell’s sustainability drive, particularly in data centre environments where refresh cycles generate significant volumes of legacy equipment.
By recovering valuable materials from older servers and storage arrays, Dell aims to reduce e-waste and support a more resource-efficient IT supply chain.
This approach builds on Dell’s longstanding practice of offering customers takeback programmes that align with infrastructure upgrades.
The reclaimed components are either reused directly or recycled into new systems, closing the loop and lowering the environmental footprint of data centre operations.
Cooling efficiency as a sustainability driver
Beyond recycling, Dell has turned its attention to the energy-intensive challenge of cooling hyperscale environments.
In May, the company introduced new features designed to reduce cooling energy use, including an enclosed rear door heat exchanger and an integrated rack controller.
“With liquid cooling innovation, we now have the brand name PowerCool,” Jennifer explained. “Going beyond that, how can you not just make the hardware and the optimised software more efficient, but schedule your software at the workload level? If you have a super-intensive workload, you can schedule it through agentic AI to run when the energy is available and then your less-intensive workloads can run at higher peak times.”
AI-based workload scheduling represents a significant step in aligning energy use with availability, potentially reducing reliance on peak grid capacity and improving overall data centre efficiency.
AI for green IT
As AI drives demand for more powerful computing, Dell is exploring ways to ensure the technology itself contributes to sustainability.
The company has launched Concept Astro, which uses agentic AI and digital twins to enhance IT operations and optimise energy consumption.
“We are working on AI for green,” Jennifer said. “It’s not just how to make AI infrastructure more efficient, but what problems – big problems – can AI solve? You can apply them to healthcare and farming and all kinds of areas that are desperately needing this scale to solve these problems.”
The application of AI for green initiatives underscores Dell’s belief that data centre operators can leverage emerging technologies to balance performance with sustainability goals.
By modelling and simulating operations digitally, IT teams can identify opportunities to cut energy waste without compromising service delivery.
A holistic sustainability strategy
Dell’s sustainability efforts combine hardware design, AI-enabled workload management and responsible end-of-life practices.
For data centre operators, this approach provides pathways to reduce emissions while managing the rising power demands of AI and cloud computing.
The company’s work reflects a broader industry trend towards embedding sustainability directly into core infrastructure planning. For Dell, that means helping operators not only cut energy use at the server level but also think strategically about workload placement, equipment lifecycles and how AI can drive systemic improvements.
As the data centre sector faces increasing scrutiny over its environmental impact, Dell’s model of “turning trash into treasure” demonstrates how circularity, innovation and intelligent energy management can combine to deliver real-world results.
