Company: Cisco Systems, Inc.
Company Description: Cisco Systems, Inc is an American multinational technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, that designs, manufactures and sells cloud networking equipment and related applications and services. Cisco is a world leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of next generation cloud networking and applications management.
Nomination Category: Sustainability Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sustainability Leadership Award - in Canada and the U.S.A.
 Nomination Title: Leading Global Sustainability in Cisco's IT Data Centers
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the achievements of the nominated organization since 1 January 2021, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Briefly describe the nominated organization: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 196 words used.
At Cisco, we believe in powering an inclusive future for all by bringing communities together and creating meaningful change for everyone, including our planet.
We have set a science-based target to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across our value chain by 2040. This is our commitment to cut GHG reductions across operations, supply chain, manufacturing, procurement, use and reuse.
These targets are backed by measurable actions. As stated in our 2022 Cisco Purpose Report and ESG Reporting Hub Progress, we achieved a 39% reduction (from FY19 base year) in global Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, with 89 percent of our energy use from renewable sources in FY22.
Leveraging our innovations and sharing our strategies, we inspire Cisco employees, partners, suppliers, and customers to create a more sustainable and positive impact across the globe, including our social, environment and economic priorities supporting the UN SDGs.
Through our leadership in environment sustainability, let’s take a deeper dive in this arena. Since the world’s data centers are responsible for nearly 1% of global electricity demand, let’s examine the steps Cisco is taking to increase our IT Data Center sustainability—lessons which are applicable across the industry, world-wide.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Outline the organization's achievements since the beginning of 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 197 words used.
We in Cisco IT and Workplace Resources (WPR) have been working with our procurement, logistics, and other teams to make our global data centers more sustainable. Highlights through 2022 include:
- 100% of Cisco’s U.S. data center electricity and 72% of Cisco’s global data center electricity comes from renewables.
- 38% fewer data centers—down from 26 (including six colocation facilities) to 16 (including three colocation facilities). Two more are planned by end 2023.
- 40% reduction in data center power capacity—from 29.3 MW to 17.6 MW.
- 58% of server cabinets (5100) removed from service and redeployed.
- 43 tons of cabling infrastructure and equipment reused and diverted from e-waste.
- 23% reduction in data center facility operational expense.
- 40% reduction in data center power capacity—from 29.3 MW to 17.6 MW. We roll up GHG emissions from our own data centers and collocation facilities. A portion of the 11.7-MW reduction results from shifting workloads to public clouds.
- Cisco avoided 17,000 tons of CO2 emissions and $3.7 million in costs.
- $13 million reduction in data center operational expense.
These feats are achieved through sustainable design, optimized operations, energy management, asset recovery and reuse, and responsible procurement.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 244 words used.
Our view of sustainability has evolved from the earliest days of Cisco IT when we worked mainly to minimize energy costs. In 2016, some data centers had underutilized space and power, while in others, demand outstripped capacity. We had to reconcile reducing data centers while increasing capacity.
From 2016 to 2021 we consolidated from 26 to 16 DCs with plans to reduce to 14 by 2023-end. Retrofitting allowed installation of our newest Cisco servers, supporting 312% more virtual machines (VMs) per blade than in 2016 and reducing energy use per VM by 27%. Streamlined structured cabling and relaxed cooling requirements, eliminated the need for raised flooring, reduced DC floor space by about 41%, tripled power density, and reduced hardware manufacturing-related GHG emissions. As a side benefit, from 2017-2021, storage density in our DCs increased by 125%.
Two of our DCs are Gold LEED-certified for Building Design and Construction: Allen, Texas and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and our largest data center is designed to operate below 1.35 Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), considered industry-leading.
And it’s not just about hardware. Our many small software optimizations have made a big impact. Rationalizing our applications led us to decommission more than 500, while chargeback policies continue to inspire application teams to use the right-sized infrastructure. And of course, there’s cloud: transforming legacy applications to a modern, cloud-native architecture allows us to scale infrastructure up or down based on application demand, avoiding overprovisioning and associated GHG emissions.
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 183 words used.
Our Cisco IT Data Center Sustainability document is a public white paper that outlines actions and outcomes related to our sustainable and responsible design, operations, energy management, asset reuse, and procurement. It includes more detailed result numbers and timelines. We provide this as an introductory step toward educating and inspiring our Cisco employees, partners, and customers to create a more sustainable and positive impact across the globe.
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/enterprise/cisco-on-cisco/cisco-it-dc-sustainability-wp.html
Our 2022 Cisco Purpose Report expands upon our overall corporate commitments to environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, performance, and policies, which include sustainable data center design, optimized operations, energy management, asset recovery and reuse, and responsible procurement (pages 45-55).
https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/m/en_us/about/csr/esg-hub/_pdf/purpose-report-2022.pdf
Cisco’s sustainability status to achieve our commitments, goals strategies and progress can be reviewed on our Cisco ESG Reporting Hub site.
https://www.cisco.com/c/m/en_us/about/csr/esg-hub.html
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) conducted a comprehensive review and validated Cisco’s Temperature and Net Zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets are in alignment with the SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard Criteria.
https://sciencebasedtargets.org/companies-taking-action (Target Dashboard: Enter “Cisco”)
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