Cisco pledges to be carbon neutral by 2040

In response to calls to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, Cisco has committed to accelerate its strategy to significantly reduce carbon emissions across the company's value chain.

News Highlights:

Cisco has committed to becoming carbon neutral across all of its products, operations, and supply chains by 2040.

Cisco has committed to becoming globally carbon neutral for both Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 2025.

Cisco will establish short-term reduction targets for its major emissions sources as it works toward its goal of carbon neutrality by 2040.

Beijing, China, September 16, 2021 - Cisco recently announced its commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, a full 10 years earlier than the time point climate scientists say the planet must reach carbon neutrality in order to avoid the worst climate impacts. Cisco will achieve carbon neutrality through a number of short-term goals, including achieving net zero global Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.

The short-term goals will primarily cover scope 3 categories, such as usage and supply chain emissions of sold products, and will be announced once they are finalized later in 2021. The new GHG reduction target will follow the latest climate science, and Cisco will report progress on the target in its annual Corporate Social Responsibility Impact Report.

This announcement is an important milestone in Cisco's goal of "enabling an inclusive future for all." Cisco's efforts to advance this goal include investments and initiatives to narrow the digital divide, promote social equity and justice, build an influential partner ecosystem, and set and achieve ambitious sustainability goals, such as the recently announced commitment to carbon neutrality.

“The devastating impacts of the weather disasters of the past few weeks have made it clear that there is an urgent need to address climate change,” said Fran Katsoudas, executive vice president and chief people, policy and purpose officer at Cisco. “As a global technology leader, we must set the standard for sustainable business practices and support our customers, partners and suppliers in their efforts to reduce their environmental impact.”

Since 2008, Cisco has been developing and implementing its goals and commitments to gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its facilities and throughout its supply chain. To achieve its carbon neutrality goals, Cisco has adopted strategies including:

Continuously improve Cisco's product energy efficiency through innovative product design

Accelerate the use of renewable energy

Support hybrid office mode

Investing in decarbonization solutions

Further embedding sustainability and circular economy principles across Cisco’s business

For 15 years, Cisco has been working towards a sustainable future by lowering emissions, reducing waste, developing more efficient products, and setting and achieving ambitious goals.

Since 2008, Cisco has developed and implemented a series of five-year plans to reduce the company's Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions. The current goal is to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 60% by FY2022 (compared to FY2007), a goal recognized by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), and Cisco is committed to achieving this goal.

Cisco has achieved 100 percent renewable energy in multiple countries around the world and is on track to achieve its goal of using more than 85 percent of Cisco’s global electricity from renewable sources by fiscal year 2022.

Regarding Scope 3 emissions, in 2019, Cisco achieved its goal of reducing 1 million tons of CO2 emissions in its supply chain one year ahead of schedule through a series of actions, such as using more ocean transportation, redesigning product packaging, and implementing energy consumption management for partners. Since then, Cisco has set a new goal: to reduce supply chain-related Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by fiscal 2030 (compared to fiscal 2019).

Cisco is committed to designing and managing its products and packaging for reuse, repair, and recycling. Cisco will design 100 percent of its new products and packaging to be designed for circularity by 2025. Cisco will also continue to offer and improve its product services, take-back, and recycling programs in support of Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins’ 100 percent product recycling commitment at the 2018 World Economic Forum as part of the PACE Capital Equipment Coalition.

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