How Cisco's Sustainability Data Foundation Drives Environmental Innovation and Net-Zero Goals
Cisco's success in driving forward ambitious environmental sustainability initiatives stems from strong leadership and its next-generation sustainability strategy, known as the "Plan for Possible."
This plan outlines key priorities aimed at building a regenerative future. A central aspect of this progress is Cisco’s reliance on data and technology, specifically through its Sustainability Data Foundation (SDF). This focus on data-driven sustainability earned Cisco recognition as an Impact Award recipient from SustainableIT.org.
At the recent SustainableIT.org Impact Awards & Gala, Cisco’s Chief Sustainability Office team proudly accepted the award, which honors exceptional contributions to IT sustainability. The event, which gathered global leaders to exchange ideas and inspire change, highlighted Cisco’s SDF as a cornerstone of its data-driven environmental efforts.
This award underscores the dedication and hard work of Cisco’s team, and highlights the critical role the SDF plays in advancing the company’s sustainability journey.
Data's Role in Environmental Sustainability
Cisco developed the SDF with the goal of creating an enterprise platform that consolidates, analyzes, and integrates environmental sustainability-related data from diverse sources. This platform supports predictive modeling, helping Cisco, its customers, and its partners to make informed decisions on their sustainability journeys.
The SDF is vital in Cisco’s efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its value chain by 2040, meet customer expectations, and ensure thorough sustainability reporting. It supports various use cases, including:
This plan outlines key priorities aimed at building a regenerative future. A central aspect of this progress is Cisco’s reliance on data and technology, specifically through its Sustainability Data Foundation (SDF). This focus on data-driven sustainability earned Cisco recognition as an Impact Award recipient from SustainableIT.org.
At the recent SustainableIT.org Impact Awards & Gala, Cisco’s Chief Sustainability Office team proudly accepted the award, which honors exceptional contributions to IT sustainability. The event, which gathered global leaders to exchange ideas and inspire change, highlighted Cisco’s SDF as a cornerstone of its data-driven environmental efforts.
This award underscores the dedication and hard work of Cisco’s team, and highlights the critical role the SDF plays in advancing the company’s sustainability journey.
Data's Role in Environmental Sustainability
Cisco developed the SDF with the goal of creating an enterprise platform that consolidates, analyzes, and integrates environmental sustainability-related data from diverse sources. This platform supports predictive modeling, helping Cisco, its customers, and its partners to make informed decisions on their sustainability journeys.
The SDF is vital in Cisco’s efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its value chain by 2040, meet customer expectations, and ensure thorough sustainability reporting. It supports various use cases, including:
- Strategy & Performance: Offering insights to track progress and guide strategies toward public sustainability goals.
- Products & Solutions: Helping engineers make sustainable design decisions and providing customers with valuable dashboards and recommendations.
- Go-To-Market:Meeting customer demands for sustainability data on Cisco products, which is increasingly a factor in purchasing decisions.
- Purpose & Reporting:Enabling transparent, accurate sustainability reporting.
The SDF handles complex data requirements, meeting the needs of stakeholders across the organization, from product designers to sales teams.
SDF’s Business Impact
A practical application of the SDF is in product carbon footprints (PCFs), which estimate the environmental impact of Cisco products. The demand for PCF data has surged in recent years, doubling in customer requests over the last year alone. This shift reflects the growing importance of transparency in sustainability reporting.
The SDF simplifies this process, enabling account managers to upload product lists and quickly receive clear, formatted results. Its dashboards also provide users with graphical representations and insights into PCF data across all stages of the product lifecycle. New dashboards are being developed to track changes in PCF results over time, indicating areas for improvement and further action.
Future of the SDF
When the SDF project began, Cisco’s leadership saw its potential to drive impactful change. The use-case-driven approach has helped Cisco meet business needs and tackle sustainability challenges effectively. Over the past two years, the SDF has enabled Cisco to provide valuable recommendations and insights to its customers and partners. It has also streamlined GHG emissions calculations and developed models to track Cisco’s progress toward its 2040 net-zero goal.
The SDF has become a key asset for Cisco, supporting 25 different applications and tools, providing validated insights through user-friendly dashboards, and being recognized as a crucial component of the company’s sustainability success.
In addition to the SustainableIT.org Impact Award, Gartner also recognized the SDF as a best-practice example of the importance of robust data infrastructure in sustainability efforts. Cisco’s team remains committed to evolving the SDF to meet the growing complexity and demand for sustainability data, ensuring the platform continues to serve the needs of the business and its customers.
The SDF aggregates diverse datasets, making it easier for stakeholders to access and understand vital sustainability information, furthering Cisco's environmental sustainability goals and supporting others on their journeys.
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