Cisco Announces Carbon Reduction Initiatives
September 21, 2006
On Thursday, September 21, 2006, Cisco participated in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), which is sponsored by former President Bill Clinton, in which participants commit to sustainability initiatives. John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco, discussed Cisco's commitment to CGI with News@Cisco.
What is the Clinton Global Initiative and what are Cisco's commitments?
John Chambers: The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) brings some of the world's best minds together to solve problems that affect the quality of human life on a global scale. The organization focuses on practical solutions that can be implemented quickly, shared with others, and demands a specific commitment from each participant. One very serious challenge affecting our world today is the pollution caused by carbon emissions. To help address this problem, Cisco is announcing two initiatives at the 2006 CGI that we believe can serve as role model to challenge companies and countries to reduce carbon emissions.
What is the Carbon to Collaboration initiative?
John Chambers: We want to increase collaboration between our employees as well as externally with our key customers, partners, and shareholders while decreasing our dependency on physical travel. For example, air travel represents just over half of Cisco's total carbon emissions. So while there are many opportunities to reduce these emissions, we believe the most significant and immediate impact on our carbon footprint is using networked technology to dramatically reduce our travel costs. While a huge part of Cisco strategy will always be visiting and listening to our customers, we believe that by using new advanced technologies, we can continue to increase our customer contact dramatically reducing travel expenses and at the same time increase productivity. This is a clear win for the environment, our employees, our customers, our shareholders and our partners.
The Carbon to Collaboration initiative is a $20 million investment in collaborative technologies that will reduce the need for physical travel at Cisco. Because we have a customer driven culture based on high-touch interactions with our customers and partners, our employees are frequently on the road. With this initiative, we'll combine Cisco Unified Communications technologies, which include \voice and data with a rich media and video experience to virtualize our high level of interaction across distances-without compromising the human-to-human expectations of communicating and collaborating. So, people located across the country and around the globe will be able to work together as effectively as if they were sitting in the same room. With this initiative, Cisco has committed to reducing the carbon emissions by a minimum of 10 percent, starting with a dramatic reduction in our air travel over the next year.
What is the Connected Urban Development Initiative?
John Chambers: We believe that the movement of traffic on streets and roads should be just as efficient as the movement of traffic on the Internet. The Connected Urban Development initiative, in partnership with several leading cities, will create an urban communications infrastructure that increases the efficiency of traffic flow, which in turn dramatically enhances how people experience life in and around cities. And clearly, if traffic flows more efficiently, then by definition, emissions are lower from vehicles or other transportation systems.
We'll be working with the cities of Amsterdam, Seoul, and San Francisco on pilot programs to embed technology such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), wireless communication, and broadband into transportation systems. We'll apply those technologies along with network intelligence to reduce congestion and, hopefully, open up a whole new way of thinking about how people move around a city.
Why are these initiatives so significant?
John Chambers: We believe the more networked a society is, the more productive it is, including the effectiveness of a society's carbon usage. There's no reason that the productivity gains of the last decade inside companies and countries cannot extend to the way people travel and interact, which has obvious benefits to the environment. In addition, we intend to share these processes and best practices to enable companies, cities, and countries to benefit from our experience on a global basis.
How much is Cisco investing in these initiatives?
John Chambers: For the Carbon to Collaboration initiative, Cisco will invest over $20 million in technology and infrastructure upgrades. The Connected Urban Development initiative investment includes the productivity of five people from our Internet Business Solutions Group over a period of five years, along with equipment donations. The value of that investment is also approximately $15 million. The payback for our shareholders is remarkably short. Our planned reduction in travel would result in savings of well over $100 million from our travel expenses.
Why is Cisco investing in these initiatives?
John Chambers: Our involvement in CGI and our efforts to reduce carbon emissions are closely aligned with our corporate history of innovation, giving back, and taking risks, including socially responsible issues. Our belief is that we have a responsibility to help find ways to quickly reduce carbon producing activities more generally. What's more, we address the causes of these problems and work hard to implement systematic solutions using viable processes that will work for the long term and make our world a better place. I truly believe that this is our responsibility as a global citizen, and I'm excited about the role of networking in increasing the productivity of individuals, companies, and countries, while at the same time reducing the carbon footprint on a global basis.