Cisco Announces New Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals

In FY17, which ended in July, we completed and met our latest greenhouse gas (GHG) Scope 1 and 2 reduction goal.

To recap, Cisco’s past Scope 1 and 2 reduction goals include:

June 2008: Five-year EPA Climate Leaders commitment to reduce all Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions worldwide by 25% absolute by CY12 (CY07 baseline). Status: goal met in FY12.

February 2013: Five-year goal to reduce total Cisco Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions worldwide by 40% absolute by FY17 (FY07 baseline). Status: more than $50 million invested; goal met in FY17.

We also committed in February 2013 to use electricity generated from renewable sources for at least 25% of our global electricity every year through FY17. We greatly exceeded this objective, reaching 71% in FY15 and 77% in FY16*.

To continue reducing our GHG emissions inline with recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we have set our third Scope 1 and 2 GHG reduction goals:

Five-year goal to reduce total Cisco Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions worldwide by 60% absolute by FY22 (FY07 baseline)

Use electricity generated from renewable sources for at least 85% of our global electricity by FY22.

Cisco will invest more than US$45 million over the five-year period in two areas—energy efficiency and renewable energy—to achieve these goals.

As part of these efforts, Cisco’s Operations group will implement over 300 energy efficiency and on-site renewable energy projects across Cisco’s real-estate portfolio and increase renewable energy procurement through utility green power programs, power purchase agreements, and renewable energy certificates. These goals are important because energy/GHG is the most material environment-related issue for Cisco and also help Cisco control its energy costs.

We continue to support the renewable energy industry, both to meet our GHG reduction goals and to respond to input from employees, investors, analysts, and advocacy groups.

With respect to employee attitudes toward sustainability in general and renewables in particular, Povaddo, a U.S.-based consultancy, recently released April 2017 survey results that examined employee attitudes towards corporate activism and employee engagement at companies with annual revenues of at least $1 billion.

As found in the study, 65% of employees would like to see their employer use its influence to take a public stand and/or be more vocal on renewable energy. Our internal assessment of employee attitudes track with this result.

While there are countries in which Cisco does business where electricity from renewables is not an economic option (why our goal isn’t 100%), our current level of purchases of electricity from renewable sources—greater than 75% increasing to 85%—address employee interest in this topic.

For more information on our other efforts to improve energy efficiency and reduce GHG emissions, including our Scope 3 supply chain carbon footprint, please see the Energy/GHG section of the environment chapter in our 2016 CSR Report.

*We will formally report our FY17 renewable energy purchases and GHG emissions metrics in our 2017 CSR Report to be published in November of this year.