A Good Day to Act

Happy Earth Day!

This has been a pretty exciting Earth Day for me (and for all of us here at Cisco). Over the past 2 years, I’ve had the privilege of working with a wide variety of our customers to help them reduce travel, increase efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

But this year, more so than in the past 2 years, I am noticing that more of our customers (at least the ones using WebEx) are holding their own Earth Day events for their people. And, the fun part for me is that we’re being invited to participate!

So WebEx people are spending time today with employees of our customers showing them how to increase their business effectiveness while reducing travel and carbon emissions.

It’s great for our business, yes, but it’s also great to see that the number of companies paying attention is increasing, and the number of people contributing to making their own workplaces greener is also increasing.

But even more exciting is the very big step Cisco took this year in our own Earth Day celebration. We’re still holding employee events around the world, educating our people not only on what Cisco is doing and how we help customers, but also on key issues in environmental policy and action, and on what each person can do in their own lives to help the cause and reduce their own environmental footprint.

The big step? The event is completely virtual. No one is driving or travelling anywhere. No partners and volunteer organizations are driving to local Cisco campuses. No employees are driving to nearby Cisco parking lots to see physical displays. And no mounds of trash to remove at the end of the day.

We started at 10AM in Sydney, Australia (yesterday afternoon, for you US folks) and run continuously until 5PM in San Jose. 24 full hours of events, content and conversation. 

We’ll also be making some of the best pieces available to the public – check back for details, I’ll keep you posted as it becomes available.

I’ve talked a lot about taking little green steps, and that’s very important, but this shows that when you keep taking little green steps, you start to have a very big impact.

Now the challenge I offer to you: The other exciting news today is that Cisco has brought the “One Million Acts of Green” effort to the US. The Canadians reached one million acts a full five months ahead of schedule. Will the Americans be able to match that?
Tell us about your green act and become a part of the effort to turn little acts into a big impact.

Posted by Jeff Weinberger at 10:59AM PST

—-
Jeff Weinberger
WebEx Green Initiative
WebEx Corporate Social Responsibility
Cisco WebEx