Sustainability data has long been viewed primarily through the lens of reporting: measuring emissions, tracking progress, and preparing disclosures. But as sustainability becomes more deeply connected to business strategy and customer purchasing decisions, the role of data is expanding. In my work across sustainability, technology and business transformation, I’ve seen that meaningful progress happens when technical insight, reliable data and business context come together.
Increasingly, sustainability data is informing a wider range of decisions, from how products are designed to how customers evaluate technology choices. The next step is making that information sufficiently trusted, transparent and decision-ready that it can help shape those choices before they are made — not simply describe their impact afterwards.
Creating a trusted data foundation
Cisco’s Sustainability Data Foundation (SDF) was created to help address this shift by providing a more connected and trusted view of sustainability information across the business. The more consistent and accessible the data becomes, the more useful it is for reporting, planning and action.
When we first shared the work behind the SDF, we described an enterprise data platform designed to consolidate, analyze, and integrate environmental sustainability data from across Cisco. That foundation has helped support use cases across reporting, strategy, product design, go-to-market needs, and customer engagement.
But having more data is not the outcome in itself. Its value comes from whether teams can use it to understand trade-offs and make better decisions. That places increasing importance not only on accessibility, but also on data quality, transparency, appropriate boundaries, and the assumptions behind the information.
Sustainability data in customer decisions
Increasingly, sustainability data is becoming part of how customers evaluate technology choices, alongside quality, performance, reliability, and cost. That shift is especially visible among customers making large-scale technology and infrastructure investments.
AI is driving a step-change in electricity demand, and many companies are seeing emissions rise even as innovation in efficiency and advances in clean energy continue. At the same time, much of their emissions impact sits outside their direct operational control, making supplier and product-level data increasingly important. Customers want to understand not only what technology can do, but also its energy, carbon, and lifecycle implications.
This is where product carbon footprint, lifecycle assessment, and circularity data become important inputs. Customers are asking for a more detailed breakdown of product carbon footprints across materials and manufacturing, transportation, use, and end-of-life stages.
Beyond product level data, we are also thinking about the total system. We are increasingly discussing how infrastructure performs as a system, identifying where resources may be underutilized, and how operational choices affect energy and resource demand. Many customers currently manage separate sets of energy and carbon data. We are looking at ways to unify that data, helping our customers move toward a more integrated and simplified approach.
Supporting the next generation of customer needs
At Cisco, sustainability data can help connect business strategy, environmental impact, and customer needs. It gives both Cisco teams and our customers a stronger basis for evaluating choices that affect product design, operations, procurement, circularity, and long-term planning.
As customer expectations continue to evolve, sustainability data will become increasingly important to how Cisco supports customers and strengthens business decisions. Trusted, connected, and decision-ready data gives teams a stronger basis for evaluating technology purchase decisions against sustainability goals and business outcomes.
Ultimately, the value of sustainability data should not be judged by how much information we collect or disclose, but by whether it helps Cisco and our customers make better, more informed decisions — and whether those decisions lead to measurable improvements in environmental and business outcomes.
