How our employees help us do our part for the environment

The following is an excerpt from the 2019 CSR report.

We encourage employees to be global problem solvers related to environmental sustainability. The actions they choose to take often depend on their experiences, their location, their expertise, and issues they care about. Through digital tools, educational activities, and volunteer opportunities, Cisco helps make employees aware of the many ways to get involved.

Education and awareness

Cisco employees receive many hours of education and awareness per year. One hour of New Employee Orientation (NEO) is dedicated to sharing information about Cisco’s CSR program. We also help employees incorporate environmental design principles into our products, packaging, and solutions.

To further embed environmental practices into our business operations, we offer employee training on our business management system. This training covers our Environment Management System (EMS) and environmental policies. We also provide ad hoc training to employees on topics such as correct waste sorting on campus.

The Cisco Green Team Network (GTN) is a global employee-led team with 11 local chapters and hundreds of members. Cisco GTN envisions a more environmentally sustainable business and world. It’s made up of people passionate about educating their fellow employees and making change. Chapters raise awareness of environmental issues, share how to make changes at work and at home, and connect employees with local resources—all while having fun. GTN-sponsored discussions and activities could include the benefits of a plant-based diet, how to plant trees, or a tour of a municipal recycling facility.

Since Cisco GTN was established, the team has:

• Eliminated paper cups from select Cisco buildings in India, Europe, and the U.S.
• Established a community garden in San Jose, California
• Developed an urban farm at our Diegem, Belgium, site
• Designed and installed shadow boxes above the landfill, recycling, and composting receptacles in San Jose and RTP cafeterias to help employees quickly and easily sort waste
• Received Cisco’s Excellence in Environmental Stewardship award (December 2017)

In addition, Cisco hosts events for employees to learn more about sustainability programs and current opportunities to get involved, such as Open Conservation and SustainX, part of our annual Earth Aware campaign. Other learning opportunities include:

 

• Cisco Green. This is a hub on our internal social media site that enables employees to learn about Cisco’s environmental sustainability activities. It provides links to programs, information, and other tools.

• Cisco GreenHouse. In 2016, we launched an interactive sustainability web platform hosted by WeSpire for employees. Cisco GreenHouse connects passionate employees with like- minded peers all over the world who want to find ways to lead more sustainable lives. By the end of FY19, more than 2,800 employees had joined the site and taken 20,000 actions to learn about or be more sustainable.

• Circular economy newsletter and learning series. To grow awareness and inspire employees to see how they can contribute to Cisco’s circular economy transformation, we launched a newsletter and a learning series in FY19. Both are delivered quarterly and highlight projects and successes driven by multiple teams across the company. They also provide resources such as training and videos for those who want to learn more. We will expand our efforts to engage employees on the circular economy in FY20.