The Eco-Friendly Cisco Cafes

It’s Not Easy Being Green

In the workplace, there is an endless list of things that keep our minds occupied. For me, it’s everything from project deadlines to what I’m going to eat for lunch today. And even though society is doing its best to lead us into “being green” at work, how to be a better environmentalist is not necessarily on the top of everyone’s mind.

At Cisco’s headquarter in San Jose, the Workplace Resources (WPR) team wants to change that! And we’re continuously rolling out initiatives on how we can make our campus (and the company in general) more “green”.

I began to notice this new focus back in April, when Cisco’s Green Team helped put on a vendor fair for Earth Day. At the fair, employees were introduced to new and current vendors that are working towards the ultimate goal of bettering our environment – starting by the services they use on their very own campus.

Cisco employees in San Jose now have access to Scoop which is a mobile-based carpooling service that helps employees get to work in the greenest way possible. Additional electric car charges are also being installed in parking lots across campus that will aid in increasing charging stations for our employees.

So now that we have opportunities to be green going to and from work, what about within the campus itself? I asked myself this question recently and on my journey to see how our Cisco campuses were becoming more green – I discovered quite a bit!

Within the breakrooms, WPR is reducing the amount of paper goods that are available at our disposable, and will (hopefully) be met with an increase in employee’s bringing reusable drinkware such as water bottles and coffee cups.

The Cisco campus is also making an effort at the locations that derive most of its waste – the cafes and coffee bars. Compostable items have always been available throughout the dining areas, but employees (myself included) don’t always know what trash bins to toss our leftovers into. Luckily, our Green Team came up with an awesome solution! The team recently created and installed some awesome signage to help café guests sort through their waste and get it into the proper receptacle.

A simple task, yes, but one that can always use a little reminding!

Being environmentally conscience can also mean helping others in need – which is exactly what Cisco’s newest partnership with waste management company Copia provides. Copia works with the cafes on campus to pick up all the edible waste food from a day’s service and drop off these delectable leftovers to local shelters. As of today, Copia has helped Cisco donate over 13,000 meals to local nonprofits! Food that would otherwise go into a landfill now helps support our community.

From transportation to waste management, Cisco has provided its employees with an array of options that make helping the environment easy. We can all be proud about working for a company who also cares about the city it lays its foundation on and is actively encouraging employees to be green in San Jose.

How is your campus helping the environment? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

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