Cisco has unveiled a major sustainability initiative, as the company looks to be greener than ever.
As rising energy bills affect businesses around the world, the company has unveiled a series of initiatives aimed at reducing the environmental impact of its technology.
The push was underscored by company CEO Chuck Robbins, who took the stage at Cisco Live 2023 to announce that sustainability is now one of the top five priorities for the company’s customers.
Cisco Sustainability
“Operating sustainably and fairly is the only way to do business,” Robbins added, emphasizing Cisco’s goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its value chain by 2040 and its commitment to 100 percent product returns upon request, There is no additional cost to the client.
The data center is increasingly recognized as a very energy-hungry entity, with data cited by Cisco showing that in the US alone, data center servers and switches consume 2% of all electricity and energy consumption accounts for 30% of data center costs .
To give customers greater insight into their energy consumption, the company has upgraded its Cisco Nexus dashboard to include energy management analytics, providing additional visibility across the Cisco network cloud.
With the help of Cisco API integration partners Panduit and Vertiv, this will include real-time and historical insights into energy consumption, energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions of Cisco Nexus switches and other IT equipment in the data center.
The service will also monitor the ambient temperature in the data center to help improve cooling efficiency, while keeping an eye on any additional servers, switches or storage.
In the broader context of the Internet of Things (IoT), the company was keen to showcase its Cisco IoT Operations Dashboard, which gives organizations real-time visibility into devices no matter where they are located.
Also under scrutiny are Webex services such as meetings, video conferencing calls and conferencing, which will now provide insights to the Webex Control Hub, allowing users to estimate their emissions and examine monthly energy consumption trends.
The company also named Mary de Wysocki its first chief sustainability officer last year, and she’s keen to highlight the work Cisco is doing.
“A fascinating area going forward will be how we think about integrating sustainable decision-making more deeply into our business,” she said. “I do think that when we are present in the community, we can have a positive impact in thinking about the right technologies, policies and practices.”
