The following is an excerpt from our FY24 Purpose Report, celebrating 40 years of impact at Cisco.
Much of our digital economy relies on large, energy intensive data centers that need to be operational 24/7 and require cooling systems to prevent overheating—and the growth of AI is increasing this demand. We believe the IT industry needs to stay one step ahead of this technological shift so sustainability is not an afterthought.
Large, global companies like Cisco have a critical role to play in balancing the demand for AI and digitalization with improvements in energy efficiency. This includes modernizing data centers, adopting energy management solutions that provide real-time energy usage insights, building a smart and resilient energy grid, and accelerating the transition to clean energy. Cisco prioritizes these efforts within our environmental sustainability strategy, The Plan for Possible, and we continue to advance our work in these areas as adoption of AI evolves.
At Cisco, smart energy consumption is a core element of our Circular Design Principles, and we are working to increase the energy efficiency of our products. For example, the Cisco UCS X-Series Modular System, which provides computing power for modern, AI-ready data centers, has been designed to improve energy efficiency and cooling when compared with previous UCS rack server releases. Cisco UCS X-Series is 54% more energy efficient at the processing (CPU) level than previous generations. And it is managed through the Cisco Intersight IT operations platform, which enables customers to dynamically adjust power for better efficiency.
As technology evolves rapidly, staying informed about the environmental performance of the latest devices and solutions can be challenging. For many years, Cisco has used voluntary third-party ecolabels, such as ENERGY STAR® and Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, to indicate when certain products meet energy efficiency criteria and other environmental and social criteria associated with product design and our corporate Purpose.
In fiscal 2024, several of our Catalyst 9000 switches received ENERGY STAR certification in the Large Network Equipment category, empowering our customers to choose solutions that align with their own sustainability goals and can help reduce their environmental footprint while maintaining performance in their technology infrastructure. Cisco is one of the first companies to have ENERGY STAR-certified products in this category.
Having reliable environmental sustainability-related data, such as product energy consumption and product life cycle emissions, is important for many reasons. For example, it helps our customers better understand the environmental footprint of their networks and report their environmental impact.
To address this need, Cisco developed the Sustainability Data Foundation (SDF), an internal enterprise data platform that serves as our main source for environmental sustainability-related data for a range of use cases.
The SDF is part of our commitment to strong governance of our environmental sustainability efforts, which underpins The Plan for Possible. In fiscal 2024, we began using the SDF for several purposes, including generating customer-facing product carbon footprint reports and automating our own emissions accounting, which are important to evolving regulatory and reporting requirements. We continue to expand the data within the SDF and its application across our business.
Read the full FY24 Purpose Report
To learn more about the progress we’re making to Power an Inclusive Future for All, visit our Cisco Purpose Reporting Hub.
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