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Fixing large issues requires considering large and setting objectives that appear audacious. Cisco has achieved many daring objectives over its 38-year historical past by counting on sensible individuals, innovation and science.
Now that I’m Cisco’s Chief Sustainability Officer, science has by no means been extra vital to me. Scientific proof exhibits that local weather change is an pressing disaster. If we don’t restrict international temperature rise to lower than 1.5° Celsius in comparison with pre-industrial ranges, we’ll face dramatic penalties. Floods, extra extreme and frequent climate occasions, longer and extra extreme droughts, meals shortages. We’re already seeing proof of those occasions on daily basis within the information.
How can we restrict international temperature rise to 1.5 levels? The world should halve international emissions earlier than 2030 and attain zero emissions by 2050. If that sounds onerous, it’s as a result of it is going to be. However the science says it’s doable, if we act now and with urgency.
That’s the reason one yr in the past, Cisco dedicated to reaching internet zero greenhouse gasoline emissions throughout its worth chain by 2040. After we set our internet zero purpose, we aimed excessive. We didn’t essentially know the way we’d get there, however we knew this was the one option to make progress: by being bold, placing the fitting individuals in place, innovating collectively and trusting science.
The science behind internet zero and the journey it should take to attain it are each advanced and evolving. However the cause for doing it’s easy: our future depends upon it.
I’m happy to share with you among the developments round our internet zero purpose within the final yr.
Third-party validation
In July 2022, Cisco’s 2040 internet zero purpose was accredited by the Science Primarily based Targets initiative (SBTi) underneath its Internet-Zero Normal. The SBTi Internet-Zero Normal is the world’s first framework for company internet zero goal setting consistent with local weather science.
To earn SBTi validation, corporations are required to scale back their emissions by a minimum of 90%. This requirement means we are able to’t merely depend on carbon offsets to attain our purpose. Having SBTi validation alerts that we’re dedicated to the deep emissions reductions which can be wanted to reverse international warming.
Let me again up for a second and outline internet zero: it’s a state the place no incremental greenhouse gases are added to the environment. Corporations can obtain internet zero by means of a mixture of decreasing their greenhouse gasoline emissions and neutralizing any remaining GHG emissions by eradicating (sequestering) an equal quantity from the environment (also known as utilizing offsets).
Corporations with SBTI validation can use offsets for not more than 10% of their emissions discount. Which means that we should focus the majority of our efforts on deep emissions reductions over neutralizing – which is the scientifically sound option to reverse international warming and reduce the impacts of local weather change.
Constant transparency
Cisco has a historical past of being open about our objectives and our progress by means of public reporting. We printed our first Company Citizenship Report in 2005, and we proceed to report our emissions knowledge yearly in our Goal Report and our ESG Reporting Hub (ESG = environmental, social and governance). We do that in order that our clients, workers, buyers, and others might be assured that what we are saying is actual. And we regularly search for methods to enhance the readability of our reporting and the accuracy with which we calculate our emissions.
There’s a main shift occurring in laws round ESG reporting proper now as properly. For instance, in america, the Securities and Change Fee (SEC) is contemplating new necessities for the way public corporations make local weather disclosures. Whether or not the SEC drives and actually adopts these guidelines or not, we’re already doing the work to align to them. We imagine having standardized local weather disclosure necessities supplies buyers and others with extra clear, constant, comparable, and decision-useful data.
Cisco just lately employed a controller to focus completely on ESG, and we’ve got created a working group to assist determine areas to bolster controls; perceive SEC local weather guidelines, anticipated disclosures and different worldwide laws; and develop clear plans to deal with them.
We’re selecting to reinforce our ESG governance as a result of we wish our stakeholders to have a transparent image of our progress, our challenges, and our learnings. We welcome the elevated scrutiny as a result of it pushes us to repeatedly enhance our technique and the way we report on it.
Doing what is nice for the world
Cisco was answerable for roughly 23 million tons of carbon dioxide equal (CO2e) in fiscal yr 2021. That’s solely about 0.0006 % of whole international greenhouse gasoline emissions (primarily based on 2021 IEA knowledge), however it’s nonetheless critically vital for us to scale back our personal emissions as a lot as doable. In doing so, we are able to have a fair greater impression by enabling our clients and others to do the identical.
For instance, decreasing the power consumption of our merchandise lowers Cisco’s Scope 3 emissions, but additionally helps our clients scale back their Scope 2 emissions. When you’re not aware of scopes of emissions, you may find out about them from this Greenhouse Fuel Protocol picture, or see our definitions on the backside of this weblog.
Growing the quantity of power generated from renewable sources like wind and photo voltaic (“greening the grid”) is one other crucial. In accordance with the newest Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change (IPCC) report, “limiting warming to 2°C or 1.5°C would require substantial power system modifications over the subsequent 30 years. This contains decreased fossil gasoline consumption” and “elevated manufacturing from low- and zero-carbon power sources…”
Our merchandise and options can assist utility corporations shift to a extra low-carbon mannequin. For instance, we’ve got labored with Enel, Italy’s largest power supplier, to create a better, extra energy-efficient energy grid. Utilizing Cisco know-how, Enel can monitor its power grid and preemptively deal with any faults or failures that threaten the community, and extra successfully connect with renewable power sources.
And our efforts to extend our personal use of renewable power during the last 15 years may also assist to speed up the deployment of renewable power programs world wide. How? As a result of longer-term, multi-year renewable power agreements present priceless funding for power suppliers, making it extra aggressive with conventionally produced energy, and be certain that the power might be bought over a sure time frame.
For instance, to extend the quantity of renewable power we use in India, we signed two long-term solar energy buy agreements (PPA) in 2018 that ship roughly 85,000 megawatt hours of electrical energy yearly to the grid the place our Bangalore campus is situated.
By way of our investments and management, we hope to speed up the adoption of renewable power and encourage different corporations to put money into renewables as properly.
All informed, we’ve got a number of multi-year renewable power energy buy agreements (PPAs) world wide that collectively produce greater than 300,000 megawatt hours per yr. We’re actively pursuing further PPAs and count on to extend the quantity of renewable power we buy by means of PPAs and long-term renewable power agreements over the subsequent few years.
Making the journey collectively
We may also co-innovate with our clients, suppliers, companions, and others to develop new enterprise fashions that may dramatically speed up the transition to a low-carbon economic system. We all know that know-how advances quickly, and we need to be able to seize alternatives. It is a time for considering large, and we need to share and collaborate like by no means earlier than. The one approach we’ll reverse local weather change is by working collectively and extra brazenly sharing practices which can be working and never working, so we are able to be taught from one another.
Whereas we’ll dream large, we’ll nonetheless stay grounded within the science. And we’ll proceed to evolve our method as extra mechanisms grow to be obtainable. We’ll use actual knowledge to grasp what is basically working, what impression we’re having, and if there are any unintended penalties. The extra we all know, the higher we are able to do.
Finally, it’s not nearly our internet zero purpose. We should construct ecofriendly companies; promote round enterprise fashions; keep and restore the well being of our land, oceans, and ecosystems; and create alternatives for individuals to take part within the inexperienced and digital economic system. It’s about serving to to scale local weather options by investing in them now. You possibly can see an instance of this within the Cisco Basis, and the way it has dedicated to investing $100 million over ten years in promising local weather options.
Setting a internet zero purpose and naming a Chief Sustainability Officer are vital steps ahead. However they alone are usually not sufficient to reverse the impression of local weather change. We nonetheless have way more work to do within the years to come back, and as our technique grows and evolves, we’re dedicated to sharing the main points – each the accomplishments and challenges – with you.
particulars on our environmental initiatives.
Scopes of emissions
Scope 1: Emissions from fuels we purchase and burn inside our operations. For instance, pure gasoline used to warmth our buildings, back-up turbines that run on diesel, gasoline utilized in Cisco-owned autos.
Scope 2: Emissions from electrical energy we purchase for our operations. For instance, the ability we use in our labs and knowledge facilities to energy our tools and hold the lights on.
Scope 3: Emissions associated to our enterprise, however that we don’t personal or management. For instance, the electrical energy our merchandise eat after we promote them, our suppliers’ power use, transporting our merchandise, and worker commuting of their private autos.
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