What Cisco envisioned in July 2023 when we first outlined our next-generation sustainability strategy, The Plan for Possible, has been steadily taking shape, especially its connection to business outcomes.
Cisco’s Plan for Possible continues to guide us, and we’ve made important strides across the plan’s three priority areas – clean energy, circularity, and resilient ecosystems – while strengthening our approach and refining how we implement our sustainability efforts across the company.
As the landscape continues to evolve — including the rise of AI-driven opportunities and the growing demands on global energy systems — Cisco has an opportunity to help customers meet their goals with efficient and resilient solutions. That mindset is at the core of our Plan for Possible, helping us propel the business forward.
Our approach to energy continues to evolve, with a sharper focus on energy-efficient product design and on supporting modern, digital-ready energy infrastructure. As global energy demands grow, especially with new AI-driven workloads, energy security is becoming even more central to how we design, deploy, and optimize technology.
This includes improving the efficiency of our hardware through innovations such as Cisco Silicon One, which helps reduce energy consumption while increasing bandwidth, and Universal Power Over Ethernet (PoE), which optimizes energy use across connected buildings.
We also continue to support grid modernization and more efficient data center environments through partnerships that enable resilient, digitally-enabled energy systems.
I’m proud to highlight that Cisco is leading the technology industry in designing products that maximize resource efficiency and extend their useful life.
We reached the major milestone of incorporating Circular Design Principles into 100% of new products and packaging by the end of our fiscal year 2025. Reaching this goal reflects years of collaboration across our engineering, supply chain, and design teams as well as suppliers who have integrated Circular Design Principles at scale. In addition, programs such as Cisco Refresh, Product Takeback and Reuse, and Green Pay further extend value for customers by offering reliable, lower-impact alternatives and life cycle services.
Together, these achievements strengthen our shift toward a more circular business model grounded in design innovation, material efficiency, and product recovery and redeployment.
The Cisco Foundation is also deepening its work to support resilient ecosystems, with an expanded focus on technologies and partnerships that help businesses and communities thrive into the future. This includes efforts that leverage data, connectivity, and analysis to strengthen ecosystem health and community resilience.
From Vibrant Planet, whose data platform supports wildfire risk reduction and land-use planning, to AI-enabled agriculture initiatives in India that help improve decision-making for small-scale farmers, the Foundation is supporting practical, scalable solutions that strengthen both environmental and community resilience. These partnerships illustrate how technology can help protect ecosystems while enabling communities to better respond to — and prepare for — the impacts of a changing climate.
The Plan for Possible remains central to how we embed sustainability across Cisco’s business. And as the strategy matures, the broader ecosystem is also helping to expand our reach, from the investments we make to the partners we work with and the innovators we back.
We’ve created deeper alignment across Cisco Investments and the Chief Sustainability Office to integrate sustainability into our business decision-making. This alignment helps guide where we invest and the solutions we develop. It also gives us the flexibility to support sustainability solutions at different stages of development, from early pilots to technologies ready to scale, while delivering value to Cisco’s business.
From plans to accomplishments, and from possible to tangible, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made and are committed to deepening our impact.
As technology, customer needs, and global sustainability standards evolve, so will our approach. We look forward to sharing more about our progress as we move into the next chapter of this work.
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