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Internet zero one yr later


Fixing huge issues requires pondering huge and setting targets that appear audacious. Cisco has achieved many daring targets over its 38-year historical past by counting on sensible folks, innovation and science.

Now that I’m Cisco’s Chief Sustainability Officer, science has by no means been extra vital to me. Scientific proof reveals 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 are going to 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 day by day 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 exhausting, it’s as a result of it will likely be. However the science says it’s attainable, if we act now and with urgency.

That’s the reason one yr in the past, Cisco dedicated to reaching web zero greenhouse fuel emissions throughout its worth chain by 2040. Once we set our web zero purpose, we aimed excessive. We didn’t essentially understand how we might get there, however we knew this was the one strategy to make progress: by being bold, placing the suitable folks in place, innovating collectively and trusting science.

The science behind web zero and the journey it would take to attain it are each complicated and evolving. However the purpose for doing it’s easy: our future will depend on it.

I’m happy to share with you a few of the developments round our web zero purpose within the final yr.

Third-party validation

In July 2022, Cisco’s 2040 web zero purpose was accredited by the Science Primarily based Targets initiative (SBTi) beneath its Internet-Zero Commonplace. The SBTi Internet-Zero Commonplace is the world’s first framework for company web zero goal setting according to local weather science.

To earn SBTi validation, corporations are required to scale back their emissions by not less than 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 are wanted to reverse international warming.

Let me again up for a second and outline web zero: it’s a state the place no incremental greenhouse gases are added to the ambiance. Corporations can obtain web zero by a mixture of decreasing their greenhouse fuel emissions and neutralizing any remaining GHG emissions by eradicating (sequestering) an equal quantity from the ambiance (also known as utilizing offsets).

Corporations with SBTI validation can use offsets for not more than 10% of their emissions discount. Which means we should focus the majority of our efforts on deep emissions reductions over neutralizing – which is the scientifically sound strategy to reverse international warming and reduce the impacts of local weather change.

Constant transparency

Cisco has a historical past of being open about our targets and our progress by public reporting. We printed our first Company Citizenship Report in 2005, and we proceed to report our emissions information yearly in our Goal Report and our ESG Reporting Hub (ESG = environmental, social and governance). We do that in order that our prospects, workers, traders, and others might be assured that what we are saying is actual. And we frequently search for methods to enhance the readability of our reporting and the accuracy with which we calculate our emissions.

There’s a main shift taking place in laws round ESG reporting proper now as effectively. For instance, in america, the Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) is contemplating new necessities for a way public corporations make local weather disclosures. Whether or not the SEC drives and really adopts these guidelines or not, we’re already doing the work to align to them. We consider having standardized local weather disclosure necessities gives traders and others with extra clear, constant, comparable, and decision-useful info.

Cisco lately employed a controller to focus solely on ESG, and we have now created a working group to assist establish 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 boost our ESG governance as a result of we would like 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 liable for roughly 23 million tons of carbon dioxide equal (CO2e) in fiscal yr 2021. That’s solely about 0.0006 p.c of whole international greenhouse fuel emissions (primarily based on 2021 IEA information), however it’s nonetheless critically vital for us to scale back our personal emissions as a lot as attainable. In doing so, we are able to have an excellent greater affect by enabling our prospects and others to do the identical.

For instance, decreasing the vitality consumption of our merchandise lowers Cisco’s Scope 3 emissions, but additionally helps our prospects cut back their Scope 2 emissions. For those who’re not accustomed to scopes of emissions, you’ll be able to study them from this Greenhouse Gasoline Protocol picture, or see our definitions on the backside of this weblog.

Rising the quantity of vitality generated from renewable sources like wind and photo voltaic (“greening the grid”) is one other crucial. In line with the newest Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change (IPCC) report, “limiting warming to 2°C or 1.5°C would require substantial vitality system modifications over the subsequent 30 years. This contains lowered fossil gas consumption” and “elevated manufacturing from low- and zero-carbon vitality sources…”

Our merchandise and options might help utility corporations shift to a extra low-carbon mannequin. For instance, we have now labored with Enel, Italy’s largest vitality supplier, to create a wiser, extra energy-efficient energy grid. Utilizing Cisco know-how, Enel can monitor its vitality grid and preemptively tackle any faults or failures that threaten the community, and extra successfully connect with renewable vitality sources.

And our efforts to extend our personal use of renewable vitality during the last 15 years can even assist to speed up the deployment of renewable vitality techniques all over the world. How? As a result of longer-term, multi-year renewable vitality agreements present precious funding for vitality suppliers, making it extra aggressive with conventionally produced energy, and be sure that the vitality shall be bought over a sure time period.

For instance, to extend the quantity of renewable vitality 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 our investments and management, we hope to speed up the adoption of renewable vitality and encourage different corporations to put money into renewables as effectively.

All advised, we have now a number of multi-year renewable vitality energy buy agreements (PPAs) all over the world 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 vitality we buy by PPAs and long-term renewable vitality agreements over the subsequent few years.

Making the journey collectively

We may also co-innovate with our prospects, suppliers, companions, and others to develop new enterprise fashions that may dramatically speed up the transition to a low-carbon financial system. We all know that know-how advances quickly, and we wish to be able to seize alternatives. It is a time for pondering huge, and we wish to share and collaborate like by no means earlier than. The one manner we are going to reverse local weather change is by working collectively and extra brazenly sharing practices which are working and never working, so we are able to be taught from one another.

Whereas we are going to dream huge, we are going to nonetheless stay grounded within the science. And we are going to proceed to evolve our strategy as extra mechanisms grow to be accessible. We are going to use actual information to grasp what is admittedly working, what affect we’re having, and if there are any unintended penalties. The extra we all know, the higher we are able to do.

Finally, it isn’t nearly our web zero purpose. We should construct ecofriendly companies; promote round enterprise fashions; preserve and restore the well being of our land, oceans, and ecosystems; and create alternatives for folks to take part within the inexperienced and digital financial system. It’s about serving to to scale local weather options by investing in them now. You may 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 web zero purpose and naming a Chief Sustainability Officer are vital steps ahead. However they alone usually are not sufficient to reverse the affect of local weather change. We nonetheless have rather more work to do within the years to come back, and as our technique grows and evolves, we’re dedicated to sharing the small print – 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 fuel used to warmth our buildings, back-up mills 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 information facilities to energy our tools and maintain 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’ vitality use, transporting our merchandise, and worker commuting of their private autos.

 

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