Cisco SPUR Program - Cisco's Commitment to the Environment
Cisco Surplus Product Utilization and Reclamation (SPUR) program supports Cisco's commitment to preserving and improving the environment through recycling, reusing, and properly disposing of electronic products that would otherwise become waste. SPUR is chartered with ensuring that Cisco complies with global environmental legislation, and monitoring and minimizing waste going to landfills.
The idea for a recycling program came about after noting the inventory routinely discarded from the Cisco San Jose, California, returns warehouse—each week an average of $2 million. "So much equipment was being scrapped, there had to be a way to reuse some of it and limit the amount of waste," says Josh Garrison, manager of Global Returns. "We wanted a way to not only minimize the waste going to landfills but to optimally reuse the equipment within Cisco."
Since its inception in 2002 the SPUR program has expanded to approximately 10 reuse and recycle programs and provides convenient contribution and collection methods for employees throughout the company. In FY2004 SPUR collected and managed 6.7 million pounds of e-Waste. Only 1.4 percent of this equipment was sent to landfill, and US$47 million was gained through cost avoidance and savings.
SPUR Program Benefits to the Environment and to Cisco
What's Next for SPUR
More Information
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SPUR Program Benefits to the Environment and to Cisco
Part of the overall environmental mission at Cisco is to keep Cisco products out of landfills and SPUR drives the success of that goal. The primary focus of the SPUR program is to reuse, recycle, and properly dispose of surplus electronic equipment. Programs under SPUR focus on specific aspects of environmental management. Current programs include:
e-Bin—Provides bins in each building and in labs for employees to conveniently dispose of e-Waste, and manages the collection, reuse, recycling, and disposal of all equipment collected.
Data Center Recycle—Allows proprietary information on servers to be cleaned and then retired or destroyed.
Takeback and Recycle Program—Helps Cisco customers properly dispose of end-of-life or excess Cisco equipment. With the SPUR recycling programs and procedures to keep Cisco branded products out of landfills, this program completes the recycle loop by extending the services to our customers. Takeback and Recycle combined with the Cisco Technology Migration Program offers a closed-loop process for managing the product lifecycle. Customers have a complete solution for managing the use and disposition of their Cisco equipment that provides investment protection and commitment to the environment.
Cisco Resource Exchange and Disposal Online (CREDO) was created to encourage proper reuse and recycling of surplus equipment. CREDO is like an online marketplace, where Cisco departments can advertise idle equipment that might be of use to another department. CREDO addresses the goal to reduce Cisco materials consumption while tracking company assets. CREDO also works in conjunction with other tools such as eITMS, which monitors management of product assets. CREDO then works on the disposition of products. More information about CREDO and eITMS is available.
In addition to programs and tools, Cisco sponsors two e-Waste days per year. On these days employees can bring personal electronic waste, such as TVs, monitors, and PCs to Cisco, and the SPUR team ensures that the equipment is recycled, reused, or properly disposed of. The first e-Waste day was held in November 2002, and in the five events to date, 435,000 pounds of electronic waste has been collected.
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What's Next for SPUR
The SPUR team will continue to extend its programs to Cisco sites worldwide and educate Cisco employees about how they can facilitate environmentally responsible disposal of e-Waste, and contribute to cost savings and cost avoidance through proper reuse. SPUR also will continue to help ensure that the collection, processing, and disposition of e-Waste comply with ISO and CISCO policies.
As the SPUR program matures, cost avoidance remains one of the most important success metrics. "Although we realize tens of millions of dollars in cost avoidance, as we continue to roll out the program globally that number will increase. The program is young and we're only starting to realize the benefits," says Garrison.
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More Information
We appreciate your valuable feedback. Please send comments and suggestions to: spurcore@cisco.com.
More information about the SPUR program is available on the SPUR Website at: http://epub.cisco.com/sales/go/ca/ts/gps/nam/nbd/retmgnt/spur.
Cisco Systems is ISO 14001 certified and specifies in its Cisco Code of Conduct how all employees must properly recycle or dispose of equipment and assets owned by Cisco.