Making the company’s operations more environmentally sustainable is part of everyone’s job at Cisco. Because effective initiatives often require a cultural shift to influence behavior, we look to educate and support our employees as they undertake new, more environmentally responsible practices at work.

Cisco seeks to inspire employees to help make the workplace more energy- and resource-efficient, as well as to engender pride in Cisco’s environmental actions. To this end, a robust employee education and communications plan was implemented in FY08.

Objectives of the communications plan are to:

• Broaden employee awareness of Cisco’s sustainability policy and EcoBoard-led strategy globally
• Inspire employee pride in Cisco’s sustainable business practices globally
• Increase employee understanding of the EcoBoard’s global goals for organizations, teams, and individual employees
• Leverage existing communication mechanisms, while evaluating potential new techniques, to enable a robust global employee exchange concerning Cisco’s environmental policy and practices
• Identify and promote best practices globally among Cisco organizations, teams, and individual employees

Developed by Cisco Workplace Resources, Cisco EcoBoard, Cisco Green Task Force, and Cisco’s Civic Councils, our environmental education and engagement programs focus on issues such as energy awareness, travel, and waste reduction. Some of the activities we engage in that create environmental awareness include:

• Regional activities such as beach and park cleanups, tree planting days, and panel discussions with local environmental advocates
• Companywide events, including Bike to Work Day, E-Scrap Event, Earth Day, and Energy Awareness month
• An internal website dedicated to environmental issues and employee interaction on how Cisco can continue to accelerate its environmental strategy
• An online speakers bureau to showcase employees who are interested in speaking internally on Cisco’s environmental strategy
• Regular communications and email announcements
• Compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) giveaways

This year the Cisco EcoBoard and Green Task Force launched the Cisco Green website, where employees can learn more about energy awareness and access other environmental information. This online resource highlights strategies that employees can use to conserve energy and reduce waste companywide. It also provides an employee discussion forum, “Let’s Talk Cisco Green.”

Earth Day Events

During the week of Earth Day (April 21–27, 2008), Cisco sponsored our second annual Environmental Awareness campaign. The campaign combines three anchor events: Earth Day itself, E-Scrap Event, and Bike to Work Day. Cisco sites around the world participated in a wide variety of Earth Day activities.

Cisco’s E-Scrap Event initiative takes place twice a year worldwide. It provides employees with the opportunity to bring electronic devices from home for responsible disposal. The program follows the same business processes as our internal and customer waste disposal programs. For more about Cisco’s waste policies, go to Products: End-of-Life Management.

In FY07 Cisco’s Bike to Work Day involved 435 confirmed participants at 15 sites in six countries. In FY08 participation more than doubled to 896 riders at 40 sites in 13 countries.