In the laboratories and data centers that account for a significant percentage of Cisco’s energy use, we are working to deploy a variety of greenhouse gas reduction techniques. These include:
- Taking detailed measurements of energy use
- Using laboratory equipment that is more energy efficient
- Employing virtualized data centers to store data
- Adding smart power-distribution units that automatically shut down machines that are not in use
- Upgrading building mechanical and electrical systems
We are also looking for ways to deploy the Cisco Connected Workplace solution in additional locations.
One of our primary goals is to use network-based IT to reduce energy use in our facilities and to operate our owned and leased spaces more efficiently. Cisco is currently piloting a software solution in the United States to model the impact of various factors on carbon footprint, waste reduction targets, and other goals. This tool allows us to forecast how the rising cost of energy will affect operations and expenditures, and it lets us model how certain practices can reduce energy use.
We are also incorporating environmental standards into new site design and existing site retrofits, and purchasing renewable energy to supplement the company’s operational efforts.
“Cisco approaches sustainability from multiple angles, such as reducing energy use and employee travel. The Green Power Purchase program is another tool in our toolbox. In places such as India and China, a large supply of green power simply doesn’t exist. But as green energy becomes more available on a global basis, we will continue to look for opportunities to increase the amount we purchase.”
—Rob Rolfsen, director of Cisco Sustainable Development
Energy-Efficient Buildings
Buildings are estimated to account for perhaps half of all the world’s energy consumption, and the costs associated with real estate represent the second largest expense for businesses, after human resources. There is great potential to cut both greenhouse gas emissions and property operations costs by reducing the amount of space needed for workers.
Both emissions and costs can be reduced through environmentally conscious building design and improved management facilitated by networking. Another important step is to encourage organizational innovations such as teleworking, “hot desking” or sharing physical resources, and local work centers.
For information on Cisco’s internal Connected Workplace initiative and Cisco Connected Real Estate solutions for the marketplace, go to: Smarter Buildings.
Cisco’s laboratories and data centers account for a significant percentage of our total energy use. To date, 11 percent of our real-estate portfolio is labs and data centers.
To minimize energy consumption within our labs, we are pursuing several energy conservation strategies. They include:
- Taking detailed measurements of energy flows to facilitate conservation
- Utilizing more-efficient lab equipment
- Implementing innovative data center technologies like virtual data storage
- Upgrading building mechanical and electrical systems
We have developed and are piloting two software programs designed to achieve greater energy efficiency in the company’s operations. The first, Automated Management Power System software, powers down equipment when it is not in use. The second, tMon, is a web-based system that monitors and reports on equipment power status, sending prompts when equipment has been left on. During FY08, these programs were piloted in 116 labs and business units, resulting in an annual energy savings of 5,858,559 kilowatt-hours (kWh). These pilot programs alone saved $703,000; in addition, Cisco received a $104,000 rebate check from its utility provider, PG&E, for energy savings in its San Jose labs.
Cisco is currently working with partners to develop specifications and standards aimed at enabling these two programs and the related power distribution units (smart power strips) to be integrated in our products and distributed globally.
We also achieve energy efficiency through retrofit, remodeling, and expansion projects. For example, we upgraded or installed variable-frequency drives on condenser water pumps and chilled water pumps in 19 buildings at our San Jose, California, campus. We estimate that this effort has the potential to save 1.2 million kWh a year, resulting in cost savings of nearly $156,000. A similar power-optimization pilot project is underway in Cisco’s labs in the United Kingdom.
Cisco is a member of The Green Grid, a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. Cisco also collaborates with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to identify energy-efficiency opportunities in labs and data centers.
Cisco and PG&E Partner to Reduce Energy Consumption
When demand for electricity is high and supply is short, power interruptions can sometimes occur. Building enough power plants to satisfy every possible supply-and-demand situation is one possibility. But the cost and environmental repercussions of doing that are unacceptable. Utilities have instituted Demand Response programs as fiscally and environmentally responsible ways to respond to occasional and temporary peak demand periods. These programs offer financial incentives to businesses that volunteer to participate by temporarily reducing their electricity use when demand could outpace supply.
Cisco is partnering with local utility PG&E to reduce electricity use at our San Jose, California, campus during peak periods. Cisco’s participation in the Demand Response program is intended to help PG&E avoid using fossil-fuel-based energy sources, such as coal-burning power plants, thereby reducing the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. The energy not used by Cisco can then be deployed elsewhere on the electrical grid.
Cisco’s network-enabled building automation systems simplify the task of complying with Demand Response requirements by making it easier to turn off unnecessary lighting, switch campuswide systems to reduced-power modes, and raise threshold temperatures for cooling in buildings. During a Demand Response period, Cisco also asks employees to take steps to reduce their individual power usage by turning off unnecessary office lighting and powering down unneeded equipment.
Cisco Connected Workplace
Launched in 2006, Cisco Connected Workplace is a flexible work environment designed to improve collaboration and productivity and support employee mobility. The design incorporates collaborative technologies such as Cisco Unified Communications, wireless network access, and virtual private networks.
During a recent office move, the San Jose, California, customer service team moved from traditional office space in Building 18 to a Cisco Connected Workplace environment in Building 14. Benefits associated with the move include:
- 44 percent savings in energy load
- Reduction in square footage per employee from 160 to 106 square feet
- 54 percent less cabling per employee, reducing electronic waste
Cisco Connected Workplace also boosts workplace efficiency by supporting up to twice as many employees as can be accommodated in a traditional office environment. The new space in Building 14 is now occupied by 400 employees, compared to only 300 in Building 18 (as of FY08).
The Connected Workplace environment has successfully reduced per-capita use of equipment and IT infrastructure. The table below gives the number of electronic devices in Building 18 in FY07, compared to the number of such devices designated for Building 14. The higher employee density in Building 14 results in more devices overall, but fewer devices per employee—an improvement of 22 percent.
As depicted in the graph below, Cisco Connected Workplace constituted 504,000 square feet of office space worldwide at the end of FY08. Full program implementation within these office buildings will commence in FY09.
Cisco Connected Workplace Deployment
The Cisco Connected Workplace concept has been well received by most employees, who take advantage of cutting-edge technologies and enjoy the space for its natural light and openness. They have also found that the workspace facilitates closer collaboration. Employees who have found the transition to a mobile environment more challenging are typically those who spend most of their day at desks or need to work with paper documents. However, even some of these employees have indicated that they value the increased variety of workspaces and technologies available to them.
Cisco Connected Real Estate
Cisco Connected Real Estate enables building developers, owners, and tenants to manage building information systems across one IP-enabled network. Video and data signals, as well as heating/ventilation/air-conditioning (HVAC), lighting, energy, and video surveillance signals, can be centralized and monitored remotely. The Connected Real Estate solution provides building occupants with local control using IP-enabled phones and control panels, and has the benefit of improving resource efficiency in buildings.
Furthermore, Cisco is incorporating environmental standards into new site designs and existing site retrofits. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System encourages global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. Cisco’s Sustainable Green Building Design program was initiated in FY07 with the goal of LEED-certifying every appropriate project that meets the prerequisites within North America. In FY08 approximately 75 percent of the approved projects in North America have registered for LEED certification.
In FY09 our goal is to create a Global Sustainable Buildings Team to represent every region of Cisco’s operations. We intend to initiate phase 1 of the LEED EB (Existing Building) Portfolio Certification for all Cisco owned buildings globally. The results of our gap analysis are expected to enable us to prioritize our LEED projects across our global property assets. Finally, we plan to test and validate the next generation of integrated workplace solutions software to optimize existing workspace and reduce our need for additional office space.
Cisco is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and the Continental Automated Buildings Association, a nonprofit industry association that promotes advanced technologies for the automation of homes and buildings in North America.
Reductions in Cisco’s Energy Consumption Around the Globe
In Amsterdam, the Cisco office building is designed to consume energy at a lower rate than required by Netherlands law. The building’s operation systems include two underground cold-water and two warm-water wells that lower the energy demands on electric chillers and gas heating. The net effect is a 52 percent reduction in energy use and a 51 percent reduction in carbon emissions.
The new Cisco Bangalore campus implements a lighting management system designed to take advantage of sunlight to reduce energy for artificial lighting. Traditional lamps across campus have been replaced with energy-efficient models. Passive infrared sensors and dual-level switching systems in labs and data centers turn on bright lighting (500 lux) only when necessary. The energy saved is enough to power 900 homes over a full year, and represents cost savings of about $350,000 based on current utility rates.
Cisco’s Australian operations have reduced energy consumption by 23 percent in the last two years and 12 percent over the past 12 months. This reduction was made possible by installing energy-efficient lighting in elevators and lobbies, putting lighting sensors in parking areas, installing high-efficiency air conditioning systems, and monitoring and reviewing energy and water consumption on a monthly basis.
Renewable Energy
Purchasing electricity generated from renewable sources is another important component of Cisco’s GHG reduction strategy. “Green power” is electricity generated from renewable resources that do not emit GHG during production, such as solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal sources.
Cisco purchases renewable power where it is available in the local power market. For example, because Europe has a large supply of renewable power on the open market, more than 80 percent of electricity used by Cisco’s European operations is renewable. Fully 100 percent of Cisco’s power in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom comes from renewable sources.
In each market where renewable energy is purchased, there is a certification process for green power. A Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) in the United States or Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certificate in Europe verifies the environmental attributes of 1000 kWh (kilowatt-hours) of green power. In states or countries that have a REC program, a green power supplier, such as a wind farm, feeds energy into the electrical grid in the same way as a traditional power supplier and is credited with one REC for every 1000 kWh of electricity produced.
RECs or REGOs provide a production subsidy to green power suppliers, which stimulates investment in new renewable energy generation capacity. The cost premium of RECs and REGOs provides an incentive for green power purchasers to continue to invest in energy conservation measures.
Cisco has increased green power purchases since 2005 by buying RECs and REGOs to reduce GHG emissions from Cisco operations. Cisco’s RECs are certified by Green-e, an independent auditor of renewable energy products. The renewable energy supplied to Cisco’s U.S. operations is generated from hydropower projects in Alaska, Arkansas, and Washington; wind projects in Iowa and Texas; and biomass projects in Washington. In Europe, Cisco purchases green power from wind and hydropower sources located in the United Kingdom.
The following table summarizes Cisco’s global green power purchases and the GHG emissions avoided by the use of green power. For comparison, we have provided the equivalent emissions avoided by our purchase of green power in terms of removing passenger cars from the road for a full year and per capita usage in the United States. For FY08, Cisco’s green power purchases in the U.S. represented about 32.5 percent of the electricity used at Cisco’s United States facilities.
EPA Green Power Challenge
Cisco participates in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Fortune 500 Green Power Partnership.
In December 2006, the EPA challenged Fortune 500 corporations to collectively purchase more than 5 billion kWh of green power by the end of calendar 2007. Cisco was one of the top 15 Fortune 500 purchasers of green power, helping the EPA exceed its goal by 130 percent.
In 2008 the EPA announced its second Fortune 500 Challenge, which will conclude at the end of 2009. EPA recalculates each company’s ranking quarterly. As of July 2008, Cisco ranks seventh among Fortune 500 companies.
