CSR Report 2010

Material Issues

We engage with stakeholders throughout the year to gain insight on key CSR issues and how they pertain to Cisco (see Stakeholder Engagement).

From this feedback, together with our own understanding of our business, we conduct a materiality assessment to identify the issues that are most important to both our stakeholders and our business. See the materiality matrix below.

Materiality Matrix plotting items according to Importance to Society and Importance to Cisco, from Low to High. Items that skew towards high Importance to Society and low Importance to Cisco include Social Investment, Supply Chain GHG Emissions, Critical Human Needs (Disaster Relief) and Human Rights. Items skewing towards high Importance to Society and Cisco include Products, Solutions and Services, Cisco Solutions GHG Emissions, Economic Development Adherence to Global Standards, Customer/Partner eWaste, Access to Information, Digital Divide, Supply Chain - Environmental/Social, Climate Change (Policy), Accessibility (Products and Employees), Ethics, Operational/Environmental Performance, Energy and Cisco eWaste. Items skewing towards low Importance to Cisco and low Importance to Society include Emissions, effluents and waste, Commitment to UNGC, Biodiversity, Water, Responsible Marketing, Cisco GHG Emissions, Executive Compensation and Internet Privacy (Security of Data). Items skewing towards high Importance to Cisco and low Importance to Society include Risk Management, Corporate Governance, Stakeholder Management Process, Employees Management, Collaborative Management Model, Lobbying and Customer Relationships.

The issues identified as most significant, or material, form the focus of our CSR strategy, programs, and reporting. We report performance on the most material issues in the main issue sections of this CSR Report. Additional performance information is included in our Report Card.

For a full index of report coverage, see our Index against the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting guidelines.