Clean Energy
Powering a connected, sustainable future requires modernizing the grid while reducing overall energy use. A key priority of our environmental sustainability strategy is to advance clean energy and energy efficiency.
Net-Zero Strategy
Cisco’s goal to reach net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across our value chain by 2040 was approved by the Science Based Targets initiative under its Corporate Net-Zero Standard in 2022.
Cisco’s largest source of emissions is the electricity used to power the products we sell (Scope 3 Category 11). We continue to innovate to increase the energy efficiency of our products; apply our products and solutions to connect clean energy and digitalize the grid; and collaborate with our customers, partners, and suppliers to adopt new sources of clean energy. Our strategy to reduce our value chain emissions focuses on four areas:
Product Use
Emissions from the products we sell are accounted for in Cisco’s Scope 3. This primarily includes emissions from the electricity our products consume during customer use.
Procurement & Manufacturing
Manufacturing and warehousing of Cisco components, products, and services produce upstream emissions that are accounted for in Cisco’s Scope 3. We also account for the emissions associated with disposal of these products at end of life.
Logistics
Transportation and distribution of our products produce emissions that are accounted for in Cisco’s Scope 3. This includes emissions from the fuel
used to transport products
by air, marine, and road, for example.
Operations
Emissions from the operation of Cisco facilities are accounted for in Cisco’s Scope 1 and 2. Business travel, waste from facilities, and employee commuting are accounted for in Cisco’s Scope 3.
Some of our initiatives in fiscal 2025 to reduce all scopes of emissions include:
Product use
- Innovating to increase the energy efficiency of our products
- Helping our customers optimize energy in their networks by modernizing hardware and using energy management capabilities
Procurement and Manufacturing
- Supporting suppliers by providing access to renewable energy trainings, helping reduce their energy and fuel consumption, and connecting them to opportunities to procure clean energy for their operations
Logistics
- Optimizing our packaging to reduce shipping weight and volume to reduce overall fuel consumption for Cisco product logistics
Operations
- Investing in renewable energy for our facilities with a focus on long-term projects that add new capacity to electric grids in the areas in which we operate
- Reducing the impact of our operations, with a focus on electrification, energy optimization, hybrid work, and waste reduction
- See more in the section below
See progress toward our goal on the Goals and Progress page and the Data and Assurance page.
Energy and GHG Emissions in Our Direct Operations
Real Estate Sustainability Strategy
We embed sustainability into our operations by creating and maintaining workplaces that support our employees’ well-being and productivity.
Workplace Sustainability Strategy
Optimize our portfolio for the future of work
Increase the sustainability and efficiency of our real estate operations
Source renewable energy for our global operations
Engage stakeholders on our strategy
Cisco’s Global Energy Management and Sustainability (GEMS) team leads energy and sustainability initiatives across Cisco’s 16 million square feet of global real estate. The team’s primary responsibilities are to:
- Manage Cisco’s global annual utility budget and contracts
- Identify and implement demand- and supply-side energy solutions, such as energy efficiency upgrades and onsite renewable energy projects
- Source renewable energy for our global operations
- Embed sustainability and efficiency criteria into our building, lab, and data center design standards
- Engage our stakeholders, including customers and employees, on our workplace sustainability strategy
Hybrid Work
To support the future of work, we’ve shifted our global real estate strategy focus away from the quantity of sites and seats and toward the quality and location of our facilities.
New offices in Shanghai, London, Milan, and Austin, Texas, are purpose-built for collaboration, equipped with smart building technology from Cisco and our partners. Tour them virtually on your smartphone.
Green Building Certifications
Since 2009, with our first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) certified building, we’ve integrated green building standards into our real estate portfolio. By the end of fiscal 2025, 45 Cisco facilities — covering 3.3 million square feet of space, or 21% of our global portfolio — were certified by LEED®, WELL Building Standard, Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE), Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), or similar programs; with 11 more in progress.
These standards improve occupant well-being, while reducing environmental impact.
Scope 1 and 2 Emissions
Since 2008, we’ve set ambitious five-year targets to cut our absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions, paving the way to major milestones.
In fiscal 2025, we achieved our goal of reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 90%, compared to a fiscal 2019 base year. In addition, for the first time in company history, we sourced renewable electricity to match 100% of our global annual electricity needs.
Reaching these milestones reflects our long-standing commitment to energy and sustainability — and our momentum ahead. We intend to maintain at least a 90% reduction in absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions as we work toward our goal to reach net zero GHG emissions across our value chain by 2040. To maintain our emissions reduction progress, we will continue with our plan to invest approximately US$39 million from fiscal 2023–2026 in energy efficiency, renewables, and electrification.
For information on our Scope 1 and 2 data, operational energy usage, and our emissions calculation methodology, refer to the Data and Assurance page.
Renewable Energy
In fiscal 2025, Cisco sourced renewable electricity to match 100% of our annual electricity needs for all Cisco owned and leased property globally (approximately 1.4 million megawatt-hours). As an RE100 member, we’re focused over the next five years on increasing locally sourced renewables where in-country sourcing is a challenge and on increasing our procurement from long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), which add new renewable energy to the grid and can support economic growth.
We procure renewable electricity through:
- Onsite solar installations
Installations at our campuses in the U.S., India, and Poland produce ~1.2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
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Longer-term offsite PPAs, including:
- A new 92 megawatt (MW) solar and wind generation facility in India now powering our Bangalore campus
- A 180 MW solar development in Texas, where Cisco is the anchor buyer (online in fiscal 2026)
- Utility green power contracts
In the United States and in Europe, we source locally generated renewable energy through programs like Austin Energy's GreenChoice (Texas) and Duke Energy's Green Rider (North Carolina). - Energy attribute certificates (EACs)
In fiscal 2025, 69% of the renewable electricity we sourced came from unbundled EACs. We aim to reduce the percentage of unbundled EACs as projects associated with our long-term contracts come online.
Renewable Fuels
In fiscal 2025, we began piloting the use of renewable fuels in our operations:
- Bangalore, India: We have been testing the use of biodiesel generated from agricultural waste in one of our onsite diesel generators, replacing 15% of our conventional diesel use with biodiesel for fiscal 2025. If our testing is successful, we plan to increase our usage of biodiesel over time.
- California, United States: We began a three-year agreement to procure renewable natural gas (RNG) for Cisco sites primarily in California, sourcing the majority of the RNG from an Integrated Diversion & Energy Facility in Turlock, California.
To review Cisco’s operational energy data, including information regarding renewable energy, please refer to the Data and Assurance page.
Energy Efficiency at Cisco Facilities
The global EnergyOps program, managed by the GEMS team, implements energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Cisco buildings. Our real estate organization also works to maximize efficiency in our operations.
In fiscal 2025, the GEMS team enabled Cisco to avoid approximately 11.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of energy consumption and 27.2 metric tonnes of CO2e by investing US$15.4 million to implement 78 energy efficiency projects, including:
- Installing LED lights to increase lighting efficiency
- Balancing airflow and improving hot and cold aisle containment within our labs
- Retrofitting and optimizing major mechanical equipment and control systems to improve energy efficiency
- Electrifying our buildings, moving from natural gas systems to heat-recovery chillers and electric systems
- Installing meters as well as using artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to better monitor and optimize energy usage in our buildings
- Implementing low-cost/no-cost projects, such as optimizing set points and order of operations within our building management system, and training staff on how to operate our buildings more efficiently
- Participating in emergency response programs in Texas and California to shed load and stabilize the grid during grid emergencies
- Engaging employees to promote, educate, and incentivize them to conserve energy
We estimate that the 190 energy efficiency and onsite renewable energy projects implemented since fiscal 2021 have avoided approximately 38.8 GWh of energy and 40,900 metric tonnes of CO2e.
Learn more about our energy and GHG emissions reductions projects on the Data and Assurance page.
Lab and data center efficiency
Our data center sustainability strategy focuses on efficient design, optimized operations, energy management, asset recovery and reuse, and responsible procurement.
- Lab and data center modernization: We are consolidating our lab footprint and designing for longer-term efficiency and functionality.
- Building infrastructure life cycle replacement: We prioritize updates to aging equipment.
Electrification
We’re electrifying our buildings by installing heat recovery chillers, adding heat recovery onto existing chillers, and installing heat pumps. This transition reduces our Scope 1 emissions and allows us to use electricity generated from renewable sources, reducing our Scope 2 emissions.
In fiscal 2025, we completed our first building electrification projects in San Jose, California, and Galway, Ireland, with more underway and planned globally. In several projects, we are installing heat recovery chillers that utilize CO2 as a refrigerant — one of the newest, most environmentally friendly types of HVAC equipment available.
Electric Vehicles (EVs)
Cisco leases a fleet of company cars for our employees in Europe and has been working to transition to EVs, especially in countries where EVs and charging infrastructure are readily available. Any remaining fossil fuel vehicles in our fleet must meet our minimum fuel efficiency standards, which we expect to lower over time as more fuel-efficient vehicles become available.
We provide over 550 EV charging ports for employees and guests on our campuses — with over 500 at our San Jose headquarters — and many of our leased sites include EV charging stations as well.
Find more information on the percentage of EVs in Cisco company cars on the Data and Assurance page.