Cisco Systems

Carbon per million dollars of revenue. The legacy industry-standard reference (CDP, MSCI). Useful for cross-sector context, but distorted by margin — high-margin firms appear artificially efficient. Read alongside the operational and asset intensities for the full picture.

OpEx (operating expenditure) is the running cost of the business — staff, services, energy, materials. This shows how carbon-intensive operations are per million dollars of spend. Removes the margin distortion that revenue-based ratios introduce.

EVIC (Enterprise Value Including Cash) is the firm's total capital footprint — equity + debt + cash + minority interest. The EU's standard intensity measure (SFDR PAI 3) — answers: how much carbon does each million of capital deployed in this business produce?

PP&E (Property, Plant & Equipment) plus leased real-estate assets is the firm's physical infrastructure on the balance sheet. This shows the carbon intensity of that physical footprint — uses Scope 1+2+3 for consistency with the other headline intensities. Surfaces stranded-asset risk for asset-heavy firms.

• · Puro.earth Registry
• · EPA Green Power Partnership

In FY25, for the first time ever, Cisco sourced renewable electricity to match 100% of global annual electricity needs at owned and leased facilities. Methods include on-site renewables, long-term power purchase agreements, virtual PPAs, and energy attribute certificates. New PPAs include a 92 MW solar+wind facility serving Cisco's Bangalore campus (~181,400 MWh/year) and anchor-buyer role on two aggregated virtual PPAs for 172 MW of solar in Texas (100 MW from new projects online 2027). Together these efforts will produce >500,000 MWh of renewable energy per year. Cisco also piloted biodiesel for backup power in Bangalore and renewable natural gas at US and UK sites.

Cisco purchased verified voluntary carbon removals in support of its fiscal 2025 goal to neutralize the residual emissions from its operations after the 89.7% Scope 1+2 reduction vs FY19. For the 2040 net-zero target, Cisco intends to neutralize the remaining 10% of emissions by removing an equal amount from the atmosphere. Cisco distinguishes durable removals from offsets in its framing.

• Circular product & packaging design

  100% of new Cisco products and packaging incorporate Circular Design Principles (FY25 goal met; FY26 maintenance goal set). 25 principles span Disassembly/Repair/Reuse, Packaging, Material Use, Smart Energy Consumption, and Standardize/Modularize. Packaging foam reduced 78% vs FY19 (target 75%); packaging cube efficiency improved 73% cumulatively vs FY19 (target 50%); recycled plastic content reached 45% vs 50% target. 76% of component/manufacturing suppliers by spend achieved zero-waste diversion at one or more sites.

• Direct operations: efficiency, electrification, building optimization (<1% of footprint)

  Scope 1 and 2 emissions are <1% of Cisco's total footprint. In FY25 Cisco implemented 78 energy efficiency projects avoiding ~11.5 GWh and 27,200 tCO2e annually. Used AI/advanced analytics for lab energy, airflow, and cooling. Completed first building electrification projects in San Jose CA and Galway Ireland. Increased EV share of European leased fleet from 11% (FY19) to 66% (FY25). 45 facilities certified to LEED/WELL (21% of portfolio).

• Upstream logistics (Scope 3 Cat 4) — 3% of footprint

  Cisco addresses transportation emissions by prioritizing ocean over air freight and engaging logistics suppliers to shift to lower-emission modes of transport.

• Procurement & product manufacturing (Scope 3 Cat 1+2) — 36% of footprint

  About one-fourth of emissions come from purchased goods, services, and capital goods including manufacturing/warehousing. In FY25 Cisco met its goal that 80% of component, manufacturing, and logistics suppliers by spend have a public absolute GHG reduction target (achieved 88%). Hosted net-zero roundtable with Thai suppliers. Partnered with two consumer brands to help Asian suppliers access clean electricity at affordable rates — 4 supplier sites committed to ~28M kWh of clean energy in 2025, avoiding ~16,717 tCO2e.

• Use of sold products (Scope 3 Cat 11) — 59% of footprint

  The largest portion of Cisco's emissions (59%) comes from energy consumed by products during customer use. Decarbonisation approach: invest in product energy efficiency (cooling systems, optics, power sources); design more efficient silicon (Cisco Silicon One, N9300 Series Smart Switches with two processing engines for lower energy consumption); pursue ENERGY STAR certifications; and understand customers' renewable electricity strategies. Cisco's Energy Management capability gives customers visibility into energy use across Meraki Dashboard, Catalyst Center, Nexus Dashboard, and Splunk.