Circular Design Approach
We adopt a circular design strategy that focuses on creating products, packaging, and systems that promote reuse, reduce environmental impact, foster innovation, and deliver value to stakeholders. Our design process incorporates 25 Circular Design Principles, structured into five key focus areas to guide our development efforts.
To monitor progress toward our circularity objectives, we established an evaluation framework and an online tool. Each new product and packaging design must be assessed using this tool and must achieve a minimum score of 75% before entering production. Achieving this threshold indicates strong alignment with our Circular Design Principles and contributes to our overarching circularity targets. We have implemented formal procedures and performance dashboards to ensure compliance with this requirement, resulting in all designs introduced in fiscal year 2024 undergoing this evaluation.
Cisco products reflect our commitment to quality and innovation. In FY2024, we revised our industrial design standards to integrate both brand identity and Circular Design Principles. These updates include avoiding non-functional and purely decorative plastic components and improving packaging efficiency. In FY2025, we plan to revisit and refine our Circular Design Principles, evaluation methods, and supporting tools based on insights from stakeholders, lessons learned, and evolving external expectations.
Pinnacle Awards Recognition
A collaborative team from our Supply Chain and Engineering divisions earned the 2024 Cisco Pinnacle Award for Sustainability Impact. This top-tier internal award honors the team's role in reshaping our strategic approach and accelerating progress toward Cisco’s and our customers’ environmental sustainability goals.
Evaluating Environmental Impact
We employ life cycle assessments (LCAs) to evaluate the environmental footprint of our products throughout their entire life span—from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal. LCAs help us pinpoint key areas for continuous product and process improvement, and highlight ways to reduce resource consumption across the supply chain.
To meet growing demand for LCAs across our product lines, we introduced a scalable assessment model in FY2024. This model adheres to ISO 14040/44 standards and aims to enhance accuracy while reducing the effort required to conduct assessments. It supports a broad range of Cisco hardware products and addresses both internal and external stakeholder interests. We began applying the model to representative products from various families in our portfolio and published our first LCA report using this new methodology during FY2024.
We adopt a circular design strategy that focuses on creating products, packaging, and systems that promote reuse, reduce environmental impact, foster innovation, and deliver value to stakeholders. Our design process incorporates 25 Circular Design Principles, structured into five key focus areas to guide our development efforts.
To monitor progress toward our circularity objectives, we established an evaluation framework and an online tool. Each new product and packaging design must be assessed using this tool and must achieve a minimum score of 75% before entering production. Achieving this threshold indicates strong alignment with our Circular Design Principles and contributes to our overarching circularity targets. We have implemented formal procedures and performance dashboards to ensure compliance with this requirement, resulting in all designs introduced in fiscal year 2024 undergoing this evaluation.
Cisco products reflect our commitment to quality and innovation. In FY2024, we revised our industrial design standards to integrate both brand identity and Circular Design Principles. These updates include avoiding non-functional and purely decorative plastic components and improving packaging efficiency. In FY2025, we plan to revisit and refine our Circular Design Principles, evaluation methods, and supporting tools based on insights from stakeholders, lessons learned, and evolving external expectations.
Pinnacle Awards Recognition
A collaborative team from our Supply Chain and Engineering divisions earned the 2024 Cisco Pinnacle Award for Sustainability Impact. This top-tier internal award honors the team's role in reshaping our strategic approach and accelerating progress toward Cisco’s and our customers’ environmental sustainability goals.
Evaluating Environmental Impact
We employ life cycle assessments (LCAs) to evaluate the environmental footprint of our products throughout their entire life span—from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal. LCAs help us pinpoint key areas for continuous product and process improvement, and highlight ways to reduce resource consumption across the supply chain.
To meet growing demand for LCAs across our product lines, we introduced a scalable assessment model in FY2024. This model adheres to ISO 14040/44 standards and aims to enhance accuracy while reducing the effort required to conduct assessments. It supports a broad range of Cisco hardware products and addresses both internal and external stakeholder interests. We began applying the model to representative products from various families in our portfolio and published our first LCA report using this new methodology during FY2024.