Cisco and its Partners Co-creating Innovative Sustainability Solutions

When partners and Cisco work together, great things happen! Last fall, the Americas Partner Organization (APO) and Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) launched the inaugural Digital Sustainability Challenge, asking Cisco partners across the United States to submit their most innovative ideas focused on helping customers tackle climate concerns and achieve sustainability goals.

Digital Sustainability Challenge Winners

Business cases submitted by partner teams focused on three goals:

1. Show a Measurable Impact. Propose solutions that measurably cut greenhouse gas emissions, minimize waste, and/or reduce energy consumption.
2. Accelerate Innovation. Share unique technology strategies and/or enable faster acceptance around customer adoption.
3. Demonstrate Collaboration. Tap into the power of collaboration to drive scalable sustainability-focused digital transformation and leverage the collective impact of Cisco together with our partners’ unique expertise and perspectives.

Today we are happy announce the top three winners of the challenge and Cisco’s commitment to developing these ideas and bringing them to market via CDA investments.

3^rd Place – Distributed vehicle-to-grid energy transfer

The third-place award goes to the Davra and KLA Laboratories team for their distributed vehicle-to-grid energy transfer solution leveraging Cisco IoT and Webex to support the electrical revolution in transportation.

Electric vehicles can act as energy storage devices, optimized by connection to an IoT enabled bidirectional charging network, thus reducing strain on the electricity grid and improving efficiency in electricity distribution.

2^nd Place – Advanced leak detection in water reservoirs

The second-place award goes to Rockwell Automation for their advanced leak detection solution utilizing Cisco IoT connectivity and sensors for smart water reservoir management, energy consumption prediction, and pressure management in water distribution.

Two trillion gallons or 15% of all water treated in the U.S. is lost to leakage every year. If even 1/3 of that loss is eliminated with this solution, it could help drought-stricken regions mitigate the impacts of climate change.

1^st Place – Energy efficiency in smart buildings

And finally, we are pleased to share that the first-place award goes to Schneider Electric for their intelligent building management solution incorporating Cisco DNA Spaces to drive clear sustainability performance indicators focused on energy efficiency in smart buildings. To achieve global net-zero goals by 2030, we must reduce 3x times the emissions than we do today. About 40% of the world’s CO2 emission comes from buildings and more than 30% of the energy is wasted in buildings.

Over the next few months, CDA and Cisco stakeholders will be working with Schneider Electric, Rockwell Automation, and Davra + KLA Laboratories to bring our joint vision to life.

Honorable mentions for sustainability solutions

Beyond the top-three winners, we would like to thank and highlight two teams with an honorable mention, both received high praise from our judging panel and we look forward to the continued growth of our partnership: Paige Wireless’ mobile connectivity for rural sustainability solution and 99 Bridges’ single-use plastic bag sustainability operation system.

Looking Ahead to Cisco’s Global Digital Sustainability Challenge

The challenge doesn’t end just yet. We are excited to share that the Global Digital Sustainability Challenge is open until April 30th, with more than $1.5M in prize money available across the Americas (Canada and LATAM), EMEAR and APJC.

We look forward to seeing the innovative submissions from our partner community around the world!

An Inclusive Future for All

At Cisco we are on a mission to power an inclusive future for all. Our commitment to environmental sustainability is part of our company’s purpose and we’re fostering innovation in that area, for ourselves and our customers. This also means inspiring, engaging and co-innovating with our ecosystem of partners to bring about tangible and measurable change.

Tackling the climate crisis requires collaboration. If we are going to ‘move the needle’ in powering resilient economies and sustainable communities, the only way we are going to do so is together. We look forward to more co-innovation as we deliver on Cisco’s mission and our own sustainability targets.

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