Cisco Refresh: Where purpose meets partner profitability, beyond Earth Day

At Cisco, sustainability is not just a once-a-year commitment – it’s a part of how we help partners in their efforts to make more sustainable, cost-effective decisions every day. Cisco Refresh, one of Cisco’s longest-standing initiatives, is one example of an offering that provides both business and sustainability benefits to customers.

Today, Cisco Refresh continues to be an important part of Cisco’s efforts to evolve to a circular business model. Now in its third decade, Cisco Refresh sells certified, remanufactured Cisco products at lower prices than new ones, but with all the same warranty and service options as them. This extends the useful life cycle of our products and reduces the need for virgin materials – enabling customers to better execute on their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and sustainability goals.

For example:

• Customers who choose Cisco Refresh switches or IP phones can realize at least a 60% reduction in embodied carbon emissions compared to purchasing equivalent new products.

Transitioning to a Circular Business Model

Cisco strives to accelerate the transition from a traditional linear economy that extracts resources and eventually wastes them, to a circular one that finds new uses for products and their inputs to minimize waste and optimize resource use.

Cisco Refresh is central to this transformation, complementing our portfolio designed with circularity in mind, including flexible payment and subscription models, to maximize product life cycle value.

We focus our efforts in three core areas:

• Circular Design: Embedding sustainability into how we design our products and packaging from the outset.
• Circular Offerings: Enabling customers and partners to embrace circularity through programs like Cisco Refresh and Cisco Green Pay.
• Recover and Redeploy: Recapturing used hardware to extend product life through reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling.

 Driving Business Sustainability: The Cisco Circularity Promotion

We want to enable our customers and partners to benefit from Cisco Refresh. The Cisco Circularity Promotion offers Cisco partners and distributors competitive pricing on certified remanufactured products, including current and end-of-sale items, enhancing cost savings while promoting circular practices.

Since its January 2024 launch, the promotion has:

• Expanded from 576 to over 1,300 remanufactured (-RF) products.
• Simplified and standardized pricing and discounts:
  • 55% discount on Next-Gen Firewall & Network Security
  • 60% discount on Enterprise Switching & Wireless
  • 65% discount on Optics
  • 70% discount on Hyper Converged
  • 75% discount on Edge Routing and Servers
• Expanded from the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Middle East, to the Asia Pacific region, providing worldwide coverage.
• Acquired 474 new partners, indicating strong utilization.
• Increased usage across all customer segments (SMB, Commercial, Public Sector, Service Provider, and Enterprise).

Streamlining Business Operations

We prioritize simplicity alongside sustainability. Enhanced visibility and access to Cisco Refresh inventory include:

• CCW BOT Integration: Partners can now check lead times and stock availability for certified remanufactured equipment (noted with an “-RF” suffix) via the CCW BOT (ccwbot@webex.bot). This helps partners stay informed about any updates to lead times, as often “-RF” products ship faster than new Cisco products, a key insight for planning and managing orders effectively. Partners (1-Tier and 2-Tier) and Distributors can all access the CCW BOT.
• Cisco Refresh Inventory Visibility API: This enhanced API provides real-time access to in-stock remanufactured products that are ready to be ordered now. Partners leveraging this capability can maximize their Cisco Refresh blend, which can positively impact their margins. Please view the API implementation guidelines here.

This Earth Day and every day, Cisco is proud to empower our partners and customers with the tools to help save money, reduce waste, conserve resources, and operate more sustainably.

If you’re interested in learning more firsthand, Cisco Refresh will be featured in the Purpose Pavilion at the upcoming Cisco Live in San Diego, CA (June 9-12, 2025), so come by and speak to representatives for our team!

To learn more about our circular economy transformation, visit our Purpose Reporting Hub.

For general questions about Cisco Refresh, please email our team at refreshquestions@cisco.com.

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