Driving social impact at work: A rewarding collaboration with WWF-Australia

Ever wonder how you can champion a cause you believe in at work? I sat down with a leader in the Asia, Pacific, Japan, and China (APJC) region to learn about how she harnessed her roles within Cisco—both in the Cisco Customer Experience team and as a core team volunteer with the Cisco Green Team Network Inclusive Community, one of Cisco’s employee resource groups (ERGs), dedicated to connecting Cisco employees for social and environmental actions. Join us as we explore her journey, the meaningful collaboration with World Wide Fund For Nature Australia (WWF-Australia) since 2022, and the special initiative at Cisco Live APJC 2023!

Could you start by introducing yourself?

My name is Vivien Chia and I’m currently the Digital Marketing Manager within the Digital Customer Experience (DCX) team, responsible for the social media management of Cisco Community—Cisco’s peer-to-peer online community portal and Cisco’s 2nd most visited digital property.

On top of this day job, I’m also the APJC Lead of the Global Green Team Inclusive Community and part of the core team of Australia and New Zealand Sustainable Environment Network (ANZ Green Team).

Hence, I see the great opportunity to try to incorporate sustainability into the Green Team’s initiatives and further engage our members to drive more social and community impacts collectively.

Could you tell me a little bit about the ANZ Green Team?

The ANZ chapter of the Cisco Green Team is made up of employees from across Cisco’s business units who create, inspire and drive sustainability action across Australia and New Zealand. We are focused on:

• Building more sustainable partnerships: Engaging and developing strategic collaboration with common purpose and opportunities.
• Giving back and volunteering: Inspiring action, building resiliency and empowering us all to overcome climate disruptions and preserve resources within communities.
• Educating and building awareness: Activating through engaging communications, giving back opportunities and events.

Tell us a bit about the collaboration between ANZ Green Team and WWF-Australia.

Our workplace giving journey with WWF started in August 2022 after Jay Green and I connecting with Henry Clough, Workplace Giving and Corporate Engagement Manager at WWF-Australia.

We were drawn to WWF’s global mission to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. WWF-Australia is now the nation’s largest conservation organisation with projects and partnerships in every state and territory across the country since its establishment in 1978. They work collaboratively with communities, governments, Traditional Owners, non-government organisations (NGOs), scientists, industry, and innovators. So we want to support them to help drive positive change through resilient ecosystems.

The ANZ Green Team nominated WWF-Australia for the Cisco Matching Gifts program, and have established an ongoing collaboration to spotlight their important work in protecting wildlife and regenerating nature, including Earth Hour 2023 and 2024 (check out the Earth Hour 2024 | Postcards from around the world!).

In July 2023, we also successfully nominated them for a Cisco Foundation Regional Solution Grant (AUD$150,000) to help fund their Australian Native Vegetation Mapping System project; this is an important project because Australia is the only developed nation on the list of 24 global deforestation fronts.

And then, it was a major milestone for us to have them onsite at Cisco Live APJC in 2023 as the official Charity Partner of the event. WWF-Australia and Green Team engaged with the visitors at the Sustainability Zone (led by Sarah Simpson), where we helped adopt 100 koalas (AUD$18,000 donation value)!

All teams were thrilled with the success and look forward to more collaborations with WWF-Australia and other NGOs to help make a difference.

How did you further extend the giveback and community impact initiative at last year’s Cisco Live APJC?

The ANZ Green Team partnered with Cisco Community to activate our annual giveback initiative and bring it to life onsite. Instead of producing hundreds of event giveaways, we wanted something unique and more sustainable, so the budget was diverted to support a great cause through the ‘Community Helping Community’ campaign at the event. This was to raise awareness of climate change and promote collective effort to help improve the world together.

The team also directed foot traffic to the WWF-Australia booth to adopt their own koala. The symbolic action to ‘adopt’ these iconic yet threatened Australian species will help save them from extinction. You can learn more here: Adopt a koala.

What are some other ways Cisco employees are getting involved?

It’s important for employees to rethink their carbon footprint, whether it’s through work, at home, or when organizing an event (big or small).

Also don’t forget to leverage, find the opportunity, and get creative to drive bigger impact by collaborating with other teams. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who have supported me through this journey.

There is so much information out there both internally and externally about sustainability. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start, but that’s okay because the Green Team Network can help you start or continue your sustainability journey. Whether that is looking to get involved in fundraising or attending internal education sessions we encourage employees to be curious, and their knowledge about sustainability will develop from there.

For Cisco employees, the Global Green Team Network Inclusive Community encourages everyone to join a local team and start getting involved. We would love to incorporate new ideas, suggestions, and activities to drive our environmental impact and efforts. If you’re a Cisco employee, please join us!

Lastly, you can also stay updated on Cisco’s sustainability goals and programs for customers and partners and don’t forget to stop by the Cisco Community kiosk and Sustainability Zones when you attend Cisco Live events like the one in Melbourne, Australia from November 11-14!

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