Six environmental sustainability trends for 2025 and beyond

As we approach 2025, following what is likely to be the hottest year on record, the urgency to address our planet’s interconnected challenges has never been greater. Climate change and resource scarcity require businesses, governments, and communities to act with intention and scale.

At Cisco, we are steadfast in our goals to both reduce environmental impact and foster resilience—ensuring that communities, ecosystems, and industries can adapt, thrive, and sustain themselves in the face of uncertainty. Below are six sustainability trends expected to emerge in 2025:

1. Digitizing the grid

Artificial intelligence (AI) has potential to drive positive change in society, but it will require a rethink of networks and cleaner, more resilient and reliable energy sources. If we anticipate these challenges now, we can build the right infrastructure to support this future. That’s how we can balance the demands of a rapidly digitizing, AI-integrated society with having a livable planet.

Digitizing the grid is essential to meet the growing energy demand and enhance energy security. The U.S. Department of Energy, for example, estimates that much of the country’s electric grid was built in the 1960s and 1970s, and 70 percent of transmission lines are more than 25 years old. The integration of AI could transform how energy is managed and distributed, creating more efficient and reliable systems.

At Cisco we believe we must design and future-proof energy grids, buildings, networks, data centers and technology for whatever energy requirements are around the corner – whether that’s AI or something else. We continue to leverage our expertise in secure networks to drive this transformation, supporting grid modernization that is both innovative and resilient. Gains in efficiency can also support greater affordability and reliability across the energy sector.

2. Transitioning to a circular economy

The transition from linear to circular business models is reshaping how industries operate, creating opportunities to reduce waste and maximize resources. But there is still more to be done. The United Nations (UN) Global E-waste Monitor 2024 reports that “a record 62 million tonnes of e-waste was produced in 2022 — Up 82% from 2010; on track to raise another 32%, to 82 million tonnes, in 2030.”

Cisco is at the forefront of the shift to a circular economy, embedding circularity into our product design and lifecycle strategies. Our approach focuses on designing for sustainability—creating durable, modular products that can be easily repaired, upgraded, and recycled.

We’re already doing this through:

• Setting a goal to incorporate Circular Design Principles into 100 percent of new products and packaging by our fiscal year (FY) 2025. As of our FY24, we are at 96 percent.
• Offering initiatives like the Cisco Takeback and Reuse Program and Cisco Refresh, which extend the lifecycle of our devices, enabling remanufacturing, reuse, and recycling to reduce electronic waste and conserve resources.
• Reusing or recycling nearly 100 percent of the products that are returned to us.

These initiatives not only support our circularity goals but also empower customers to adopt more sustainable practices, helping to keep valuable materials in use for as long as possible.

3. Investing in innovation

Innovation is essential to addressing the challenges of a changing planet. Globally, annual clean energy technology investments are expected to exceed $900 billion by 2030.

At Cisco, we are partnering with early-stage startups that are driving transformative solutions in clean energy, circularity, and climate resilience. Two exemplary companies from our Cisco Investments portfolio, CorPower Ocean and DEScycle, are leading the way in these areas.

Our goal is to accelerate innovation by investing in companies that align with our environmental sustainability strategy. These investments don’t just provide capital—they serve as a signal to the broader market on what we value and where we believe the future is headed.

In 2021, the Cisco Foundation demonstrated this by committing $100 million over ten years to support climate innovation in both nonprofits and for-profit start-ups.

4. Scaling impact through public-private partnerships

No single entity can tackle environmental challenges like climate change alone. The path to a more sustainable future requires partnerships across sectors. According to a 2023 report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, 87 percent of public-private-philanthropic partnerships focused on emerging economies, which can be less able than advanced economies to deliver solutions independently. In 2025, we anticipate a heightened emphasis on public-private collaboration, as governments and businesses align to localize efforts and scale impact.

From national incentives for clean energy adoption to local initiatives that promote water conservation, partnerships are critical to bringing together the policies, funding, and innovation needed to achieve meaningful progress.

5. Keeping a pulse on two trending sustainability topics, nuclear energy and water insecurity

As global energy demands continue to grow, nuclear energy is reentering the conversation as a potential solution for reliable clean energy, because it does not produce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), world nuclear capacity is now projected to increase by 2.5 times the current capacity by 2050.  Nuclear energy is increasingly seen as part of a diverse energy mix needed to maintain ambitious climate goals, contribute to energy security, and satisfy rising energy demand.

Water insecurity is becoming one of the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time. According to WWF, some 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water, and 2.7 billion people experience water scarcity for at least one month of the year. Water use is at the center of the conversation about generative AI, as water is a key resource required by the data centers that provide AI processing power. In 2025, we expect to see greater innovation in water management and greater attention to equitable access to this vital resource.

6. Building community resilience

Resilience is about more than weathering challenges—it’s about a systemic ability to adapt, recover, and flourish amid change.

Today, technology is tightly integrated with resilience, providing the access and capabilities needed to be connected and participate in society. 2.6 billion people around the world are still without Internet access and even among those that are connected, there are disparities in quality and affordability.

In 2025, resilience is expected to be the watchword of a movement in which local communities are at the center of solutions to bolster critical infrastructure.

At Cisco, we support resilient communities through technology and innovation. Our solutions—ranging from secure digital networks to grid modernization—are designed to help communities and businesses respond to extreme weather and climate risks, enable reliable access to resources, and build a foundation for long-term prosperity. Resilience is important for broader sustainability efforts, as stronger communities are better equipped to implement and scale more sustainable practices.

Looking ahead

At Cisco, environmental sustainability is about more than reducing climate impact. We believe in building resilience to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

In 2025, we have an opportunity to lead with intention, scaling solutions that address climate risks while empowering communities to adapt and flourish. Read more about what Cisco has accomplished around sustainability, and where we hope to make progress, in our FY24 Purpose Report.

Share: