Sustainability Progress Requires Specialized Partners

Think sustainability is not going to be a top-5 conversation at your next corporate meeting? Think again.

Sustainability considerations are increasingly showing up in goals, inquiries, and demands from stakeholders at large.

To cite some examples:

• Many companies worldwide already have added Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) to their requests for proposals (RFPs) for IT vendors;
• Moreover, globally, organizations are also setting goals to reach net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissionsacross their value chain or reduce them significantly going forward. According to Gartner®[1], 50% of CIOs will have performance metrics tied to the sustainability of their IT organizations by 2025;
• Furthermore, governments around the world have ambitious goals and commitments around sustainability, and the sustainability regulatory landscape continues to rapidly evolve.

Whether you are just at the beginning of your corporate sustainability planning or in the middle, it’s important to recognize how to invest and that you can’t do it alone—you need trusted advisors to help you plan, implement, and measure your progress. That requires finding the right partner.

“Cisco’s partner ecosystem is imperative to achieve the speed and scale we need to manage our own net zero journey as well as support our customer’s sustainability goals. Both Cisco and our partners bring technology and services to the table to provide comprehensive solutions for our customers. We are better together when we are aligned on the importance and priority of driving sustainability across functions so we can accelerate and scale our efforts.”
– Denise Lee, VP, Engineering Sustainability Office, Cisco

Is Your Partner Sustainability Specialized?

Cisco and its partner ecosystem have been working together to support our mutual customers’ progress towards their ESG commitments internally as well as sustainability in their offerings for their own customers. Cisco is helping our registered partners get specialized, so they can respond to customer RFPs and expand their services offerings. To date, 471 partners have completed Cisco’s Environmental Sustainability Specialization which covers product takeback and reuse/recycle programs, and rewards partners for selling new products for customer refresh or migration opportunities. By becoming specialized, these trusted advisors can help customers upgrade and modernize their networks and help to meet their circular economy goals at the same time.

Cisco and Global Strategic Partners Supporting Sustainability and Solutions

In addition, Cisco is working closely with our partners to help customers invest in solutions designed with sustainability in mind. Here are a few examples of how Cisco and our Global Strategic partners are driving sustainability in business practices in the field:

• NTT and Cisco are developing and deploying joint solutions that leverage NTT’s Edge as-a-Service portfolio and Cisco’s Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities, targeting the manufacturing, transportation, and healthcare industries. Several customers – including one in water distribution – are already deploying this “ruggedized” service to accelerate their digital transformation and align with their sustainability goals.
• Cisco and Rockwell Automation joined forces to build a water distribution pressure management solution to improve industrial water and wastewater systems operations. This Digital Water Solutions cloud-based platform, launched in November 2022, notifies water utilities of anomalies that could be caused by leaks—helping to reduce water loss and save energy. “The level of collaboration between Rockwell and Cisco through the Cisco Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program is an inspiring example of how we combine technology, services, and partnership to strengthen our sustainability commitment to our customers and the environment,” said Tom O’Reilly, Vice President of Sustainability at Rockwell Automation. “We can deliver an enhanced and differentiated portfolio of sustainable solutions to the market by working together.”
• While buildings support so many essential facets of our life—from work, school, and healthcare to hospitality and entertainment—they are also responsible for ~40% of global CO2 emissions . Schneider Electric is integrating Cisco Spaces into their EcoStruxure Buildings Operation to offer customers a single pane of glass that can provide actionable insights needed to better manage and optimize buildings, meet cybersecurity needs, and improve engineering efficiency. The intelligent building management software solution can ingest Cisco Spaces occupancy data, optimize it, and provide customized, automated recommendations that drive EcoStruxure Building Operations Energy Management features.
• Even with sustainability projects underway, organizations often have difficulty measuring and reporting progress. Together, Cisco and Honeywell are driving the future of smart building technology—in new construction and retrofits, and traditional and hybrid work environments. The partnership is focused on making buildings more efficient, more sustainable, safer, and healthier at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Cisco’s network and collaboration technologies combined with Honeywell’s sensor technology and building management systems and services create a converged network infrastructure to automate building operations and reduce construction complexity. Honeywell Building Management System (BMS) uses data from connected devices to monitor, control and take proactive measures in connection with mechanical systems, air quality, security, and more. Click here for more information.
• Data centers are also a key focus of IT’s sustainability drive. However, visibility is required before energy reduction can be achieved. Cisco and Hitachi Vantara are focused on Data Center Decarbonization using a combination of Hitachi’s Carbon Insights Platform and Ops Center Clear Sight, which can provide information about the energy consumption across the fleet of storage products, and Cisco’sUnified Platform Experience which can turn the network into an Energy Management control plane. This can help organizations optimize energy consumption, lower costs, reduce their carbon footprint, and monitor energy use. Read this February 2023 blog on “De-Carbing the Data Center” by Denise Lee and Hitachi Ventara.
• Logicalis is proud to be a part of Cisco’s global initiative to responsibly repurpose or recycle end-of-use products, currently holds Cisco’s sustainability specialization in 8 countries around the world and continues building on its achievements. They recently began working with an industrial company that produces glass and aluminum products. The customer wanted to partner with an integrator that could meet their IT requirements while also supporting their ESG goals. They were looking to modernize their aging switching infrastructure and reduce operational overhead by automating their network and increasing visibility. Logicalis was able to utilize Cisco´s takeback and reuse program, supporting appropriate processing of their existing infrastructure to its next best use, and passed along the 7% cost savings by funding future professional services for the customer.

“Through our collaborative partnership with Cisco, we can offer our customers the best solutions that work to drive measurable progress towards their sustainability goals. Fostering sustainability as a core value within a company also promotes growth and new business opportunities. With the help of our joint offerings alongside Cisco, we can help all organisations embark upon their carbon reduction journey and achieve significant and sustainable business outcomes.”
– Bob Bailkoski, CEO at Logicalis

As you can see, there are many ways that Cisco and its global strategic partners can add value in designing and implementing solutions with sustainability in mind.

For more information on how to plan your sustainability blueprint for 2023, listen to the replay of our April 25 LinkedIn Live webinar with Logicalis CEO Bob Bailkoski and Denise Lee, VP of Cisco’s Engineering Sustainability Office. You’ll hear our lively discussion about sustainability in business practices and programs to support your corporate environmental goals. You’ll also be able to access some helpful materials including our Cisco Sustainable Solutions eBook and registration for Logicalis’ CIO Summit in June.

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[1] Gartner: Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2023: Sustainable Technology, Key Reports. 10 Mar. 2023

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

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