Cisco
- Cisco CSR Site
- Online ESG Reporting Hub (ESG Hub) containing detailed information and data related to Cisco's social and corporate governance ESG pillars, performance, policies and initiatives
CEF Lead Executives
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MARY DE WYSOCKI
SVP, Chief Sustainability Officer
As Cisco’s first CSO, Mary leads the company’s sustainability strategy; oversees its progress toward public environmental goals; and helps Cisco drive long-term value for the business, its value chain, and the planet. Mary has nearly twenty years of experience leading various CSR, education, and sustainability initiatives at Cisco. She draws on her diverse background in legal training, strategic consulting, and on-the-ground program management to help Cisco invest in impact-driven programs that enable social change and reimagine how technology and sustainability interact with the corporate world. Mary currently leads Cisco’s commitment to positively impact 1 billion lives by 2025 through its social impact grants and signature programs for non-profit organizations all over the world. To date, 848 million people have been positively impacted between 2016 and 2022. In 2016, Mary helped launch the Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge, which awards cash prizes to early-stage tech entrepreneurs solving the world’s toughest problems. Mary is a Trustee of the Cisco Foundation and Harambeans, a member of the World Economic Forum, and a Board Member and Vice Chair of MIND Research.
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BRIAN TIPPENS
SVP and Chief Social Impact Officer
Brian oversees leadership of Cisco’s inclusive future work including social justice, advocacy, accessibility, and community impact to advance Cisco’s purpose to Power an Inclusive Future for All. Brian’s career spans over 25 years of leadership in the IT industry. Brian served as CSO at HPE and President of the HPE Foundation. He previously spent five years as HP/HPE’s Chief Diversity Officer, reporting to the Chief People Officer. He was a member of HPE’s Political Action Committee and AI Ethics boards, and a member of HPE’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Executive Council. Prior to joining HP in 2000 he spent three years at Intel Corporation providing legal support for the manufacturing and IT organizations. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems Management from the University of San Francisco, and a Juris Doctor from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California. Brian and his wife live in Houston, Texas and are parents of three adult children.
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COUMARA RADJAList Item 2
VP, Engineering and Sustainability
Coumara Radja is responsible for the co-development of solutions in the areas of social benefit and environmental sustainability relating to key Corporate Affairs’ initiatives and programs such as Networking Academy, and Cisco’s NGO and education partners. Coumara has over 35 years of experience in bootstrapping and building software products, platforms and solutions across multiple industries. He has held executive, management and leadership positions at startups, Saleforce.org, Cisco, Intel, and Bell Laboratories. Most recently, he was VP of Development at Salesforce.org where he and his team built Philanthropy Cloud, a global philanthropic marketplace that connects individuals, corporations, nonprofits and community organizations together, and launched in partnership with United Way.
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AMANDA CUMBERLAND
Senior Director, Research and Governance
Amanda’s background includes over 20 years of experience in: Corporate and Academic research and analysis, including research design, methodology, statistical analysis, data analytics, model creation, program and impact evaluation, customer feedback, measurement, longitudinal research, metrics, experimental research, qualitative research, and research publications.
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KELSI DORAN
Director, Sustainability Strategy & Business Architecture
Kelsi and her team are responsible for spearheading Cisco’s next generation environmental strategy and works across the Cisco ecosystem to accelerate execution. This includes action against its Net Zero goal and architecting
a transformation strategy for embedding sustainability into the business. Over her tenure at Cisco, she has held strategy roles across partner, product marketing, and engineering. Most recently, Kelsi built the strategy and product management foundation for the Engineering Sustainability Office, the team responsible for leading Cisco’s product sustainability vision and roadmap. Kelsi is passionate about achieving as a team and believes collective action is key to realizing a regenerative future. She has a track record for delivering strategic, high-impact programs across organizations and several years’ experience in consulting, product marketing, and go-to-market strategy. Kelsi is a graduate of the Carlson School of Business, University of Minnesota and lives in Dana Point, CA with her husband Carl, their cat Zoey, and their dog Archie.
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CATHERINE PAQUETTE
CEFNext
Sustainability Manager
As a manager on the Global Energy Management and Sustainability team, Catherine works with teams across the business to engage internal and external stakeholders on Cisco’s sustainability program through communications and employee engagement. Catherine also manages environmental reporting for Cisco’s 20 million square feet of real estate and is developing a global water stewardship program for Cisco’s internal operations. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Humanities and Arts in Architecture and Environmental Studies. Catherine currently resides in Durham, North Carolina.
Latest Sustainability Report
(Dec 2024)
Highlights
- In FY24, reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 73% (FY19 baseline).
- 96% of electricity for facilities came from renewable sources in FY24, up from 91% the previous year.
- In FY24, implemented 27 energy efficiency projects that avoid approximately 1.3 GWh of energy consumption and 850 metric tons of CO2 equivalent each year.
- 90% of Cisco component, manufacturing, and logistics suppliers (by spend) have a public, absolute GHG emissions-reduction target, surpassing the FY25 goal of 80%.
- Diverted 75% of the waste generated at its facilities from landfills in FY24.
- 96% of new products and packaging incorporate Circular Design Principles.
- In FY24, 41% of the plastic used in products (by weight) was made of recycled content.
- 86% of employees participated in community impact activities in FY24, the highest level to date.
- Has invested in 1,600 Country Digital Acceleration projects in 50 countries since 2015.
Recent News
2025
CORPORATE KNIGHTS — Published its 2025 Global 100 List, ranking the world’s most sustainable companies (with revenues of over $1 billion) along 25 indicators. For the companies in the Top 100 in 2025, 53% of their total revenue was sustainable as was 58% of their total investments. This compares to 15% of total revenue and 15% for total investments for the 8,259 other publicly traded companies with revenues of over $1 billion. The top ranked company was CEF Member Schneider Electric, moving up from #7 in 2024. Other CEF Members in the Top 100 included Trane Technologies (#26), Cisco (#54), SAP (#58), Prologis (#63), Apple (#69), Unilever (#71), and HP Inc. (#79). (Jan 2025)
2024
NEWSWEEK / STATISTA — Published its America’s Most Responsible Companies 2025 list, ranking 600 U.S. companies (out of the 2,000 largest publicly traded companies) on ESG performance. The analysis is based on 30 key performance indicators along with consumer reputation. Merck scored #1, with 97.83 points (out of 100). CEF members in the top 50 include: General Mills (#2), Applied Materials (#4), HP (#6), Mastercard (#7), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (#9), Ecolab (#12), Analog Devices (#13), Qualcomm (#29), Cisco Systems (#31), Visa (#33), CBRE (#35), Apple (#42), and General Motors (#50). (Dec 2024)
CORPORATE KNIGHTS — Released its 20th annual Global 100 List, ranking the world’s most sustainable companies along 25 indicators, out of 6,000 public companies with revenues of over $1 billion. In 2024, top-ranked firms allocated 55% of their investments to sustainable projects, up from 47% last year, and compared to just 17% of investments of publicly traded companies with more than $1 billion in revenue. The top ranked company was Sims Ltd, an Australian waste management company that moved up from #14 in 2023. CEF Members in the Global 100 include: Schneider Electric (#7), Trane Technologies (#23), Cisco (#64), HP Inc. (#67), Apple (#71), Unilever (#76), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (#81), and Prologis (#87). (Jan 2024)
2023
United announced eight new participants in its Eco-Skies Alliance program to support SAF use on United’s Flights, including CEF members Bank of America and Cisco, bringing the total number in the program to 24. (May 2023)
CORPORATE KNIGHTS — Released its 2023 Global 100 List, ranking the world’s most sustainable companies along 25 indicators, out of 6,000 public companies with revenues of over $1 billion. The top list has outperformed the MSCI All Country World Index on an annual basis for seven of the past 11 years. The top spot went to Schnitzer Steel Industries, a steel recycler that increased energy productivity by 74%, water productivity by 69%, and carbon productivity by 55% in 2021. CEF Members in the Global 100 include: Schneider Electric (#7), Alphabet (#26), Ecolab (#30), Unilever (#38), HP (#39), Cisco (#48), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (#67), and Apple (#73). (Jan 2023)
2022
NEWSWEEK / STATISTA — Released its “America’s Most Responsible Companies 2023” list, which ranks 500 of the U.S. largest public companies based on their ESG performance. The top 50 include CEF members: HP (#1), Qualcomm (#13), Microsoft (#17), Cisco (#19), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (#34), Walt Disney (#39), Mastercard (#40), and Ecolab (#46). (Dec 2022)
Asia Clean Energy Coalition (ACEC) — ACEC aims to drive corporate clean energy procurement in Asia, accelerating its overall demand and supply. ACEC will strategically improve the policy and regulatory environments for clean energy, in both national and regional Asian markets. The coalition seeks to align the world’s leading clean energy buyers, project developers and financiers, to help policymakers, utilities and energy regulators innovate and deploy cost effective clean technologies across the Asia-Pacific region. Founding members include CEF members Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Meta, and Samsung. (Nov 2022)
BT / CISCO — Announced a partnership in which BT customers can ship replaced or decommissioned electronic equipment to Cisco to be responsibly reused or recycled through BT’s takeback and reuse program. This program, which adds to BT’s existing take-back program for smartphones, will start in six countries and expand to further countries at the end of 2022. (Oct 2022)
The U.S. Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Upskilling Initiative, a public-private endeavor to support training and education in digital skills for women and girls in 8 countries, including Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Fourteen U.S. companies, including CEF members Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Google, HP, Mastercard, Microsoft, and Visa, will each provide 500,000 or more digital upskilling opportunities by 2032, such as providing training in data science, cyber-security, AI, and robotics; providing female small business owners with toolkits to help with website planning, social media, and marketing; and supporting digital leadership and entrepreneurship training in rural areas. (Sept 2022)
Announced a new circular IT payment solution for customers called Cisco Green Pay that encourages the circular use of its sustainable technologies. The new payment model offers a 5% incentive on Cisco hardware, predictable payments for five years, free product returns, and a certificate verifying the product’s circular journey. (April 2022)
Global Parity Alliance — The World Economic Forum in collaboration with McKinsey & Co. launched this new global cross-industry group to “promote and accelerate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) outcomes, by sharing proven DE&I best practices and practical insights from leading organizations.” The 23 Founding Members of the group include CEF members Cisco, McKinsey & Co., and Schneider Electric. (April 2022)
theSKIMM — Mission-driven media company theSkimm created a public-facing database featuring voluntarily-shared leave policies of more than 480 companies, in an effort to increase transparency and provide accessible information from a wide range of employers to help empower workers and improve policies. The database builds on theSkimm’s viral #ShowUsYourLeave initiative (launched in 2021) and presents market research as well as specific company benefits and policies. Among the companies that shared their policies are CEF members Bank of America, Boeing, Cisco, General Motors, and Morgan Stanley. (April 2022)
AS YOU SOW / CORPORATE KNIGHTS “CLEAN200” LIST — Shareholder advocacy group As You Sow and Corporate Knights released their annual list of the 200 largest public companies “ranked by green energy revenues.” On average, it found 58% of revenues earned by Clean200 companies to be “clean,” up from 39% in 2021 and significantly above the 20% average for their MSCI ACWI peers. The top 10 includes CEF members Apple (#1), Alphabet (#2), Cisco Systems (#7), HP (#8), Schneider Electric (#9), and Siemens (#10). (Feb 2022)
SPG GLOBAL’S “2022 SUSTAINABILITY YEARBOOK” — Over 700 companies made SPG Global’s 2022 Yearbook, an annual assessment to distinguish the top-performing companies in corporate sustainability. CEF members Cisco Systems, General Motors, Siemens, Unilever, and Waste Management earned the highest “Gold Class” status, achieving an S&P Global ESG Score within 1% of their industry's top-performing company's score. (Feb 2022)
JUST CAPITAL 2022 “JUST 100 LIST” — 100 companies out of 954 public companies scored by JUST Capital, in collaboration with CNBC, made the 2022 “JUST 100” list, which recognizes companies that perform the best against 20 “priorities for just business behavior” (e.g., accountability to all stakeholders, paying a fair, living wage) that are identified based on polling of the American public. The top 10 includes CEF members Alphabet (#1), Microsoft (#3), Bank of America (#5), Apple (#7), and Cisco Systems (#10). (Jan 2022)
2021
NEWSWEEK / STATISTA — Released its “America's Most Responsible Companies 2022” list, which ranks 500 public companies based on their ESG performance (up from 400 companies previously). The top 20 includes CEF members HP (#1), HPE (#7), Cisco (#13), and Ecolab (#18). (Dec 2021)
Committed to achieving
net-zero by 2040 across all scopes of emissions—including product use, operations, and supply chain—with an interim target of net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2025. (Sept 2021)
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Nearly 100 leaders of companies, associations, and organizations—including CEF members
Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Amazon, Alphabet, General Motors, Mastercard, HP Inc., Cisco,
and
TPG Capital—sent a letter urging Congress to pass legislation to create a pathway to citizenship for the “Dreamers”—who would benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The leaders were organized by the
Coalition for the American Dream. (Aug 2021)
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Over 150 companies that belong to the Business for Voting Rights Group, including CEF members
Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Facebook, Google, HP, Microsoft, PepsiCo, and
Unilever,
sent a letter to U.S. lawmakers urging them to reintroduce and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would help prevent voting discrimination and establish an improved system for states to report changes to election law. (July 2021)
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Second Chance Business Coalition — A cross-sector coalition of 29 large US employers committed to expanding second chance hiring and advancement practices for people with criminal records. Co-chaired by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Eaton CEO Craig Arnold, members include Bank of America, Cisco, GM, JPMorgan & Chase, Mastercard, McDonald’s, Microsoft, P&G, PepsiCo, and Visa. (May 2021)
Cisco's Foundation pledged $100 million over the next 10 years to fund nonprofit grants and impact investments supporting climate action. It will focus on technology-based solutions, GHG and carbon reduction, climate resilience, green jobs, and community education and activation. (April 2021)
Hundreds of executives, nonprofits, and companies—including Amazon, Apple, Bank of America, BlackRock, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Facebook, Ford, General Motors, Google, JetBlue, Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard, and McKinsey & Co.—signed a public statement opposing “any discriminatory legislation.” The statement, titled “We Stand for Democracy,” was featured in advertisements in the New York Times and The Washington Post. (April 2021)
Companies across the country—including Apple, BlackRock, Bank of America, Cisco, Facebook, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, and UPS—denounced the state of Georgia’s new law overhauling state election procedures over concerns it will restrict voter access and disproportionately disenfranchise people of color. Dozens of Black executives have called on companies to stand up for racial justice by fighting a wave of similar restrictive voting bills being advanced by Republicans in at least 43 states. (April 2021)
Circular Electronic Partnership (CEP) — A new initiative launched by 6 major organizations—GeSI, GEC, PACE, RBA, WBCSD, and WEF—to develop a circular economy for electronics, the fastest growing waste stream in the world, by 2030. CEP has published a roadmap that identifies 6 opportunity pathways to achieve circularity along the value chain, including (1) designing for circularity, (2) driving demand for circular products and services, (3) scaling responsible business models, (4) increasing official collection rates, (5) aggregating for reuse and recycling, and (6) scaling secondary material markets. Member companies include Cisco, Dell, Google, and Microsoft. (March 2021)
Corporate Knights and As You Sow released the 2021 Carbon Clean200 list, which ranks the world’s publicly listed companies leading the way with solutions for the transition to a clean energy future. The top 10 included the following (February 2021):
- Alphabet (Google)
- Siemens
- TSMC
- SAP
- Iberdrola
- HP
- Cisco
- Schneider Electric
- Tesla
- Unilever
S&P Global released their 2021 Sustainability Yearbook, an annual assessment to distinguish the top-performing companies in corporate sustainability. The Yearbook covers a record 7,032 companies across 40 countries and 61 industries. CEF members Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Unilever, and Waste Management earned the highest “Gold Class” status by achieving an S&P Global ESG Score within 1% of their industry's top-performing company's score. (February 2021)
Corporate Knights released the 2021 Global 100 Index, which ranks the world’s most sustainable companies based on environmental and financial indicators. CEF members honored include Cisco, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP, Trane Technologies, Siemens, and Unilever. (January 2021)
The World Economic Forum
launched Partnering for Racial Justice in Business Initiative, a new coalition to build more equitable and just workplaces. Three steps required to join the initiative include: 1)
Racial and ethnic equity must be placed
on the board’s agenda; 2) Companies must
make at least one commitment towards racial and ethnic justice in their organizations; 3) Companies must put a
long-term strategy in place towards
becoming an anti-racist organization. Founding members include
Bank of America, BlackRock, Bloomberg, Cisco Systems, Facebook, Google, HP, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Permanente, Mastercard, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Unilever,
and UPS.
(January 2021)
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2020
Cisco Systems committed $225 million in cash, in-kind, and planned giving to support the global response to COVID-19. (March 2020)
Ranked #4 on Corporate Knights Global 100 Index, which ranks the world’s most sustainable companies based on environmental and financial indicators. (Feb 2010)
Included on CDP “Climate Change A List,” which recognizes companies for demonstrating leadership on climate risk management in 2019.
2019
Ranked #2 on Newsweek's “America’s Most Responsible Companies 2020” list, which ranks 2000 public companies based on their environmental, social, and corporate governance performance. (December 2019)
Committed to reduce its foam packaging use by 75% by FY2025, compared to FY2019 baseline levels. The company also set a goal to ensure 70% of its manufacturing suppliers (by spend) achieve a zero waste diversion rate at one or more of their sites by FY2025. (August 2019)
Ranked #10 on CR Magazine's 2019 list of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens, which ranks Russell 1000 companies based on environmental, social, and governance performance. (May 2019)
Recognized as one of 120 companies — out of more than 5,500 companies analyzed — on CDP’s Supplier Engagement leaderboard (“Global Supply Chain Report 2019”) for their work with suppliers to reduce emissions and lower environmental risks in the supply chain. (Feb 2019)
Ranked #4 on Carbon Clean 200 list (As You Sow and Corporate Knights), which ranks large publicly listed companies according to total revenue generated from products and services that deliver carbon reductions. (Feb 2019)