At Cisco, round design means constructing sustainability into our merchandise and packaging from the beginning. It’s about designing with the total life cycle in thoughts: utilizing supplies effectively, incorporating recycled content material, lowering packaging waste, bettering power effectivity, and making merchandise simpler to restore, improve, and recycle.
This issues as a result of decisions made within the design stage can affect the whole lot that follows — from how a lot uncooked materials is used, to how lengthy a product can keep in service, to how effectively it runs for purchasers. Round design additionally helps make the most effective use of essential uncooked supplies and helps provide chain resiliency.
Cisco continues significant work on this house over time whereas measuring environmental impacts at a product stage.
Beneath are a number of examples that illustrate how completely different product groups are making use of round design in ways in which replicate their distinctive applied sciences, use instances, and constraints.
UCS-X servers
For over a decade, Unified Computing System (UCS) servers have been engineered to be extra sustainable by design, and have been awarded the 2023 SEAL Sustainable Product Award. UCS-X displays how circularity and excessive efficiency can go hand-in-hand — particularly in information middle environments the place power and materials decisions can add up rapidly.
Constructed with modular, simply detachable parts, its upgradeable designs assist lengthen the usage of the chassis, energy provide, cooling, and different parts, and it’s optimized for restore, reuse, and eventual recycling. This structure permits the X-Collection to eat roughly 50% much less uncooked materials over three generations than conventional rack servers.
The newest X-Collection structure additionally options expertise improvements comparable to environment friendly 54V energy distribution, clever fan controls, zone-based cooling, and 80 PLUS Titanium-rated energy provides.
The workforce additionally eradicated moist paint and diminished powder coating by 62% in comparison with the prior era — that means much less coating materials is utilized total. This reduces the quantity of uncooked supplies that have to be produced, transported, and in the end managed throughout the life cycle.
In addition they carried out post-consumer recycled (PCR) resin in 77% of non-commodity plastic elements, lowering the usage of virgin plastic by utilizing recycled materials as an alternative.
Packaging and equipment have been additionally thought of. Cisco provides multipack delivery for smaller items and high-volume orders to scale back packaging, and clients can decide out of product equipment they don’t want, comparable to energy cords. Prospects obtain the product in packaging fabricated from recycled supplies, and, like most different Cisco merchandise, can view documentation through QR code.
View the Product Carbon Footprint experiences for numerous UCS merchandise right here.
Webex Room Bar
The Webex Room Bar is a video collaboration bar for small assembly rooms. It was redesigned with a simplified structure to scale back the variety of inside parts in comparison with its predecessor, leading to over 32,000 kilos of fabric financial savings yearly. It makes use of a minimum of 55% PCR resin. Foam was eradicated from the packaging, changed by a fiber-based, double-tray design. When linked to sure shows, the Room Bar can mechanically configure the brightness and latency of the show for pure video conferencing upon set up and switch the show on and off mechanically, thereby saving power.
Desk Cellphone 9800 Collection
The Cisco Desk Cellphone 9800 sequence focuses on repairability, recycled content material, packaging, and power consumption.
93% of the product’s main parts will be disassembled utilizing widespread instruments, which may enhance the restore and recycling processes whereas extending materials life cycles. It makes use of a minimum of 74% PCR plastic resin.
Packaging additionally minimizes waste, utilizing 100% recycled plastic baggage or fiber-based options, and eliminates pointless parts comparable to plastic baggage for cables, wipe cloths, and paper paperwork (besides the place legally required).
Power consumption is one other focus, with a number of power-saving modes to fulfill completely different buyer wants. Deep sleep mode can scale back energy required to 0.3 watts, doubtlessly lowering greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions by over 40% yearly throughout its use part.
To assist clients higher perceive and handle this, a sustainability dashboard experiences real-time power consumption and GHG emissions, enabling customers to proactively handle and scale back their GHG emissions from use of the product.
View the Desk Cellphone 9871 Lifecycle Evaluation abstract right here.
Nexus 9332D-H2R Change
The Cisco Nexus 9332D-H2R is a high-performance, 32-port 400 Gigabit Ethernet deep-buffer change. Along with delivering industry-leading efficiency, the workforce integrated options that assist each circularity and effectivity. To assist handle power use, the change options an 80PLUS Platinum-rated energy provide unit, and clients can use the Nexus Dashboard to realize insights into energy consumption.
The change is constructed with 75% PCR content material in non-commodity plastic elements and makes use of lightweighting methods to scale back the quantity of fabric used. The highest cowl was purposely designed to permit clients to simply entry and improve the reminiscence, which may lengthen the product’s use.
Emphasizing serviceability, key elements like followers and energy provide items are modular, permitting for straightforward discipline substitute.
The packaging consists of corrugated elements with a minimum of 25% PCR content material and foam elements with a minimum of 60% PCR content material, whereas equipment use fiber-based baggage. The workforce continues to iterate these sustainability options whereas defending the product throughout cargo.
Wanting forward
Cisco achieved a number of sustainability targets in our 2025 fiscal 12 months (FY), marking important progress in our journey. Transferring ahead, we are going to concentrate on sustaining Round Design Ideas in 100% of latest merchandise and packaging in FY26.
As we proceed pursuing a extra round enterprise mannequin, we’re additionally increasing the standards of our Round Design Ideas by listening to our clients, staff, regulators, traders, and different stakeholders. We’re updating these Ideas to maintain elevating our bar for integrating sustainability into our merchandise — readying Cisco for the longer term. We intend to concentrate on recycled plastic and supplies, eradicating hazardous supplies, bettering packaging, and making our analysis standards extra product-specific, recognizing that Cisco’s product range means there’s no one-size-fits-all method.
We intend to keep the progress achieved to this point, stay accountable, and search further alternatives to drive impression.
As all the time, we are going to share our progress in our Function Reporting Hub and Function Report.
1FY19 base 12 months
