Claudia Girrbach on Greener Computing breaks down how the telecom giant has been able to save 2 million kgs (4.5 million lbs) and $24 million dollars a year by redesigning the packaging of just six of its consumer and business products.
Financial savings came not only in reduced material costs, but significant transportation efficiencies as well. In one case, simply by rightsizing the packaging for one product, Cisco improved the transportation efficiency by 450%.
Cisco has been marketing itself as a leader in Sustainability for some time. Those in Copenhagen had the option to utilize their life-sized telepresence technology (unfortunately I couldn’t find a good enough excuse to use the telepresence rooms while I was there, but Skype on my laptop worked fine enough). And Cisco has long been measuring and managing its carbon footprint.
Cisco’s success in this space follows a very common road map of carbon management; one that starts with measuring of emissions, follows with reductions and efficiencies in asset management and continues on with transportation, product design and process efficiencies.
It’s a fantastic look at how companies can reduce their emissions while saving a significant amount of money in the process.
(via Greener Computing)
