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Folks Behind Objective at Cisco: Decreasing the environmental impacts of our services by means of the EnergyOps Program


This weblog is a part of our Folks Behind Objective at Cisco collection that focuses on staff driving Cisco’s function to Energy an Inclusive Future for All. Every weblog highlights a special Cisco worker whose work positively impacts folks, communities, or the planet. The collection was previously often known as folks behind Company Social Accountability (CSR) at Cisco.

A man wearing a blue collared shirt and black jacket.Ned Bagno is on the GEMS team and manages the EnergyOps program
Ned Bagno is on the GEMS staff and manages the EnergyOps program.

Cisco’s World Vitality Administration and Sustainability (GEMS) staff is chargeable for power and sustainability initiatives throughout our world actual property portfolio with aims to cut back power use and greenhouse gasoline (GHG) emissions.  Learn extra about our sustainability efforts in our actual property operations on Cisco’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) Reporting Hub.

Ned Bagno is on the GEMS staff and manages the EnergyOps program, which focuses on figuring out and implementing power effectivity and onsite photo voltaic tasks throughout our buildings worldwide. He shares extra about his background and expertise, and what he appears ahead to sooner or later.

Are you able to inform me a bit about your path to working at Cisco?

Ned: Following my electronics instructor’s recommendation in highschool, I joined the US Navy as a result of he instructed me they’d a wonderful electronics program. Engaged on shipboard electrical, digital, and safety programs ready me for my future within the job market, the place I specialised in constructing course of management programs, primarily for manufacturing services. That advanced into specializing in troubleshooting and designing giant company bodily safety programs.

Later, I joined Cisco as a contractor in company safety, and, after a short while, I turned a full-time worker. I labored on high-visibility tasks, like our Bangalore, India, campus safety, earthquake early warning programs in San Jose, California, and the company safety command heart in one among our San Jose campus buildings, to call a number of.

I joined Cisco’s GEMS staff ten years in the past. On the time, we had been setting our earlier Scope 1 and a couple of GHG emissions discount objectives. Over the following 5 years, I managed two tracks of our EnergyOps program, and, in 2017, I started managing the whole program.

Are you able to clarify what the EnergyOps program does?

Ned: EnergyOps is our program to cut back the environmental impression of our services. Our method to lowering GHG emissions related to our actual property is to extend the power effectivity of our buildings, whereas investing in renewable power. This mixed method has allowed us to keep away from will increase in total constructing power consumption, regardless of will increase in lab masses and gear power consumption, whereas lowering carbon emissions related to our actual property.

By way of the EnergyOps program and our investments in renewable power, we had been in a position to  obtain (one 12 months early) our earlier purpose  to cut back Cisco’s complete Scope 1 and a couple of GHG emissions worldwide by 60% absolute by fiscal 12 months (FY) 2022 (in comparison with a FY 2007 base 12 months). These successes additionally offered a basis on which to set our present broader net-zero purpose and near-term targets[1].

What sort of tasks do you do?

Windmills on a wind farm
Wind generators on the Mesquite Star wind farm, operated by Clearway Vitality Group. Cisco is one among a number of corporations that signed a long-term energy buy settlement (PPA) to purchase energy generated by the wind farm.

We’ve accomplished a whole bunch of tasks, from easy retrofits to intensive gear replacements. We usually buy or lease current buildings reasonably than construct new ones, so, there are sometimes power effectivity alternatives in our constructing portfolio. We additionally advise our broader actual property staff on energy-efficient choices after we replace our buildings or when gear is changed.

We start the mission growth course of by performing detailed analyses to grasp how the constructing system is working, and to determine alternatives to enhance effectivity. By way of our analyses, we discover areas the place we will make modifications, equivalent to adjusting constructing setpoints for optimum effectivity, or including variable frequency drives that modify to the present gear load and eat much less power.  Different sorts of tasks we pursue are energy-efficient upgrades to lighting programs and huge mechanical gear, equivalent to chillers and boilers. We’ve put in economizers that use exterior air to assist cool our buildings when outside temperatures allow. Moreover, we’ve put in chilly/sizzling air containment programs that assist handle warmth and cut back sizzling spots in our energy-intensive labs and information facilities.

Our tasks additionally assist us pursue inexperienced constructing certifications at our websites, equivalent to U.S. Inexperienced Constructing Council’s Management in Vitality and Environmental Design (LEED) and the WELL Constructing Normal.

 Favourite tasks you labored on over the past 12 months?

Black ice storage tanks on a corporate campus
Vitality-saving ice storage tanks at Cisco’s campus in Ottawa.

I’m engaged on an Synthetic Intelligence (AI) mission at our Allen, Texas, information heart. The target of the mission is to make use of AI to higher perceive how the prevailing constructing automation system operates and to optimize its sequence of operations. This mission is estimated to cut back power consumption within the chiller plant by greater than 30%. There’s positively a studying curve for the people utilizing the AI as properly!

One other fascinating set up was a chiller and ice storage mission we accomplished at our campus in Ottawa, Canada. Throughout the mission, we changed the whole cooling plant and added quite a few ice-storage tanks. The system makes ice at evening when power is each decrease value and fewer carbon intensive. Throughout the day, we use the ice, as a substitute of the chillers, to chill the constructing and our information heart for six+ hours a day. This mission helps us get monetary savings, reduces our carbon footprint and reduces pressure on the native electrical grid. We’re now taking a look at replicating this revolutionary mission and design at a number of of our different places.

What’s subsequent for the GEMS staff and the EnergyOps program?

We’re very centered on making progress in the direction of our FY 2025 Scope 1 and a couple of GHG emissions discount purpose. We plan to take a position roughly US$39 million from FY 2023 to FY 2025 in three areas: power effectivity, renewable power, and electrification. Over the following few years, we hope to transform lots of our pure gasoline heating programs to electrical and set up new onsite photo voltaic photovoltaic (PV) programs at a number of campuses. We additionally plan to broaden our funding in offsite renewable power by executing over 500 megawatts (MW) of latest, long-term renewable power contracts by the tip of FY 2025.

We’re excited to proceed our work, figuring out that our efforts contribute in the direction of Cisco’s function to Energy an Inclusive Future for All.

A man and a woman in an outdoor setting, smiling
The creator and Ned take a mid-hike relaxation throughout a time off. Exterior of labor, Ned enjoys pictures, mountaineering, and strolling his three-legged canine, Nando.

[1] Cisco has set a purpose to achieve web zero throughout its worth chain (Scopes 1, 2, and three) by 2040. Our net-zero purpose consists of two near-term targets:

  • To scale back absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions 90% and neutralizing any remaining emissions by eradicating an equal quantity from the ambiance by FY 2025 in comparison with our 2019 FY;
  • To scale back absolute Scope 3 emissions from bought items and companies, upstream transportation and distribution, and use of bought merchandise 30% by FY 2030 in comparison with our 2019 FY.

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