The company’s water use increased around 7.7 percent from 1.75 million m3 in FY 2011 to 1.9 million in FY 2012. Cisco’s primary water impacts come from office building potable water and sanitation, landscaping, and cooling towers. The company has integrated a new Sustainability Information System that it says “greatly” improved its ability to track water consumption data for the majority of its real estate operations. The water consumption of 71 percent of Cisco location is now included in the company’s reporting, up from 68 percent in FY 2011 and 59 percent in FY 2007.

The company’s total waste generation decreased from 4,643 metric tons in FY 2011 to 4524 metric tons in FY 2012, while the proportion of its locations that the waste reporting covered increased from 51 percent to 58 percent. Cisco’s recycling rate dropped from 72 percent to 69 percent of its waste. The company says that this is at least partly due to the addition of a new site with lower diversion rates than its corporate average.