Data Centre Sustainability: Cisco Hits 100% Circular Design

Cisco has confirmed it now applies circular design to 100% of its new products and packaging, with major implications for data centre hardware and digital infrastructure.

The company says it now embeds 25 Circular Design Principles into every new release, spanning switches, routers, collaboration tools and server systems that form the backbone of cloud and enterprise infrastructure.

Led by Chief Sustainability Officer Mary de Wysocki, Cisco’s six-year circularity programme wins the 2025 Reuters Global Sustainability Award for Circularity. The achievement reflects a broader strategy to reduce environmental impact across data infrastructure, while improving operational resilience and lowering total cost of ownership for customers.

“This moment represents years of partnership, creativity and persistence across our teams,” says Mary. “By designing with circularity in mind, we are not only reducing waste; we are extending product life, improving efficiency and security and driving meaningful progress for our customers and communities.”

Circular design principles reshape infrastructure hardware

Cisco’s model of circularity prioritises reuse, repair and recycling across the hardware lifecycle. Unlike linear models where data centre equipment is manufactured, deployed then scrapped, Cisco builds its systems with modularity and long-term usability in mind.

All new data centre products must now pass a threshold score of 75% using the company’s Circular Design Evaluation Tool before launch. The tool assesses whether the product meets Cisco’s standards for sustainable materials, low-impact packaging, repairability, recyclability and energy performance.

With more than 7,000 employees trained in circular design, the principles are now embedded in Cisco’s engineering, product development and supply chain practices. Governance comes via internal steering and oversight committees, while cross-functional collaboration helps align sustainability with business priorities.

Mary says the results prove that sustainability can reinforce rather than complicate infrastructure decisions. “Circular design makes good business sense and helps us deliver even greater value to our customers, partners and suppliers,” she explains.

Cost, carbon and material savings in core data centre lines

The impact of Cisco’s circular model is most visible across its key infrastructure products, including the widely deployed Catalyst 9000 switch line — used in data centres, core networks and edge computing environments.

Between fiscal years 2020 and 2025, Cisco eliminates oil-based paint across the Catalyst 9000 portfolio. This design change alone cuts around 3,400 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions and reduces 318 metric tonnes of volatile organic compounds. It also saves US$9m in production costs.

In parallel, the Webex Room Bar – which supports hybrid collaboration and is often installed alongside data centre equipment in meeting hubs – switches to 55% recycled plastic and eliminates foam packaging. This reduces material use by more than 32,000 pounds annually.

These savings show how Cisco’s design updates reach beyond compliance, offering direct operational and environmental benefits to data centre operators, procurement teams and IT departments. Modularity also means equipment can be upgraded or repaired without full system replacement, limiting downtime and reducing e-waste.

Circularity supports AI-scale infrastructure growth

Cisco’s circularity approach arrives at a time when global data centre capacity expands rapidly to support artificial intelligence, edge computing and hyperscale workloads. These architectures demand ever-greater quantities of energy, metals and semiconductors, raising pressure on supply chains and environmental systems.

By rethinking how data infrastructure is designed, deployed and maintained, Cisco reduces its reliance on new materials while extending the lifespan of critical systems. Circularity in infrastructure design supports resilience at scale, offering customers a model that addresses both cost pressures and sustainability targets.

To manage performance and emissions reporting, Cisco builds a Sustainability Data Foundation – a centralised platform that tracks metrics related to product carbon footprints, circular design implementation and material efficiency. The data feeds into Cisco’s Purpose Reporting Hub and annual Purpose Report.

The internal team behind this integration receives the 2024 Cisco Pinnacle Award, the company’s top recognition for engineering and product innovation.

Mary frames the strategy as a long-term commitment that will continue evolving. “This is just the beginning,” she says. Cisco plans to refine its Circular Design Principles based on customer feedback, supply chain learning and shifting infrastructure demands.

The company also shares its work through global groups such as the World Economic Forum’s Circular Transformation of Industries initiative and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Teardown sessions with engineers, marketers and supply chain partners are ongoing, helping Cisco uncover more opportunities to embed sustainable thinking into rack-level design, material sourcing and maintenance processes.

As hyperscale operators, colocation providers and enterprise customers face mounting pressure to reduce environmental impact, Cisco offers a model of how circularity can support high-density, high-performance infrastructure without locking in waste or obsolescence.

With this framework in place, circularity becomes a default operating model for data centre innovation, not a separate goal. From thermal performance to rack design and packaging materials, Cisco now treats sustainability as integral to infrastructure strategy across its entire portfolio.