Cisco plots departmental carbon quotas

Cisco has confirmed that it is preparing a carbon rationing scheme that will impose carbon quotas upon each department within the business.

Phil Smith, vice president for technology and corporate marketing at the IT and communications giant, said that the scheme will be piloted from early next year with a company-wide roll out likely to follow in the second half of 2008.

"The aim is to start to introduce a degree of accountability for carbon emission reductions," he explained. "We feel that if we can give people goals and means of assessing their performance then it will prove far more effective than just telling employees that they have to green."

Under the proposals, each department would be given a carbon quota alongside various tools designed to help them cut their emissions, such as a new travel booking system that will allow executives to book telepresence meetings instead of flights where possible.

Smith said that the company was still finalising how it will enforce the quotas, but hinted that it is likely to favour incentives for the departments that reduce emissions the most over stringent penalties. "We don't want to be too heavy handed as we want to bring people along with the drive to cut emissions," he said.

However, Smith added that over time senior managers would be assessed on their ability to stick to a carbon budget. "Action will be taken if people can’t manage their [carbon] budget and this will become one of the factors when assessing how a team is performing," he explained.

The scheme is also aiming to introduce a degree of healthy competition between different departments and national offices, Smith said, as executives strive to deliver the biggest carbon reductions.

The news comes just weeks after Cisco announced the Procter & Gamble had signed up the hundredth customer for its high definition TelePresence video conferencing suite.

Charles Stucki, vice president and general manager of Cisco TelePresence Systems business unit, said that the technology has become the fastest growing new product category in Cisco history since its launch a year ago as customers across multiple industries seek to exploit the productivity and environmental benefits associated with replacing corporate travel with video conferencing systems.