Cisco claimed a 120% increase in Black vice presidents and a 90% increase in Black directors, in its latest Purpose Report. The diversity gains usurp Cisco's original goal, which targeted a 75% increase by 2023.

The vendor also made progress on its other inclusivity targets, including its commitment to obtain diversity metrics from its suppliers and double its percentage spent with diverse suppliers by 2023.

These targets include investing in Black entrepreneurs, specifically Black-owned technology companies in the vendor's partner ecosystem. This year, Cisco established the African American Cisco Partner Community with a focus on investing in partner growth.

Cisco plans to spend $150 million by 2025 to fund science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and support technology upgrades at four-year HBCUs. The vendor also committed $50 million to the Student Freedom Initiative "Access to Education" endowment this year in support of that target.

However, Cisco's achievements weren't limited to diversity and inclusion, and the vendor made significant progress toward many of its environmental commitments in 2021.

Cisco reported a 60% reduction in its global scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Cisco also reported 85% of its energy came from renewable sources this year, meeting both of its 2022 goals a year ahead of schedule.

Mary de Wysocki, Cisco VP of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, expects this trend to continue. "We're going to push to always overachieve [on scope 1 targets]," she explained, adding that Cisco is also looking into purchasing renewable energy beyond its own footprint.

The vendor aims to reach net-zero global scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2025 and net zero across all three scopes of emissions by 2040. Cisco will begin reporting on its 2040 target next year.

Cisco also plans to submit its environmental commitments to the Science Based Target initiative for approval in January. And in conjunction with that process, the vendor is now targeting a mid-term 30% reduction in total GHG emissions by 2032.

The report also shows Cisco is making significant progress against its goal to positively impact a billion people by 2025.

Cisco says it's now 68% of the way to this target, thanks to social impact grants awarded to nonprofits and programs like the Cisco Networking Academy, which saw three million students participate this year. The program aims to support people of all backgrounds through career training and opportunities with a focus on demographic groups who have been historically underrepresented in the industry.

Aside from the Networking Academy, the majority of "those hundreds of millions of people impacted are through our grantees, or we're providing products and technology, [or a] cash grant, as well as capacity building," de Wysocki said.

Cisco reported it had positively impacted 530 million people in 2020,  a figure that was audited by PwC with limited assurance. The vendor is currently working with PwC to verify its recent progress included in the 2021 Purpose Report.

"We've always done some assurance on the sustainability side," de Wysocki said. "This is just one more movement toward the intersection of financial reporting and non-financial reporting."

The Purpose Report is Cisco's first to combine corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting and what it describes as "purpose work," which includes social justice, employee engagement, and digital divide initiatives.

The new report is based on three pillars — power, inclusive, and future — that the company says complement its purpose statement to power a more inclusive future for all.

The power pillar reports on Cisco's efforts to close the digital divide in an ethical way by delivering secure connectivity and prioritizing human rights across its supply chain, de Wysocki said. The inclusive pillar, meanwhile, highlights Cisco's relationship with its employees internally and its externally facing community engagement and skills development initiatives. Finally, the future pillar targets the vendor's GHG emissions reductions, circular economy, and environmental stewardship efforts, she explained.

The report also encourages stakeholders to value the vendor's purpose initiatives by connecting them to the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts internal and external stakeholders already demand, Francine Katsoudas, Cisco's chief people, policy, and purpose officer, explained in the report.

"We're really looking to truly integrate purpose into all aspects of the company," de Wysocki said, adding that this approach moves the needle on these issues.

"If we want to create systemic, generational change, we have to operationalize our purpose," Katsoudas wrote in a LinkedIn post, adding that engaging others and focusing on long-term sustainable impacts is key to the type of change Cisco is working toward.