Orange Business and Cisco team up to tackle carbon footprint

MWC24 – BARCELONA – During a joint press conference at MWC, Orange Business CEO Aliette Mousnier-Lompré and Cisco's Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) targeting joint reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, centered around four pillars.

The first of them is a joint emissions reduction trajectory for Cisco products used by Orange Business. To this end, the companies will focus on using shared data to estimate GHG emissions related to Orange Business solutions that integrate Cisco technology.

The second focuses on measuring the carbon footprint of joint products and services, allowing customers to take these statistics into account during decision-making. The evaluations will be carried out over a one-year period, after which they will be able to share the carbon footprint of joint products, as well as determine the starting point for establishing emission-reduction trajectories.

The third pillar, meanwhile, will see both companies work together to better incorporate circular economy principles. This will entail a rise in the purchasing of reconditioned units through Cisco's Refresh Program, as well as collection of used equipment. Here, Orange Business will facilitate collection via Cisco's Takeback and Reuse Program.

Finally, the fourth pillar will see greater emphasis put on eco-design principles when creating new products and services. Where available, Orange Business will get access to the lifecycle analysis data of Cisco products as part of the enterprise unit's goal to offer 100% eco-designed products and solutions.

Mousnier-Lompré stressed that the importance customers place on sustainability has been on the rise, highlighting its growing role as a criterium in requests for proposals, as well as a concern for CEOs worldwide. Robbins, meanwhile, noted that this is something that has been a particularly big concern in Europe.

Speaking about the importance of the partnership, Mousnier-Lompré said that Cisco is Orange Business' number one partner. She also noted that while Orange Business has managed to halve Scope 2 CO2 emissions, it is Scope 3 that represents the bulk of its carbon footprint.

Climate-conscious solutions

Robbins pointed to the example of One Box solution for business customers, which is being demoed at Orange's booth. The solution allows multiple routing functionalities, such as SD-WAN that would otherwise be housed separately, to be placed in a single box.

Here, Cisco provides the hardware with Orange arranging the set-up and installation of additional features. This can be done remotely, through the cloud, eliminating the need for multiple engineer visits. Besides eliminating additional hardware, the solution also reduces energy consumption by up to 80%, according to the companies.

Another emission-reducing technology displayed at the Fira is a Wi-Fi network deployed at a stadium in Marseille, which turns off Wi-Fi points when not in use.