Cities account for 80 percent of global greenhouse gases1. With the urban population expected to rise by half a billion in the next five years and at least 100 new cities of one million people predicted by 2050, the need to reduce environmental impacts is critical.
Cisco solutions can help by transforming the way people live and work. Connecting people remotely with their offices and community services cuts impacts from travel, and using networks to control energy use in buildings can also bring significant savings.
Cisco Connected Workplace facilitates flexible workspaces by giving employees a full range of communications tools and secure access to company networks from any location. It is designed to support employee mobility and make more efficient use of office space by enabling "hot-desking," a practice where employees do not have assigned desks but make use of communal desks as available.
Flexible workspaces using Connected Workplace can support around 40 percent more employees than a traditional static office layout, substantially reducing the environmental footprint and associated costs from buildings. Approximately 9.4 percent of Cisco's real estate space has been converted to Cisco Connected Workplace, and we plan to extend this further.
Cisco Smart Connected Building solutions transform the way buildings are built, operated, and used by integrating the IP network with building systems like HVAC, lighting, and elevators. This helps organizations monitor and analyze energy used by these systems and look for ways to reduce it.
In FY10, Panduit Corporation, a Cisco partner, used our Smart Connected Building solutions to reduce annual energy costs by 30 percent at a new headquarters building in Tinley Park, Illinois.
Smart+Connected Communities are Cisco's vision for sustainable development. In the cities of the future, they give the network a central role in the delivery of vital services from transportation, utilities, and security to entertainment, education, and healthcare. Buildings, appliances, utilities, hospitals, and schools will be connected, intelligent, and resource-efficient, and the network will bring businesses and people together for strong collaboration, productivity, and economic growth without compromising the environment.
We estimate that within 20 years, a city of 5 million people could increase GDP by 9.5 percent, reduce electricity and transport use by 30 percent, and create 375,000 new jobs if Smart+Connected Communities are fully implemented. In FY10, we continued work to implement our vision in Songdo, South Korea (see Story Highlight).
Cisco's Building B14 in Bangalore, India, showcases Smart+Connected Communities technology and is one of the first and largest Smart Connected buildings to receive LEED certification, achieving a Platinum rating (see Story Highlight).
