Some substances used in electronic components may pose health and environmental risks if they are not used or disposed of appropriately.

We seek to eliminate the use of these substances in our products and look for reliable alternatives through our Product Materials Management program. Through our take-back programs (see Product Take-Back and Recycling), we also encourage the responsible disposal of our products to prevent hazardous materials from contaminating ground water.

Cisco requires suppliers to comply with our Controlled Substances Specification, which lists substances that are restricted for use or must be reported if used in Cisco products. These include substances restricted by the EU RoHS Directive and other regulations, as well as substances which are not restricted by regulation but which Cisco seeks to minimize such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

We aim to validate the viability of alternatives for BFRs and PVC in our products by 2011. To do this, Cisco is working with industry standards technical committees and academia to assess the implications of substituting these substances and evaluating the impact on our supply chain and the integrity of our products.

We are also continuing our efforts to remove leaded solder from our products. By the end of FY10, we had conversion plans in place for 99 percent of our hardware products and had completed conversion for 35 percent.

These measures help us understand how controlled substances are used in our value chain and enable us to comply with applicable global regulations such as RoHS and REACH, for which we publish a Declaration Regarding Substances of Very High Concern in Cisco products (see Environmental Management).