This weblog is a part of our concentrate on Cisco workers who’re “Striving for Sustainability” by discovering alternatives to combine sustainability of their day-to-day work.
After years in companies and enterprise improvement, Christopher Weiland charted a brand new path — making use of his know-how experience to drive sustainability innovation at Cisco. Very similar to the paths he rides within the Colorado backcountry, Weiland is a trailblazer — serving to form new approaches to product circularity.
Inform us about your journey in know-how and the roles you’ve held at Cisco earlier than shifting into sustainability.
Christopher: My curiosity in know-how began early — in truth, I used to be recurrently pulled out of center faculty courses to troubleshoot points within the faculty’s laptop lab. That curiosity and technical know-how led me to check industrial engineering, which set the muse for roles at Microsoft, IBM, and ultimately Cisco, which I joined in 2000.
At Cisco, I centered on companies and gross sales, performing some thrilling work to assist main service supplier prospects navigate complicated networking options. After 20 years, I started to consider the subsequent section of my profession and began exploring how I might transition from a technology-focused function to at least one centered on sustainability.
What did that exploration seem like and the way did you navigate a profession shift inside Cisco?
Christopher: After having a tremendous profession in tech at Cisco, I used to be thrilled to understand that I might discover sustainability throughout the Cisco neighborhood. Initially, I assumed I’d want a grasp’s diploma in environmental science or that I might need to depart the corporate to chart a brand new path. However then I found a bunch of passionate Cisco workers who had been supporting sustainability, spanning clear vitality, provide chain and circularity — all thrilling and impactful efforts. Product circularity specifically caught my consideration as an space the place my skillset might apply and the place I assumed I might make a contribution.
So I actually embraced Cisco’s three E’s for skilled improvement — Publicity, Training, and Expertise. I began studying, taking courses, and connecting with Cisco workers working on this subject, even earlier than we had our Chief Sustainability Workplace. Finally that led to a chance for a stretch project and my first foray into sustainability-focused work at Cisco.
I’m now centered on circularity — serving to to maximise the lifespan of Cisco know-how with higher processes for product reuse and accountable recycling.
Circularity is a crucial focus at Cisco. Are you able to clarify what it means and why it’s vital?
Christopher: Inside Cisco’s environmental sustainability technique, the Plan for the Doable, certainly one of our three priorities is evolving our enterprise to a round mannequin.
Which means maintaining merchandise in use for so long as doable — by means of reuse, refurbishment, and accountable recycling. Circularity is all about extending the lifetime of know-how, lowering waste, and minimizing the necessity for brand spanking new uncooked supplies.
We take a holistic strategy, masking all the product life cycle. First, we concentrate on round design, which suggests enhancing product design for sturdiness and reusability. And that’s prime to backside — from the merchandise themselves to the packaging they arrive in. Second, we’re creating techniques for environment friendly take-back and product redeployment, and third, we’re creating choices to assist a round financial system. For instance, with applications like Cisco Refresh, which sells licensed remanufactured gear, our purpose is to allow our prospects and companions to undertake circularity.
It appears like circularity is extra than simply product design — how do techniques and processes play into scaling this effort?
Christopher: Precisely. To scale circularity, we want extra than simply good product design. We’d like processes that assist environment friendly take-back, recycling, and reuse.
We’re persevering with to research methods to do this — gathering insights and exploring methods to develop a scalable strategy. There’s a chance for us to take an energetic function in product redeployment, supporting prospects who wish to Cisco to prepared the ground in product reuse and recycling.
Sustainability at Cisco is a cross-functional observe. How has your prior expertise working throughout groups utilized?
Christopher: Most of the expertise I developed in my technical and gross sales roles — like collaborating throughout groups, aligning enterprise wants with long-term technique, and problem-solving — translate on to sustainability initiatives.
Sustainability at Cisco isn’t confined to at least one group — it requires coordination throughout a number of enterprise features. It’s a mix of technical experience, operational technique, and relationship-building.
Your dedication to sustainability has been fueled by your ardour for the outside. Are you able to share a few of your adventures and what you’ve gained from these experiences?
Christopher: I stay in Denver, Colorado, and spending time within the pure world is a crucial a part of my life. Snowboarding, mountaineering and biking all enable me to connect with nature — and discover my limits. I’m proud to notice I competed within the Bailey Hundo 4 instances — a tremendous albeit dauting 100-mile mountain bike race with 10,000 toes of elevation achieve.
The Colorado Path holds a particular place in my coronary heart — it runs parallel to the Continental Divide, passes by means of 5 wilderness areas, and is among the nation’s solely long-distance trails that enables bikes. I’ve bikepacked all the path — over 550 miles over the course of 20 days.
However past the journey and the path itself, what makes it much more significant is the story of the way it was created by a bunch of people that had been prepared to dream. I’m extremely impressed by Gudy Gaskill, the “Mom of the Colorado Path,” who led the all-volunteer effort to create this superb wilderness route by means of sheer persistence. She rallied folks round a shared imaginative and prescient and saved the challenge shifting ahead regardless of seemingly countless obstacles — bodily and bureaucratic.
In some ways, her story mirrors the work being performed in sustainability — massive change occurs by means of long-term dedication and flattening roadblocks, step-by-step. Whether or not it’s constructing a wilderness path alongside the rugged Continental Divide or shifting an business towards circularity, it’s about bringing folks collectively, fixing issues alongside the best way, and staying centered on the long-term influence.
What recommendation do you may have for Cisco workers to get entangled in sustainability?
Christopher: An effective way to get entangled in sustainability at Cisco is by becoming a member of your regional Inexperienced Crew — these are employee-led teams devoted to supporting environmental initiatives. I’m energetic with the Denver Inexperienced Crew, and it’s been rewarding to see the native influence we will have. We’ve labored on quite a lot of volunteer initiatives and neighborhood initiatives, together with working at an animal sanctuary, wetland remediation, and path constructing.
I additionally encourage anybody serious about sustainability to coach your self on how Cisco is driving sustainability influence in our operations and for our prospects. A terrific place to begin is our Function Reporting Hub. There are insights into our Round Design program, effectivity objectives, and Cisco’s round choices, like Cisco Refresh and our no-cost Takeback and Reuse program for end-of-use merchandise. I usually say these applications are Cisco’s finest saved secrets and techniques, and I encourage my colleagues to grasp their advantages and to share them with our prospects and companions.
I’d additionally advise folks to take a look at how their expertise could switch to new alternatives. You is perhaps stunned how the abilities you’ve developed in different elements of Cisco pays dividends — whether or not in sustainability or one other space of the enterprise.
What has your journey taught you about driving significant change inside Cisco?
Christopher: My journey at Cisco has proven me that profession progress doesn’t all the time imply leaving — typically, it’s about uncovering new alternatives proper the place you’re.
I’ve additionally discovered that sustainability, like profession progress, is an area of fixed evolution and alternative. Cisco has the worldwide attain, affect, and innovation capability to drive significant progress in circularity.
However what resonates with me most is that sustainability requires long-term considering, persistence, and dedication — similar to endurance biking or path constructing.
Huge change occurs step-by-step, by means of dedication, collaboration, and a willingness to adapt alongside the best way.
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