Cisco's commitment to making the world a better place is paying off; on February 5, 2016, Cisco sent two representatives to accept the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility. This is the second year Cisco has received recognition from this organization, and the first time we've won an award in the global category.

The Golden Peacock awards were set up by the Institute of Directors (IOD) in 1991 to bring out the best in companies in the areas of CSR, human resources, quality and leadership, health and safety, environment, innovation, and corporate governance. The Peacock Awards are now widely recognized as one of the highest awards for excellence in these categories.

(Pictured left to right: Lt. Gen. J. S. Ahluwalia, President, Institute of Directors, India; Praveen Vasudeva, Workplace Resources, Cisco; Mrs. Pankaja Gopinathrao Munde, Minister of Rural Development and Water Conservation; Archana Sahay, Community Relations, Cisco; and Mr. Vijay Karia, Chairman & Managing Director, Ravin Group)

Cisco was selected to receive this award based on our supply chain management, energy, water, and carbon management practices, social innovations, human rights performance, and other corporate social responsibility policies. As a major global IT company, we have a unique opportunity to reduce our impact on the planet and help our customers, suppliers, and partners to reduce theirs as well.

Through our collective efforts, we're not only speeding the pace of social change around the world, but creating a better world for future generations and global problem solvers to thrive. From the innovative technologies and solutions that we develop to our various CSR-related initiatives, we are making a positive difference in the world, economically, socially and environmentally.

Here are a few of our CSR programs highlighted in the application:

• The Cisco Networking Academy: This is our biggest and longest-running Corporate Social Responsibility program. Networking Academy is an IT skills and career building program that is offered to learning institutions and individuals worldwide. Since 1997, we have educated 6 million students through Networking Academy? courses offered at 9500 learning institutions in 170 countries.
• The Cisco Foundation:Cisco and the Cisco Foundation partner with nonprofits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and community-based organizations to carry out many of our Corporate Social Responsibility programs. For FY15, corporate and Cisco Foundation cash and in-kind contributions (USD) equaled$286 million.
• Energy and Sustainability Initiatives: It makes good business sense to reduce our energy consumption, reduce our GHG emissions and to enable a diverse energy supply for our operations. It helps us stay competitive, and benefits the environment as well. We estimate that the energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that we have implemented since FY10 have avoided approximately 275 million kWh of energy and avoided 115,000 metric tonne CO2e for Cisco.
• Tactical Operations: Cisco Tactical Operations (TacOps) provides emergency communications when traditional communications are degraded or destroyed so government agencies and humanitarian organizations can coordinate relief efforts and speed food, water, and medical care to those in need. Since 2005, the TacOps team has deployed to 28 different disasters and participated in 16 training exercises around the world.

Learn more about these initiatives and many others by reading the 2015 CSR Report at csr.cisco.com.