This weblog is a part of our give attention to Cisco staff who’re “Striving for Sustainability” by discovering alternatives to combine sustainability of their day-to-day work.
At Cisco, we now have been specializing in evolving from a linear economic system that extracts sources and finally wastes them, to a round one which finds new makes use of for merchandise and their inputs. By understanding the environmental impacts of our merchandise, we will make knowledgeable selections to scale back the sources used and decide the way to prolong the lifetime of our merchandise.
That brings us to Sripriya Narayanan, a senior product supervisor primarily based in India who works for Cisco’s Industrial Web of Issues (IIoT) enterprise unit, which focuses on industrial routers, switches, and entry factors. She has collaborated with Cisco’s Round Design staff to develop a sequence of business routers with Round Design Rules on the core. I not too long ago sat down along with her to study extra about her story:
When did your curiosity in sustainability start?
Sripriya: My journey in direction of sustainability started in my childhood in India, surrounded by my mother and father and grandparents, who lived what we now name a sustainable way of life. Their strategy was easy: shopping for solely what was needed, avoiding plastic, minimizing waste, and embracing a holistic, minimalist way of life. This simplicity deeply influenced me. One other affect is my love for nature and spending time in pure settings. Being in nature taught me the significance of preserving its tranquility and sweetness for future generations.
Once I moved to the US after beginning my profession at Cisco, I started volunteering with an environmental nonprofit in San Jose referred to as Our Metropolis Forest. There, I skilled as an arborist and earned a certification in tree planting. On weekends, I led group teams, together with kids and oldsters, in tree planting actions throughout Santa Clara County. This expertise sparked my ardour for environmental advocacy.
Are you able to inform us about your skilled and academic journey thus far?
Sripriya: My journey started as a software program engineer at Cisco, the place I progressed to a lead engineer and technical chief. Whereas I loved my work, I spotted that to drive change, I wanted to transition to the enterprise aspect the place selections impacting sustainability had been made. To facilitate this, I pursued an MBA. I selected Berkeley’s Haas College of Enterprise because of its give attention to sustainability and the energetic Web Influence Membership. This membership allowed me to interact with business influencers and educate my friends, a lot of whom had been CEOs or VPs attending night and weekend lessons. Collaborating with these key business figures was enriching, because it enabled us to collectively promote sustainable practices.
Throughout my second 12 months at Berkeley, I transitioned into product administration at Cisco, a pure development aligning with my objectives. I joined the commercial IoT enterprise unit as a product supervisor, main the commercial routing portfolio. This function entails end-to-end administration, from defining the product to launching it and interesting with prospects in addition to managing its end-of-life. The economic IoT enterprise unit was essential to me, because it allowed direct interplay with business leaders in sectors like utilities, manufacturing, oil and fuel, and transportation. The convergence of IT and OT is a spotlight for industries and demanding infrastructure suppliers. Cisco leverages its direct interactions with enterprise leaders to discover the way it can allow greatest practices, together with sustainability, throughout networks from enterprise to business areas, all whereas sustaining belief and addressing each inside product challenges and exterior elements. It was an opportunity to affect sustainability on a bigger scale, fulfilling my ambition to combine circularity practices into the enterprise realm.
How are you incorporating circularity in your function as a product supervisor?
Sripriya: Embracing modular design has grow to be crucial, particularly in our industrial IoT enterprise unit, the place prospects anticipate long-lasting merchandise, not like the enterprise sector with frequent refresh cycles. Modularizing elements permits for standardization throughout enterprise models, providing flexibility and decreasing redesign prices. This strategy additionally aligns with sustainability objectives by minimizing waste and useful resource utilization.
Whereas growing our next-generation merchandise, I prioritized Round Design Rules. Impressed by sustainability advocates and my very own ardour, I collaborated cross-functionally to combine modular elements and enhance vitality effectivity for utility purchasers involved with vitality consumption.
I additionally initiated extra packaging sustainability efforts, eliminating extreme foam and adopting supplies with a decrease environmental influence from manufacturing or finish of life. This was achieved via collaboration with Cisco’s packaging sustainability staff. At this level of my profession, I used to be promoted to a senior product supervisor place and was chosen as a frontrunner to drive sustainability initiatives for our whole Industrial IoT enterprise unit.
Trying to the long run, I’ll proceed to drive sustainability initiatives for Cisco Industrial IoT in partnership with the Chief Sustainability Workplace (CSO) and Engineering Sustainability Workplace (ESO) groups.
What advantages have you ever noticed from implementing Round Design Rules?
Sripriya: Implementing Round Design Rules provides quite a few benefits, significantly in extending product lifetimes. Historically, companies centered on frequent product refreshes to attain their objectives. Nevertheless, by adopting a round design mindset permits us to foster innovation with out the need to launch new merchandise each few years. This shift in perspective just isn’t solely useful for our firm but in addition resonates throughout varied industries, together with the enterprise B2B sector.
Round design can help quicker innovation by constructing on present merchandise reasonably than ranging from scratch. This strategy reduces operational prices and capital bills, in addition to greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions, by minimizing the usage of pure sources. Moreover, designing merchandise in a modular method facilitates take-back and reuse, which might scale back monetary pressures on each our prospects and our provide chain administration.
From an environmental standpoint, round design reduces waste and enhance vitality effectivity. Throughout product use, vitality effectivity is essential. Our collaboration with the CSO staff on a complete product life cycle evaluation highlighted that almost all of GHG emissions happen through the use section. Due to this fact, integrating energy-efficient options in product design is important for decreasing emissions.
How are Cisco’s Industrial IoT improvements serving to prospects transition to extra round fashions?
Sripriya: It’s important to deal with our prospects’ present enterprise challenges whereas offering them with simple methods to leverage new improvements with out utterly changing their present merchandise. Cisco’s Industrial IoT options underscore vitality effectivity and help round practices, enhancing sustainability in product administration.
With a round design strategy, we allow our prospects to save lots of the expense of shopping for utterly new tools each time their necessities change, which additionally eliminates the sources and vitality required to create new tools throughout manufacturing, delivery, and logistics. By upgrading or repairing simply the person modules, prospects prolong the product’s lifetime, scale back supplies which can be disposed of prematurely, and assist preserve sources.
Buyer tales that showcase how Cisco IoT options have helped them with their objectives might be discovered right here.
Do you do something in your private life to advertise circularity? If that’s the case, what recommendation would you give others?
Sripriya: In my private life, I try to advertise circularity by adopting a minimalist way of life. This journey started throughout my time in the US, the place I centered on buying solely important objects and utilizing reusable baggage for grocery procuring to keep away from plastic waste. Selecting an electrical or hybrid automotive over a standard gas-powered car was one other important step that I took, in addition to taking public transportation.
Lately, I relocated to India to be nearer to my household and take care of my getting old mother and father. Right here, I’ve observed important challenges concerning waste administration and environmental consciousness. Whereas there may be rising consciousness about plastic air pollution in some nations, in India, this understanding is usually restricted to sure city areas.
Regardless of these challenges, I goal to affect my group by advocating for easy way of life modifications that scale back consumption and promote accountable dwelling. Encouraging folks to contemplate the need of their purchases and search higher, extra sustainable choices is vital. It’s about making aware decisions and recognizing that there are at all times alternate options which can be higher for the setting.
I additionally consider in main by instance and sharing information with others to encourage them to grow to be environmental advocates. By fostering discussions about sustainability, I hope to contribute to a extra accountable and environmentally aware world. These small actions in my every day life mirror my dedication to selling circularity and inspiring others to do the identical.
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