Cisco is planning a sustainability specialisation programme is for partners in 2022.
The vendor told the gathered throngs at its partner event this week the programme will initially be focused largely on recycling and rewarding partners for becoming part of the “circular” economy.
Cisco vice-president, global distribution Andrew Sage said that the vendor had already been offering a take-back and recycle service that partners could offer customers.
“What we want to do is arm our partners with the ability to do that using our free take-back and recycle initiative at the company. So the specialisation is about initially focusing on that circular consumption idea, where we train them on how to use the tool. We give them the specialisation brand so they can use it in their marketing and talk about their commitment to the environment.”
Sage said the take-back scheme last year managed to bring about a million units from customers and 1,000 tonnes of equipment that was not sent to landfill, with 99.9 percent of it being recycled.
Cisco is expecting most partners to sign up for the specialisation and start to take advantage of the positive branding that will come with it.
Sage said it had mulled over the idea of using a specialisation as a means of encouraging more recycling, but decided that, ultimately, a programme would give the partners a framework to follow.
“We went out to a lot of partners and interviewed them over the last 12 months and asked them what they thought. About half of partners are building out this kind of circular economy practice in their business already. Half of them are starting to make money off of sustainability solutions. So, for example, using technology to help customers drive their sustainability outcomes, using things like smart buildings and IoT [internet of things] and sensors, things like that.”
Sage said Cisco had also launched a digital sustainability challenge, which rewards those in the channel that share their most innovative sustainability solutions. [The last three words are not the bee’s bollocks to ChannelEye, Ed.]
