Cisco is looking at being a bigger friend to the environment by designing a programme to improve energy efficiency, product packaging, design for upgradeability and recyclability and what it terms as material innovation.

Last September the company said it planned to cut its corporate carbon emissions by 10 per cent by the end of this year or sooner.

It plans to do this by making use of collaborative technologies such as video conferencing to cut down on travel.

In addition, as part of the Clinton Global Initiative, Cisco plans to provide $15 million in pilot programmes that will embed technologies such as GPS, RFID and wireless communications into transportation systems in the Netherlands, South Korea and San Francisco.

The intention behind this initiative is to reduce congestion and improve how people move throughout cities.