Cisco Supports R'09 Energy Conference in Switzerland and Japan With Sustainable Use of Resources

ZURICH-WALLISELLEN, SWITZERLAND--(Marketwire - September 14, 2009) - The R'09 Twin Conference, from 14 to 16 September 2009, on sustainable resource management will take place virtually at separate venues on two continents simultaneously: Davos, Switzerland, and Nagoya, Japan. Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) TelePresence, a virtual collaboration solution that recreates the in-person experience, will be used to connect the two venues to create a virtual auditorium where people will feel as though they're in the same location.

Each conference venue will also feature two Cisco TelePresence Hot Spots in the lounge and cafeteria areas to enable participants at Davos and Nagoya to communicate informally and spontaneously. Portions of the conference will also be transmitted to Berlin, where the German environmental association is holding a parallel event.

Fewer intercontinental flights mean a one-third reduction in CO₂

The partners staging the R'09 conference and the first World Resource Forum (WRF) include the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa) and the University of Nagoya. As Empa's Professor Lorenz Hilty explains, "Since the R'09 is all about the responsible use of resources, we needed to develop a resource-friendly format for the conference. Staging the conference simultaneously on two continents avoids the need for many participants to take intercontinental flights." On the basis of data from earlier conferences held at a single location, Professor Hilty reckons that the move could reduce CO₂ output by around one-third. Empa studies show that at one earlier conference, the 6 percent of attendees who flew intercontinental to the venue accounted for 57 percent of the total environmental impact.

"State-of-the-art information technology can make a substantial contribution to solving economic and environmental problems," says Eric Waltert, general manager of Cisco Switzerland. "Using Cisco TelePresence at the R'09, which for the first time will take place simultaneously in Davos and Nagoya, will be an impressive real-life example of how this can be done."

Following the conference, a team led by Professor Hilty from Empa will conduct a life-cycle analysis to show the energy actually saved using the new conference model and Cisco TelePresence systems. The findings of this research are expected by the end of the year.

About the R'09 conference and the World Resource Forum

The R'09 conference on resource management and technology for material and energy efficiency will run simultaneously in Davos and Nagoya from 14 to 16 September 2009. The main goal of the ninth event in the R' World Congress series is to promote technologies and frameworks for enhancing the material and energy efficiency of products, services and processes (from production and use to recycling), including developing sustainable solutions for tackling the growing mountain of e-waste.

The conference is being organized by Empa in cooperation with the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW), the EcoTopia Science Institute of the University of Nagoya, and the Factor 10 Institute. For the first time, this year's conference will be followed by the World Resource Forum (WRF), where politicians and scientists will have the opportunity to discuss new economic frameworks promoting the sustainable use of resources. WRF specialists are working on a corresponding declaration, which will be published September 16.

For more information and program details: http://www.r2009.org/

About Cisco TelePresence

Cisco TelePresence combines innovative real-time video, audio, and interactive technologies to give people in distributed global locations a wide variety of face-to-face collaboration experiences. It enables new types of collaboration applications that are transforming business processes, saving resources, improving productivity and helping organizations grow globally.

Cisco TelePresence is Cisco's fastest-growing new product category with more than 350 customers and 2,500 systems deployed worldwide. In addition, Cisco has installed more than 600 Cisco TelePresence rooms on its own internal network for greater internal and external productivity and effective collaboration.

Further information: www.cisco.com/go/telepresence

About Cisco:
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Swiss subsidiary Cisco Systems (Switzerland) GmbH is headquartered in Zurich-Wallisellen, and has branch offices in Rolle and Bern. Cisco equipment in Europe is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

Cisco, the Cisco logo, Cisco Systems and Cisco TelePresence are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.

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Contact Information:

Media contact:
Marc Musgrove
Cisco
408 525 6320
mmusgrov@cisco.com

Petra Ahlert
Cisco
+41 44 878 7392
pahlert@cisco.com