Cisco seeds green innovations aimed at climate change

But we’re seeing more companies lining up to deliver green-oriented technologies — at times in the name of charity — that don’t directly result in lowering customers’ electric bills. Rather, they’re aimed at helping cities, organizations, and end-users work more efficiently and be better environmental stewards.

Some of the more interesting projects I’ve seen emerging in this space are through the William J. Clinton Foundation. (Apologies to anyone offended by my invoking the Clinton name with the presidential race going on. This isn’t a partisan ploy, I promise.)

Just as a little background, the foundation recruits organizations and individuals to donate toward a breadth of projects geared at, among other things, fostering economic empowerment and leadership development and addressing climate change. Microsoft, for example, is working to provide free Web-based software for cities to monitor their carbon emissions and share ideas.

I recently had a chat with Noni Allwood, senior director of human resources at Cisco. She outlined the company’s CUD (Connected Urban Development) effort, a part of the Clinton Global Initiative. The idea behind CUD is to “apply technology to address the challenges that cities face in regard to global climate change,” she says. Cisco is clearly serious about the projects, because it’s committed $15 million to CUD and enlisted the brainpower of engineers from MIT.

The company is developing three different pilot projects tailored to meet the needs of three different cities: Seoul, South Korea; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and San Francisco, Calif. Cisco chose those three cities because they were already engaged “in area of climate change so that we didn’t have to persuade anyone that it was necessary.”

The projects are specifically geared toward reducing traffic congestion by making public transportation more appealing and remote access more readily available. If these projects prove successful, Cisco envisions other cities adopting them as applicable to their respective needs.

My travel buddy and me

For Seoul the problem is severe traffic congestion. “It takes three hours to get into downtown Seoul in the morning,” says Allwood. “We’re trying to manage traffic congestion and get people out of cars and into buses.”

To solve that problem, Cisco is working on a mobile device that acts as a travel companion, aimed at “personalizing the travel experience of citizens when they have to combine walking, taking buses, and parking.”

The device would be able to plot the most expedient route between destinations, drawing on up-to-date bus and train information. It would also be able to alert users of traffic accidents and delays so that they could change their course. Moreover, the device could be used to pay for train tickets, bus fares, and tolls — as well as reserve cars through car-sharing programs.

The concept here appears far from far-fetched; it draws on many of the existing technologies we see today. Were it a Bay Area-based device, it would be a fusion of wireless technology, FasTrak (for automatic toll payment) and similar quick-payment technology for buses and trains, along with mobile-friendly versions of Google Maps (for general maps), 511.org (for plotting public transportation routes), a car-sharing reservation system from City CarShare or Zipcar; and one of the various traffic-update sites. The real trick is likely mashing up all these services into one friendly UI on a user-friendly portable device.

Get on the bus, Gus

The pilot project that Cisco’s addressing isn’t quite as sexy from a geeky-gadget perspective, but as a former San Francisco resident, it certainly hits close to home. The company is working with Muni, San Francisco’s bus system, to improve service and the rider experience.

“One of the biggest problem with Muni is, each bus is equipped with 10 wireless antennas, and the systems are all isolated. They work in silos. They don’t talk to one another. …There’s no ability to leverage the information from one application to another,” says Allwood.

Those applications include the GPS system that tracks bus location and security systems, along with fare systems and maintenance.

Cisco’s goal here is to consolidate those 10 separate wireless antennas into one, thus making Muni’s underlying technology more robust. “There could be screens announcing the next top as well as alternative routes,” says Allwood.

The added benefit: reduced maintenance, as Muni wouldn’t have to deal with 10 separate antennas. Allwood predicts that the bus system could enjoy sufficient savings to invest in improving the rider experience.

This, too, is a project I could get behind. If you’re relying on the bus to get somewhere on time, knowing when it’s going to show up — or if it’s been delayed — is downright essential. Being presented with alternative routes is a nice addition. I’d like to see it taken one step further: Have the Muni systems interact with other Bay Area public transportation systems, include BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), Caltrain, and SamTrans so that users could better plot their course. Or else we’d just need to get our hands on some of those travel-buddy devices from Seoul.

Work outside the box

Finally, there are Cisco’s efforts in Amsterdam to develop remote work centers outside of the city. Employers could lease space from which their employees could telecommute one or more days per week, thus saving them from having to brave the traffic congestion of going into the city center. According to Allwood, such work centers could also offer telepresence facilities, with which users could, for example, conduct near face-to-face meetings with colleagues, or the loan officer at a downtown bank, or a government employee to arrange for a marriage license. Cisco, of course, sells a telepresence solution of its own.

As an advocate of telecommuting (and one who takes advantage of it just about every day), I can appreciate Cisco’s efforts here, too. Not everyone has the space or facilities to work from home, so this is a good alternative to reduce the frustration of a long commute. Moreover, this kind of work center could offer a user access to tools such as MFPs, meeting rooms, and, again, telepresence that they couldn’t use if they worked at home. There are, of course, potential security concerns in sharing a workspace with random employees from other companies, plus instituting a telecommuting program requires some internal planning and a shift in corporate cultural mindset.

Cisco isn’t investing in CUD entirely for altruistic reasons. These projects give the company an opportunity to showcase its technology and “build a much better relationship with cities and local government, and to open new markets for ourselves,” says Allwood.

I certainly don’t begrudge Cisco for this, though. The company is putting $15 million toward projects that can meaningfully improve the lives of the average citizen while reducing carbon emissions in the process. That’s good for business, and it’s good for the environment. What’s not to like?

Lastly, Cisco will be holding CUD Global Conference 2008 next month, on Feb. 20 and 21, in San Francisco. There, urban, business, research, and civic leaders will discuss solutions that address challenges in urban sustainability. The deadline for registration is Dec. 14.

Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and author of the free weekly Green Tech newsletter.