CSR

Green Olympic sponsor: ExxonMobil

I’ve been watching Olympics coverage on NBC like a fiend. It’s an addiction. Those dramatic intros, that heart-pulsing music, those bite-size pieces of sports footage and that occasionally dorky commentary by Bob Costas–it’s pure entertainment. And let’s face it, I have Phelps Phever. I even friended him on Facebook.

And those commercials! I practically shed a tear when I watch some of them (though, some of them make me laugh, i.e. Morgan Freeman: “Michael Phelps isn’t part dolphin” for Visa’s Go World campaign.)

Speaking of which, have you noticed GE’s Ecomagination spots? Read more about the initiative from our blogger Sophia. Or watch the videos yourself here. The company said “it sold $700 million in products because of the Olympics.”

And have you seen ExxonMobil’s CSR ads? The media awareness campaign, part of the company’s partnership in a worldwide initiative called Roll Back Malaria, focuses on the prevention of malaria in Africa.

Check out the Technology, Health & Development blog for a good post about how this commercial is one of this year’s Olympic successes:

In our previous post on this olympian ad, I think Rob Katz from Acumen put perfectly:

“It’s great to see Exxon Mobil spending as much as $750,000 to promote its social responsibility efforts around malaria. What’s even better is that Steven Phillips - who appears in the commercial - makes it a point to say that malaria isn’t just a CSR initiative for Exxon. Rather, it’s a business continuity issue - if Exxon’s workers are sick, the company loses money. Having a productive workforce is serious business, and Exxon appears to be serious about large scale malaria prevention activities, including insecticide-treated net distribution and even indoor residual spraying…”

This strategy is a good example of the “new CSR,” in which companies align their socially responsible values with their business strategy, so that it actually makes money to “do good,” rather than just dishing out philanthropic funding for tangential causes or marketing their products in such a way to seem more ethical.

In China, the oil and gas giant supports training in computer and life skills to low-income girls in rural areas through the aptly named Practical Skills Training Center for Rural Women. How does this make business sense for the company? Because “ExxonMobil relies on technology and innovation” and employees thousands of engineers and scientists across the world, according to its 2007 Corporate Citizenship Report. Essentially, the company is training its future workforce, and in the process, possibly establishing customer loyalty and a positive reputation. And in China, where ExxonMobil has massive operations, this is critical to its success.

Sounds like ExxonMobil has a strong commitment to education, corporate governance, employees’ rights and other social and labor conditions. The Business Roundtable published a report about this, called “Corporate Social Responsibility in China: Practices by U.S. Companies.” The company holds periodic employee training and reviews about its policies, publishes ethical and business standards in Chinese, and hosts Chinese business and government representatives to tour their global facilities.

Is anyone familiar with ExxonMobil’s impact on China’s environment?

According to a recent article in the Financial Post, the global corporation has received much criticism “for not showing leadership to combat global warming, with some arguing it is putting shareholders’ capital at risk by not moving into greener energy.” And you might be interested to know that “Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., came out swinging against the environmental movement, arguing the science of climate change is far from settled and that his company views it as its ‘corporate social responsibility’ to continue to supply the world with fossil fuels.”

Although ExxonMobil has been known to be one of the most high-profile critics of global warming science, it also seems to be softening its stance on the issue. Here is a summary of the company’s official views on the issue:

This includes putting policies in place that start us on a path to reduce emissions, while understanding the context of managing carbon emissions among other important world priorities, such as economic development, poverty eradication and public health.

While this long-term objective is pursued, near-term objectives should include supporting climate research while pacing policy responses; promoting energy efficiency; deploying existing technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and supporting research and development of new, low-GHG technologies.

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