An Essay on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Google’s Contribution

The corporations have been around for centuries, in the form of alliances between merchants, territories, and monarchs but the true form that committed to pooling capital, under a legally binding contract to benefit from sea-trade emerged in the 17^th century (Dari-Mattiacci, Gelderblom, Jonker, & Perotti, 2017) with the incorporation of Dutch East India company in 1602. The components of corporate form like representation, entity shielding, capital lock-in, tradable share and limited liability above all, offered protection of owner’s interests and assets (Kraakman & Armour, 2017).

Unfortunately, the corporations also took the liberty to ignore the impacts of devouring natural resources and environmental sustainability and rather focused on enhancing the productivity.  In the late 1800s, corporate philanthropy emerged and quickened the pace of progress in 1950. Over the last seven decades, corporations have transformed from merely doing good deeds to committing the preservation of social, economic and environmental interests of stakeholders. Corporate Social Responsibility was put forward in 2000 as a potential strategic issue. (Moura‐Leite & Padgett, 2011) and it has been retained as the primary debate at The World Economic Forum for the last decade or so. 

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In modern-day corporate culture, Corporate Social Responsibility is classified as initiatives and responsibility swore to be upheld by a company, committing to use effective business strategies to shape a better world. It came to limelight with Bill Gates’ call to action in 2008, inferring a severe need of “creative capitalism.” The elements of CSR are embedded within the core objectives, and are designed to instigate social responsibility, economic responsibility, and environmental responsibility; projecting positive changes, along with creating business value (McElhaney, 2009).

The concept of CSR is not new. It has been on the corporate sphere for centuries, making supporters and handling critique from the business community. Boston based repute tracking and chartering, Reputation Institute published their annual findings on companies that are best representatives of CSR, where the likes of Lego, Microsoft, Google, Walt Disney and BMW Group (Karsten Strauss, 2017) came on top of the list, in terms of acceptance as socially responsible by the stakeholders. Their corporate strategy has been impeccable, commendable and based on sustainability of social perception. But social perception is not all there is to a business.

It has been pointed out, tested and accepted time and time again that the debate of social versus economic benefit has never been an easy one (Bobby Banerjee, 2014). There are influencers on both sides of the arguments, and their opinions have shaped strategies in rapport and estrangement. Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company, William Clay Ford Jr, a keen supporter of CSR believes that long-term success is embedded within the realization that building a better world and strong business norms and valuation are actually the same. He has stated very often that corporations can play a vital role in resolving the social and environmental issues. The founder of the modern-day business corporation, Peter Drucker, however, was one on the opposing. He stated that;

CSR is a dangerous distortion of business principle.

And every executive who brings up the debate on SCR should be fired. The council of opposition on CSR holds prominent names like Milton Friedman, who openly challenged the idea of “free enterprise”. He questioned the motive to put “business” on the stand for social responsibilities (Friedman, 2007).

Mullerat, along with Aras and Crowther argued that CSR is ineffective because by “doing little”, corporations are portraying themselves bigger than the impact. However, in reality, the impact itself cannot be neglected. Since 2015, Google has incorporated CSR strategy to accommodate environmental responsibility by initiatives like energy and water consumption, waste recycling and prevention and carbon emission (Google, 2017). At the of top rank at Reputation Institute list, Google managed to reduce energy consumption by 50% and promoted the concept of clean and renewable energy acquisition up to 24%. The corporate giant has achieved the Green certification by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for over four million square feet of its buildings.

Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. invested over 2.4 billion dollars in clean energy initiatives. The corporate giant has also invested to achieve Zero Waste to reduce water consumption. They managed to bring down the usage of potable water by 30% and also set the target for further reduction in regional office by 2017.

To reduce the waste percentage, Google has vowed and achieved 52% of component policy, to create refurbish inventory rather than salvaging. It has managed to retract 84% of wastage in 2015 from its data center and up to 86% in 2016, settling at 100% in 2017.

Google is one of the few carbon-neutral corporations globally. Google introduced its “Commuting Sustainability” initiative where the company employees were held accountable to act responsibly by using electric vehicles. The initiative resulted in a decrease of 50% of its carbon emission. The platform was also shifted to the cloud, by reducing data center, effectively decreasing the carbon footprint.

Ethically Google has a transparent, open and governance lackey. It has earned the right to be portrayed as a “Good-citizen” by churning apps like Google Maps, Prediction (a joint effort with Ford Motor), Google Assistant, cloud drive etcetera. Its Satellite services not only provide ease of access but also keeps an eye on wildlife habitat for preservation (602, 2017).

According to the Google Economic Impact report (Economics, 2018), Google’s search engine and marketing tools have contributed 222 billion dollars to economic sphere of United States where 1.5 million businesses non-profits and websites were served.

Ever since Google has taken active roles in CSR, the corporate giant has been a strict follower and promoter of stakeholder theory. The CSR initiatives like water waste reduction, wildlife protection parks, carbon neutrality, green buildings, renewable energy promotion, recycling waste programs indicate a clear strategy for preservation of social, economic and environmental aspects of all life. 

As the Chief Executive Officer of Alcan Travis Engen said; 

We know that the profitable growth of our company depends on the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of our communities across the world. And we know it is in our best interests to contribute to the sustainability of those communities.

 It is about time that corporations should take up the ethical responsibility and start making better decisions, for a better world.

References;

Google and the corporate social responsibility of companies

Bobby Banerjee, S. (2014). A critical perspective on corporate social responsibility.

Dari-Mattiacci, G., Gelderblom, O., Jonker, J., & Perotti, E. C. (2017). The emergence of the corporate form

Google Economic Impact

Friedman, M. (2007). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.

Google. (2017). Environmental Report.

Karsten Strauss. (2017, September). The 10 Companies With The Best CSR Reputations In 2017. Forbes,

Kraakman, R., & Armour, J. (2017). The anatomy of corporate law: A comparative and functional approach.

McElhaney, K. (2009). A strategic approach to corporate social responsibility.

Moura‐Leite, R. C., & Padgett, R. C. (2011). Historical background of corporate social responsibility.