google and the corporate social responsibility of companies

A Shining Example

It would be hard to find an organization that epitomizes the corporate social responsibility of companies more than Google does. Since its inception in 1998, the tech giant has continued to roll out apps that make life and business easier. Innovations include Gmail, Google Drive, Google Earth, and, of course, the company’s pioneering search engine. Almost everywhere we turn, there is a Google product that can make an everyday task easier or push us to greater achievements.

The Reputation Institute is one of the many organizations that recognizes Google for its tech innovation and its commitment to CSR. The Institute measures the corporate social responsibility of companies using a ranking system. In 2015, the Reputation Institute ranked Google number one for global corporate social responsibility.

Google Comes Out On Top

The ranking system includes three criteria for inclusion on its list. Google manages to consistently meet all three benchmarks while constantly expanding its CSR initiatives. The three criteria the Reputation Institute looks for are:

• Governance-includes transparency, openness, and corporate ethics.
• Citizens-how a company supports good causes. Includes the positive influence Google has on society and its environmental sustainability work.
• Workplace-examines employee treatment and equal opportunity for advancement. Google offers an array of perks and incentives for all its employees.

Citizenship and Sustainability

The Citizenship area may well be where Google makes its most public and ambitious environmental impacts. The company went carbon neutral in 2007. Google also has its sweeping Google Green program in place. There are many components of the program, all dedicated to developing and sustaining green energy. Google is quite creative when it comes to building green energy into its products and services. Prediction is a plug-in for Google Maps that helps your car become more efficient by understanding and analyzing where you are going. A more efficient car leads to better gas mileage, lower emissions, and a significantly lower carbon footprint.

Google partnered with the Ford motor company to create Prediction. The partnership is another example of Google’s ingenuity, flexibility, and leadership in the corporate social responsibility of companies. Great CSR companies are able to innovate outside their own sectors for a greater contribution to society as a whole.

Looking for a Smaller Carbon Footprint

Another step Google takes is using specialized electronic controls and monitoring systems so that its data farms produce fewer greenhouse gases. The excess energy from the data centers provides power for Google’s office complexes. There are even goats on Google’s campus that help cut down on the use of fertilizer by eating weeds. Google is a technologically advanced, complex company, but its green energy solutions can be simple while still being effective.

In addition to providing its classic search and an array of apps to make our lives easier, Google contributes to a cleaner environment in many surprising ways. Here is a partial list of Google’s corporate responsibility as it relates to our environment.

• Satellite services help indigenous tribes track and sometimes prevent deforestation in their native lands.
• Groups that protect wildlife can use Google Earth to see areas threatened by logging or other industries.
• In France, leaders have used Google maps to decide where and when to place restrictions on water use.
• Google owns a wind farm in Iowa. It also arranged to purchase electricity from an Oklahoma wind farm. Many of its new data centers now run on renewable power.
• Company shuttles, for employees, use biodiesel fuel. Google offers incentives to employees who bike to work or use other alternatives to cars.

Google also offsets its carbon emissions by investing funds in green energy projects. The funds help sustain projects that otherwise would not have existed

Corporate Social Responsibility of Companies

What is the corporate social responsibility of companies? It is a great question, and your answer will guide you in making your own company more sustainable. Google’s big and small examples of CSR will help you learn and will make you an innovator with your own social entrepreneurial measures.