Ok, so not a great start since I've already failed on my first resolution - which was to post a blog right at the start of the new year with my resolutions for 2011. Not a real excuse, but I did start the year a little discombobulated and playing catch-up kicking off work on the new CSR report after becoming one of the thousands of people stranded in New Jersey area after Christmas when my flight home to Arizona was cancelled and couldn't get rebooked on a flight home until five whole days later. Resolution #2, Christmas with the family will be celebrated in Arizona next year and I will think twice next time before renting a Prius to drive in two feet of snow...
But here goes my own personal Intel CSR-related resolutions for the coming year (in no particular order):
3. Do not let the new CSR report get any longer. Yeah, even though we no longer print the complete GRI-based report, I'm going to try to still put our report on a diet and make sure it doesn't fall into the trap of gaining those dreaded few pounds every year.
4. Improve our measurement/quantification of social impact. Ah, the holy grail of CSR reporting. We can measure the outputs (hours volunteered, teachers trained, non-profits reached) but measuring the complicated and often indirect social impact and outcomes is much more elusive. Want to make some targeted improvements on this front in the coming year and also work with my colleagues to identify new opportunities to have greater impact through investments in the area of social innovation.
5. Strengthen the link between CSR and value creation. Another longer-term project, but I want to prioritize our work on our Integrated Value Framework and supporting finance tools to help us quantify CSR value to drive improvements in decision-making internally and help us more closely align our CSR reporting with our financial reporting over the long term.
6. Prioritize employee engagement activities. In addition to continuing to link employee pay to sustainability metrics, I want to make more time to focus on finding more creative ways to share the CSR report and how they can support our global strategy (which includes CSR), and help more employees integrate CSR into their day-to-day activities, whether they work in finance or logistics.
7. Improve the impact/usefulness of CSR ratings. Will focus in 2011 on not getting too hung up on responding to and analyzing all of our various CSR ratings, instead focusing in on pulling out a few key learnings to share with our functional groups (such as supply chain and EHS) and supporting external research to understand ratings best practices and how to help them drive performance improvements.
8. Strengthen our water footprinting activities.Continue to evolve our reporting in this space, delving deeper into our supply chain water footprinting and leveraging learnings out of the CDP water survey that we participated in this past year.
9. Balance the global and the local in CSR. One of the great underused resources I think we have at Intel is our global network of CSR professionals. We started in late 2010 to highlight their work through the CSR@Intel blog. I will prioritize my engagement with these teams in 2011 to have ongoing discussions on our CSR strategy and find opportunities to connect them with the local contacts of the global CSR organizations we engage with.
10. Driving supply chain transparency and human rights reporting. Continue to update our stakeholders on key supply chain issues throughout the year, such as our work on conflict minerals. Also complete a scan of the evolving policy and reporting best practices in the area of human rights.
11. Make our stories stick. Much of my job is focused on reporting (which has its own purpose and audience), but our group also works with a number of our groups around broader communication of our CSR initiatives and stories. I keep coming back in my head to the book Made to Stick - and will focus in 2011 on ways to tell our stories in more compelling ways, i.e. increasing use of video, interactive features, social media, and highlighting our work in areas that sometimes don't get as much attention, such as our work to promote education for women and girls and our new programs around the world to encourage entrepreneurship and social innovation.
So, now we'll see if I can stick to these. What are your CSR resolutions for 2011? Any big things you think I've missed? And for those of you other procrastinators like me and who may still working on your own resolutions, here are a few other CSR-related "11 for 2011" lists to draw some inspiration from:
Elaine Cohen's 12 CSR Report Resolutions for 2011
Greenpeace's 10 Green New Year's Resolutions - Making 2011 Sustainable
Monster's 11 Workplace Resolutions for 2011
Windowseat's 11 Green Travel Resolutions for 2011
CSR Asia's Tips for better New Year's resolutions
Greenzer's 11 Green Resolutions for 2011
Bloomberg's 8 Social Media Resolutions for 2011
Suzanne Fallender is Intel’s Director of Corporate Responsibility. In this role, she collaborates with key stakeholders across the company to integrate corporate responsibility concepts into company strategies, policies, public reporting, and stakeholder engagement activities to advance Intel’s corporate responsibility leadership and create positive social impact and business value. Suzanne leads a team of experienced professionals who engage with internal and external groups to review Intel’s corporate responsibility performance and to identify new opportunities to apply Intel’s technology and expertise to address social and environmental challenges. The team also works closely with Intel’s investor relations and corporate governance groups to drive an integrated outreach strategy with investors on governance and corporate responsibility issues. Suzanne has more than 20 years of experience in the field of corporate responsibility and socially responsible investment. During her time at Intel, Suzanne has held a number of corporate responsibility-related roles, including leading programs empowering girls and women through technology. Prior to Intel, Suzanne served as Vice President at Institutional Shareholder Services where she managed the firm’s socially responsible investing division. Suzanne holds an M.B.A. from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University and a B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford, CT. She has served on a number of leading industry advisory boards and committees on sustainability and corporate responsibility over the past decade and currently is a member of the Net Impact Board of Directors. Follow Suzanne on Twitter at @sfallender.