After months of planning, writing, data checking (and rechecking, and rechecking…), this morning we released our latest Corporate Responsibility Report at Intel’s Annual Stockholder Meeting. For those of you familiar with the process, putting together the report is a labor of love for so many people across a company (and let’s be real, sometimes not so much love...) But when the dust has finally settled and the full report goes live on the web and our short printed executive summary version is in my hands, I can finally exhale.So, as I sat there this morning at the stockholder meeting, I thought about what has changed – both in our CSR performance and our reporting - since I started work on my first Intel CSR report six years ago, including:
- Becoming the largest purchaser of green power in the U.S., according to the U.S. EPA, for the past five years, and achieving LEED certification for 29 buildings and factories globally
- Empowering our employees to give back more than 5 million volunteer hours over the past five years, and launching new engagement programs such as the Intel Education Service Corps and Sustainability in Action Grant programs
- Reaching millions of teachers and students globally through our education programs and technology solutions, including new initiatives to address the gender gap in education and technology access
- Driving positive change in our supply chain, including achieving our 2012 conflict minerals goal related to tantalum and encouraging sustainability reporting among our top 75 suppliers
But the most important one change I’ve seen that cuts across all of these highlights? It’s how corporate responsibility and sustainability have become more deeply integrated into our business – into our reporting approach, into our management practices, and into how we approach value creation.
Integrated reporting. Over the past few years, we have continued to take steps to embrace the concept of integrated reporting. In fact, the first section of this year’s report is entitled “Our Business and Integrated Value Approach” and incorporates many of the key elements recommended by the International Integrated Reporting Committee and can be read separately or as part of the full report depending on the reader’s needs. We also have taken steps to discuss the strategic and business value of our approach to key corporate responsibility areas throughout the report, quantifying the value created where possible. And because we know that CSR report data is being used by more and more external groups including investors, we again engaged Ernst & Young to provide assurance for key performance indicators in the report.
Integrated management. Increasingly, more and more groups across the company are actively involved in managing different aspects of our corporate responsibility performance, from supply chain to sales and marketing, from human resources to product development. For example, several years ago we had a few key people working on supply chain responsibility – today, multiple people and groups across the supply chain organizations have been leading strategies and actions to improve transparency among our suppliers, collaborate on performance improvements through training and key projects, and drive leadership in addressing the issue of “conflict minerals.” In addition to business group integration, we’ve also integrated environmental metrics directly into our employee and executive compensation.
Integrated value for society. Intel technology has been positively transforming the way people live, work and play for over four decades. However, a few years ago we adopted a new vision for our company: “to create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the life of every person on Earth.” In support of this vision, we have been developing technology solutions that not only benefit Intel’s business in the long term, but also create shared value for society – from our initiatives to transform education and expand economic opportunities for girls and women, to our work on sustainable and more energy-efficient cities and healthcare innovation.
I invite you to read our new report and learn about the steps we are taking to continue on our path of integration, and share your feedback with our team. You can read the full report, or access our Report Builder to create your own customized version of the report.
Also stay tuned starting next week for our annual “bite-sized” CSR report series at http://blogs.intel.com/csr and tweet series at @intelinvolved in the coming weeks – where Linda Qian on our team will pull out some of her own favorite highlights from the report.
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.