Leadership plays out differently for different businesses, organizations and geographies. Just consider what might be expected of leading companies today based on where they operate, what they sell, or who they employ. Those expectations are constantly changing.
We've chosen "With Leadership Comes Responsibility" as the title of our latest Corporate Responsibility Report - just published. A lot has changed in the CSR/Sustainability space in just the past couple years and the definition of leadership has changed with it.
Our employees around the world have contributed their time and talents to make Intel the company it is today, but they aren't satisfied with what they've achieved. They want increased environmental performance in both our operations and out products. They want to see continued improvements in their workplaces and in cross-company and -sector collaboration. And, they want us to put out knowledge and expertise to work on making peoples lives better, regardless of where they live - and make a profit while doing so.
Our latest report is another step in our ever-evolving strategy to communicate the most important information in a format our stakeholders are asking for. A tabular introduction to the report can be found on Intel's Corporate Responsibility Homepage. In addition, readers can download the entire report or specific sections based on their interest.
This year's report includes information on our most important corporate responsibility areas: environment, workplace, education, community, and supply chain management. Based on stakeholder feedback, we have also expanded our discussion on our approach to defining materiality and CSR management in a new Management Strategy and Analysis section. A few highlights presented in this year's report include:
- Recognitions including being the only U.S. company named as a Supersector Leader by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and capturing the #1 spot in our industry on CRO Magazine's Best Corporate Citizens list.
- Environmental performance improvements in our operations including the recycling or reuse of more than 80% of waste generated and reclaiming more than 3 billion gallons of water annually.
- Surpassing the milestone of training 5 million teachers in more than 40 countries in the Intel® Teach Program on effectively integrating technology and project-based learning into their classrooms.
- Achieving a worldwide employee volunteerism rate of 38%. Hours for education efforts alone surpassed 550,000 hours, netting $2.9 million in matching grants for local schools and Intel Computer Clubhouses.
- Expanding our Health for Life wellness program to help employees and their families better manage their health risks and maintaining our performance at world-class safety levels compared to industry benchmarks.
- Promoting supply chain responsibility through our role in the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition and completing over 100 high-level risk assessments of our suppliers, representing 80% of purchasing spends.
These are not the results of a faceless corporation, but the result of all Intel employees making the company better one step at a time. Just in the first few months of 2008, we have begun to see some great new results, including being named to the #1 spot on CRO Magazine's 2008 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, becoming the largest corporate purchaser of Green Power in the U.S. according to the U.S. EPA, and kicking off an ambitious employee volunteer campaign to give back 1 million hours of service in our communities to celebrate our 40th anniversary.
I view my responsibility as a leader in fairly simple terms - help show my company the future and do my best to get them there. A company's responsibility as a leader is of course a little more complex - but our employees are the key to getting us to that future.
I hope you enjoy the report and I welcome any feedback you may have on any aspect of it.