Introduction
“Google “a name that has become pervasive across the continuum and throughout the spectrum is a perfect apotheosis to uncover and dissect the way corporate social responsibility(CSR) is embedded into its strategic mission for sustainability. The hardly earned soft value from this intangibility has exemplified its brand from "corporation" to its "users." Has somebody asked you, “Are you a Googler?”, this proliferation of company name to daily consumer usages projects the declining proximity between the corporation and its customers or either way around – “An extension of the brand into consumer way of life.”
Google LLC. was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; it's an impetus and silicon of "Silicon Valley," a philanthropist, a corporate taxpayer and a socially and environmentally responsible business entity. For the third consecutive year, Google tops the list as the most socially responsible company (Strauss, 2016) . The credit goes to google hyper-motivated employees. (Nasibov, 2015) has echoed, motivated employee is a boom to the company it makes them satisfied, a performer, productive and creates a conducive working environment.
Discussions
Google, a Responsible Employer
Reconciling it with the Google, the company makes sure that its employees are well-fed, for that it has 25 different cafés and micro kitchens. The death of an employee, spouse, continues to get half of the salary for the next ten years. If your coding is stressful, you can get pampered from subsidized massage program inside your office. A personal passion is must, google instructs its employee to separate 20% of its working time to get involved in the projects they are passionate of, it has “Google shuttle” and “GFleet” which runs through biodiesel fuel, customize workstation to glamorize you and other many more perks and incentives which come along the most competitively and handsomely paid remuneration. Google, believes the company can’t thrive with the broken heart of its employees.
Google, a Responsible Environmentalist
Alphabet, a parent company of Google, posted $4.7 billion tax in 2016 (Christopher, 2017) abiding itself as a civilized corporate entity. The company has equally emphasized in the environmentalism; it started preparing and publishing environmental report since 2015. As per Environmental Report, 2016 issued by Google, the company is unequivocally working to reduce its ecological footprints. The Google data center consumes 50% less energy than a typical data center. Its Mountain View campus has 1.9MW solar panels which generate 3 million kWh clean energy; it has achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. From 2013 to 2015, the company giant has reduced water usages per employee by 30% at its Bays Area headquarters, and since 2007, the company is net carbon neutral.
Google, a lobbyist for social welfare
Google is equally responsible towards the community and marginalized people. Google invested $ 28 million to construct 240 housing units in Allston (Godelnik, 2011) . Google is the advocate of the free and fair internet, the company along with tech giants like Facebook appealed against Federal Communications Commission(FCC) for repealing the net neutrality rule set by Obama Administration (Moran, 2018) . Google balloon project, “Project Loon” is working to provide the internet service to the corner of the worlds where optical fiber and wires are hard to reach, the success will make the internet available to 4 billion peoples who are still away from the connectivity. Except this, the company is working in self-driving cars, augmented realities, Google glass
Drivers for CSR
CSR is a win-win phenomenon. It is not the compulsion, its voluntary and discretionary but public awareness, consumerization has made it isomorphic imitation (Thiel, 2016) . CSR gives competitive and comparative edge to the organization and helps to enhance company’s brand image. Being a responsible employer is not only a flow of mercy and miracles from employer to employee, but these activities also come with reciprocation. Employees at Google are highly innovative, the company’s 20:80 rule has propounded features like “Google Gmail," "Google News" and "Google Shuttle" whose pervasive reputation and market coverage cannot be denied. Its environmental concerns have helped to reduce the environmental footprints and have become a bench-marker whom other can follow in the industry. A business who uses Gmail can reduce the Green House Gas(GHG) emission of its email service by up to 98% compared running as email in the local server (Google, 2016) .
The innovation like “Project Loon” not only facilitates the unserved and unattained civilization but also provides Google tremendous and gigantic new market of 4 billion population ultimately skyrocketing its advertisement income too. As per Mike Cassidy, project lead of "Project Loon," 10 % internet penetration will increase the GDP by 1.4%. The philosophy of environmentalism has embedded google into the “Green Business” this has not only reduced the cost of doing business but has also helped Google to divert those saved funds to more innovative and useful projects like Google Glass, Self-driving cars, Machine learnings, and Artificial Intelligences.
CSR and Sustainability
Deloitte, a multinational professional service network which is also one of the big accounting organization of the globe defines sustainability as the responsibility for the impact the organization exerts on surroundings, environments, business, and social terms. It makes the organization aware and ad-hoc of economic reality, relationship with stakeholders and manages itself accordingly to be long-term and sustainable. CSR is not only about the philanthropy, but CSR also revolves in the circular loop where give and take places among the stakeholders, these long-run perspective makes it's sustainable.
A Norwegian sovereign wealth fund uses the current royalties from the natural resources for upcoming generations; this makes the countries approach sustainable (Bansal & DesJardine, 2015) . In the same way, the Google’s CSR approach is also sustainable. The green investment made in renewal energies like solar and wind energies by Google has helped to minimize the cost by 50%, these saved funds are channelized into more reliable, renewal sources of energies. The investment made by Google on the employee development has motivated the employee, and these have enhanced the productivity of the overall company. Companies like Netflix, Apple, Google, and Dell are 40% more productive than the average company (Vozza, 2017)
Measuring the CSR
Measuring the impact of CSR can be carried on both quantitative as well as qualitative basis. But it could often be challenging as some dimensions of CSR are hard to quantify. But anyway, the measurement depends upon the objective of the company. It is mundane to link the training and development cost(independent variable) to the profit(dependent variable) of the company whereas it is hard to form empirical evidence for the impact of motivation(qualitative) on profit.
But in the context of Google, the CSR and its sustainability can be measured along numerous factors like, employee satisfaction, increasing market coverage(global), high acceptance from the market, new product introduction and innovation (Key Performance Indicators)and along with its ability to be the part of life, if there is a question like, i.e., Do you know what to eat around in Hollywood? You are going to get the answer; Please Google it. This acceptance and penetration of Google from primitive to super-technical use manifest the Google’s brand loyalty which is also earned by its CSR and sustainability.
Conclusion
Google is in the row to hit and be the third trillion-dollar US company who is rocking the S & P 500. Its calibration has not bloomed the Wall Street but equally the dwellers of Main Street are excited. This fame and gratification, the company has gained comes from its meticulous rendezvous in understanding and giving to society and trust it has built with its market. Google has abided itself to be a global corporate citizen, caring employer and by responding to community and environment and is one of the most praised and valued companies of this era.
Bibliography
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Christopher, H. (2017, April 18). What America's Biggest Companies Pay In Taxes. Retrieved from www.forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2017/04/18/what-americas-biggest-companies-pay-in-taxes/#4e013fff2f51
Godelnik, R. (2011, October 7). Google Investing in Low-income Housing – Good Cause, Bad CSR? Retrieved from www.triplepundit.com: https://www.triplepundit.com/2011/10/google-investing-low-income-housing-good-bad-csr/
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Strauss, K. (2016, September 15). 118,947 viewsSep 15, 2016, 10:00am. Retrieved from The Companies With The Best CSR Reputations In The World In 2016: https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2016/09/15/the-companies-with-the-best-csr-reputations-in-the-world-in-2016/#46d99ec47506
Thiel, M. (2016). The Social Domain in CSR and Sustainability: A Critical Study of Social Responsibility among Governments, Local Communities, and Corporations. New York: Routledge.
Vozza, S. (2017, March 13). Why Employees At Apple And Google Are More Productive. Retrieved from www.fastcompany.com: https://www.fastcompany.com/3068771/how-employees-at-apple-and-google-are-more-productive
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