Bp Petroleum, Asc and H&m

CSR initiatives from any organization indirectly help them in profit maximization, longer sustainability and addressing growing concerns from different stakeholders towards social and environmental impacts. BP Petroleum, Aspen Skiing company (ASC) and H&M have applied the same principle. If we need to rank them in terms of their effectiveness in achieving a modicum of CSR activities, it will be (A) ASC, (B) BP Petroleum and (C) H&M (where A is highest and C is lowest).

 ASC is first in our list because all initiatives from ASC were very innovative, proactive and transparent. ASC’s Sundeck restaurant was one of the first LEED certified buildings in USA. Snowmass Golf Clubhouse was awarded with LEED Silver rating in 2004 and same year ASC was ISO 14001 certified for adhering the environmental management system. ASC was very innovative to reduce energy and water consumption by building high altitude water reservoirs, utilizing resort’s snowboard half-pipes, constructing the mini mountains from dirt before covering them with artificial snow and increasing its reliance on renewable sources of energy like solar, wind mall hydro, biomass and geothermal sources. In 2005, ASC proactively joined CCX, greenhouse gas emission reduction program, being the first recreation company in USA. It has publicized its goals towards CO2 emissions by 10% below 2000 level in 2012 and 25% in 2020. All these activities set a trend in the business world and other organization followed ASC’s footsteps.    

BP Petroleum is second in our list because in spite of challenges faced during the oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico, this company was able to survive. It was only possible because BP handled the situation carefully by acting on several CSR activities. BP was the first one to come forward and accept the responsibility for climate change and also committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. BP changed its management teams to have more environmental beliefs. BP has educated people with Oil’s harmful affects from several advertisements and invested heavily in renewable energy. Where other Oil companies were slow to respond, BP acknowledged that its core products were probable reasons of Global warming. Even though environmentalists found BP guilty of Greenwashing, but BP has done several good things for Society and Environment. BP has invested $200 million for solar energy generation and $5 billion for renewable energy. These amounts might be very less compared to their profit margins but it was much higher than many other oil companies. BP faced critical challenges when deep water horizon oil rig went up in flames killing 11 crew members and injuring 17 other severely. BP accepted the responsibility and spent over $450 million on drilling relief wells and preparing for the clean up. BP has very large scale business model where profit margin and visibility both are very high. It is not so easy for BP to act on CSR promptly in many cases. But the way BP has accepted company’s responsibilities in many cases and committed to work on them, makes them separate from many other oil companies and organizations in general.