Brief Overview
ExxonMobil is the largest publicly traded international oil and gas incorporation that was founded in 1999 in Texas, United States (ExxonMobil, n.d). The company employs superior technological advances and innovations to sustain the rising demand for energy across the world. Also, the company has an industry-superior accumulation of resources, which constitutes the largest integrated refiners, chemical manufacturers, and petroleum product marketers (ExxonMobil, n.d). The company produces a wide variety of petroleum products, including butyl polymers, ethylene propylene diene (EPDM) rubber, polyethylene, thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV), Synthetic base stocks , Neo acids, kerosene, petrol, diesel, and chemicals, such as oxygenated and hydrocarbon fluids (ExxonMobil, n.d) . Further, the company has a comprehensive safety and environment practices and policies, which exhibits its commitment to high ethical standards, integrity, and compliance. Further, the company operates facilities or market petroleum in most countries across six continents (ExxonMobil, n.d). Besides, the company owns numerous subsidiaries, including XTO Energy Inc., Imperial Oil Limited, RasGas Company Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Limited, and Aera Energy, LLC.
Core Business
ExxonMobil’s core business entails several fundamental elements, including operating in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner, upholding high standards of integrity in all its operations, attracting and retaining exception workforce to have a superior technical and leadership capacity in the industry, and maintain its financial strength (ExxonMobil, 2018).
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Mission Statement
Additionally, ExxonMobil’s mission statement postulates that energy is crucial to the world economies, and fostering living standards across the world requires reliable and affordable energy, which the company is committed to solving energy challenges through a practical, safe, socially, and environmentally responsible manner.
Demographics of the Organizations Workforce
ExxonMobil employs approximately 70,000 workers globally, where 40% of the employees operate in the U.S., 21% in Europe, 20% in the Asia Pacific, 9% in Canada, 5% in Latin America, and the other 5% in Africa and Asia (ExxonMobil, 2017). The company promotes employ-based networks that foster cultural diversity and inclusion by offering community service opportunities, and development and mentorship programs. Notably, the company’s entire population of executive employees is constituted by 20% women, while minorities constitute at least 15% of the U.S. executives (ExxonMobil, 2017). Moreover, the company provides 30 scholarships to minorities in the U.S. annually to boost their representation and inclusion in both economic and social agendas. In addition, 30% of its campus engineering hires in the U.S. entail women (ExxonMobil, 2017.
The Organization’s Corporate Responsibility Initiative: Methane Emission Reduction Program
ExxonMobil has been on the forefront in creating sustainable living conditions throughout its operations. The company has an extensive track record of comprehending and managing its methane emissions through unique resource development, such as hydraulic fracturing. These efforts are normally based on regulatory compliance, voluntary initiatives, and collaboration with research and academic institutions, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations. Besides, the company shares its practices and programs with other players in the oil industry through various platforms, and champion within trade frameworks for enhanced methane measurement and management to preserve the environment. Subsequently, the company has expanded its methane emissions reduction initiative through its XTO Subsidiary, in its endeavor to reduce emissions associated with its operations. XTO has developed a methane emission mitigation framework that besides ensuring sufficient compliance with the governmental regulations, it fosters a remarkable effort that surpasses stipulated regulations. In addition, this initiative prioritizes activities at midstream and production facilities and entails endeavors to create and use contemporary, and superior technological equipment to distinguish and mitigate facility emissions. Essentially, this initiative is reinforced by remarkable technological research, development, and testing efforts, where the entire program is voluntary, apart from some mandatory aspect of repair surveys and leak detection.
Moreover, as part of its improved methane emission mitigation initiative, the company established a methane training program in 2017, which entailed a keen focus on the entire transient emission mitigation practices, and key subjects, such as leak detection, pneumatic device integrity, and frameworks for sharing best methane emission mitigation practice across its operation wings. Also, the company uses minimal-emission technological approaches to boost the environmental sustainability and performance of its operations, especially in the expansion of its operations in Delaware basins and Midland. These technological initiatives involved the use of compressed air rather than natural gas to run pneumatic monitor for contemporary satellites and tank batteries, and use of vapor recovery units. Besides, XTO continues to assess opportunities to upgrade its operations with the aim of improving operational efficiencies and mitigate methane emissions. This initiative was based on a collaborative research with its ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company and other equipment manufacturers to develop a high quality, cost-efficient, minimal-emissions facility that could be utilized for more advances in the future, especially in the Midland. Equally important, as a part of its methane-emission mitigation initiative, the company engaged in researches that estimated the level of methane emission in the U.S. from strenuous gas production operations. Not to mention, the firm has further been engaging in a Department of Gas Gathering, as well as supporting research at Colorado State University. Also, ExxonMobil has been participating in the progressive study on methane emission in collaboration with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Texas, Stanford, and Harvard universities.
Aspect of the Initiative
ExxonMobil’s methane emission mitigation program is an ethical initiative. This is because all companies are obliged to enhance environmental sustainability throughout their operations, which is an ethical issue ( Saha & Dahiya, 2015) . Besides, according to various scholarly researches, it has been noted that the economic activities such as oil production by ExxonMobil are creating massive destructive effects on the human environment on which it sustains ( Saha & Dahiya, 2015) . Additionally, this has shown that sustainable living is not only important but also a top priority in the modern world. Therefore, a sustainable company as indicated in this study is the one that upholds utmost ethical practices through corporate social responsibilities such as conservation of the environment by mitigating emissions into the air. A sustainable company should be environmentally sensitive in its quest to produce and sell its products while upgrading the living conditions for the communities living around by operating in a more efficient and eco-friendly manner ( Saha & Dahiya, 2015) . Furthermore, a sustainable company is not only one that is usually competitively ahead, establish a strong brand and recognition, mindful of its employees’ well-fare, reachable, attracts talents, and retains its long-term goal and objectives, but also one that upholds sustainable corporate practices that are socially, economically, and environmentally feasible to ensure its continued business expansion, while preventing destruction of human and animal habitats ( Saha & Dahiya, 2015) . Therefore, ExxonMobil's initiative is an ethical practice as it entails the prevention of environmental pollution to maintain sustainability.
Value of Ethical CSR Initiatives and Incentives
CSR is associated with numerous benefits for an organization. First, CSR could help ExxonMobil to enhance its positive reputation and brand recognition, which could lead to competitive advantage ( Saeidi, Sofian, Saeidi, Saeidi, & Saaeidi, 2015) . Also, this could result in stronger customer loyalty, increased sales, better financial performance, and enable the company to attract and retain top talents in the labor market. Moreover, this initiative could reduce regulatory burden that often occurs through legal sanctions and court penalties ( Ni &Van Wart, 2015) . Also, investors are more likely to invest in a reputable company, hence, this could increase access to finance for the ExxonMobil ( Saeidi et al., 2015) .
Possible Repercussions for not participating in CSR
Failure to mitigate methane emission could result in massive pollution, hence, affecting environmental sustainability. Additionally, ExxonMobil could encounter legal actions for non-compliance charges that could further jeopardize its reputation and brand image. Moreover, failure to undertake such an initiative could have compromised the company's mission and commitment to upholding environmental friendly practice throughout its operations.
References
Ni, A., & Van Wart, M. (2015). Corporate social responsibility: doing well and doing good. Building Business-Government Relations , 175-196.
OxxonMobil. (2016). Business model and Competitive advantages . Retrieved from corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/company/investors/business-model-and-competitive-advantages.
OxxonMobil. (2017). Sustainability report: safety, health, and workforce . Retrieved from corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/community/sustainability-report/safety-health-workplace/diversity-and-inclusion.
OxxonMobil. (2018). XTO Energy methane emissions reduction program . Retrieved from corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/energy/natural-gas/environment-and-safety/xto-energy-methane-emissions-reduction-program.
OxxonMobil. (n.d). About us . Retrieved from corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/company/about-us.
Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., & Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Business Research , 68 (2), 341-350.
Saha, R., & Dahiya, R. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainable Business Practices: A Study of the Impact of Relationship between CSR & Sustainability. Proceedings of ICRBS , 473-477.