The World Environment Center just awarded its annual Gold Medal award for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development to IBM. The company was recognized for its commitment to advancing environmental sustainability and for providing business solutions in support of more sustainable cities and the planet.
IBM RECEIVES TOP SUSTAINABILITY AWARD FROM WORLD ENVIRONMENT CENTER--IBM Chairman Samuel J. Palmisano, right, accepted the World Environment Center Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development for IBM's corporate environmental efforts and smarter cities technology at the National Building Museum on Thursday, May 3, 2012 in Washington DC. IBM is the first company to receive the award twice, having also been the 1990 recipient. Also pictured are (L-R) Dr. Terry F. Yosie, President and CEO, World Environment Center, and Ronald Daniels, President, Johns Hopkins University. (Feature Photo Service)
The importance of environmental sustainability has exploded in recent years. It is implanted in the minds of leaders no matter what aspect of business, government or society they serve. But to be realistic, it hasn’t always been this way.
The broad popularity of environmental sustainability has been cyclical since the first
Earth Day back in 1970. If the sustainability of our planet is indeed a future imperative, a relevant question for any organization is: How do you sustain sustainability over the long term?
At IBM, environmental leadership has been practiced regardless of its popularity or the company’s financial performance at any given point in time. Environmental sustainability is managed as a strategic imperative. We work to anticipate opportunities and prevent problems. Underlying this commitment is a conviction that good environmental management makes good business sense.
In fact, this was the first time in the WEC Gold Medal’s 28 year history that a company has earned it twice (IBM had previously received the award in 1990). We do indeed work hard to sustain sustainability.
For global institutions at large, I am certainly encouraged. That’s because the next generation is far more passionate about environmental sustainability than any other in recent memory. We’re on the front edge of a new wave of leaders who want to perform work that not only delivers a return to shareholders, but also who want to perform work that is good for society. It’s a generation that thinks not just about stockholders, but also stakeholders.
From where I sit, I see opportunity for institutions to capitalize on insights from data analytics gleaned from our instrumented and interconnected world. Today’s leaders are blazing the trail and making systems – such as physical infrastructure – more efficient, intelligent and sustainable. It’s happening throughout the world because such innovation delivers not only environmental benefit, but also value and competitive advantage. And this can help the world sustain sustainability.
The good news is that the key requirement for real change now exists: People want it.
And they are hungry for leadership. Such a moment doesn’t come around often – perhaps a few times every century – and it will not last forever. Those seizing it today are the leaders of tomorrow. I am convinced that the forward-thinking individuals, communities, companies and countries of the world can build a smarter, more secure and more sustainable planet.
Wayne Balta is IBM’s Vice President for Corporate Environmental Affairs and Product Safety. A version of this article first appeared on WhiteHouse.gov.
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Ann Cramer in
It was a privilege for me to participate in a Milken Institute panel discussion of the Future of Cities with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton, Jr., and former HUD Secretary and San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros. Our conversation was focused on the reality of the emergence of “the city” as the place of choice for citizens to live, work and play — understanding the complexity of realizing positive solutions for all people, and showcasing the extraordinary success stories of innovative solutions that reflect IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge.
Ann Cramer is Americas Director, IBM Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs.
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Stanley S. Litow in
In my latest article in The Huffington Post, I write that the sluggish global economy – accompanied by an intensified scrutiny of both corporate behavior and government action – has created a challenging environment for the private and public sectors. Public institutions have been faced with punishing demands, diminishing resources, and heightened requirements for efficiency and effectiveness. Meanwhile, many in the private sector have had to develop new strategies to sustain their bottom lines in the face of global competition. Certainly, some actions by entities in both sectors are deserving of criticism. But through it all, one collaborative strategy has enabled governments to implement smarter solutions to their most pressing problems, and the best companies to build and preserve both their reputations and their revenues: good corporate citizenship.
Far from being an afterthought, corporate citizenship must form part of the foundation of how a company interacts with the governments and communities it serves.
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Training Tomorrow’s Leaders to Link Values to Business Strategy
For 2012, IBM advanced from No. 3 to No. 2 on Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list – a ranking compiled from the Russell 1,000 Index. IBM is the only company that has achieved a Top 5 ranking in each of the last four years. Companies were evaluated based on publicly available information in seven categories: environment, climate change, employee relations, human rights, governance, finance, and philanthropy.
CR Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens Award Winners Ring the Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange
Whether you call it Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Citizenship or Socially Responsible Investing, IBM is proud to be recognized for our values-based approach to philanthropy. We back up our use of the phrase “from spare change to real change” with meaningful and effective contributions of our talent and technology to solving critical societal issues around the world.
IBMers are involved in countless ways in helping others overcome challenges related to job creation, education, environmental sustainability, health care, disaster response, and improving the quality of life in our cities. Our Corporate Service Corps – modeled on the Peace Corps – deploys our global top talent to work with local leaders in growth markets. Corporate Service Corps engagements provide a “triple benefit” to communities, participants and IBM. Growth market communities benefit from IBM expertise, participants develop valuable contacts and leadership skills, and IBM welcomes a new generation of global leaders who understand the dynamic of developing economies and serve as ambassadors for the IBM brand.
In the United States, IBM is collaborating with school systems and community colleges to create a new model for American education – one that connects learning directly to jobs.
In New York, our innovative grades nine through 14 Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) incorporates a targeted curriculum, workplace learning, and mentor guidance into a holistic approach to preparing students for industry and continuing education. P-TECH’s inaugural class – inspired by great teaching and the promise of a productive future – is surpassing every notion of what young people from disadvantaged backgrounds can achieve.
Eighty-nine percent of P-TECH students met standards for promotion after only 100 days. Ninety-six percent have attendance rates of 96 percent or higher. Sixty-six percent of students who entered P-TECH with below-average reading ability have improved their scores by at least one grade level – and some have improved by three grade levels or more. P-TECH’s phenomenal success has inspired the City of Chicago to use IBM’s P-TECH Playbook to help develop and open five similar schools this fall, while New York plans to open three more schools based on the P-TECH model.
The tendency may be to think that IBM’s corporate philanthropy programs are helping to improve lives both “locally and globally.” But at IBM, “global” is local. Through each of our programs, we share our values, technology and expertise with the global community of leaders, thinkers and citizens who strive to make our world a better, safer, healthier, more productive, more sustainable, and smarter place.
Stanley S. Litow is IBM’s Vice President for Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President of the IBM International Foundation.
Posted by
Robin Willner in
In my address to the Third Annual International Corporate Volunteerism Conference (ICV) last night, I spoke about the need to link values to business strategy in order to create sustainable value. In other words, corporations must develop and advance a new model of philanthropy that’s grounded in an enduring commitment to service. The old model of “checkbook philanthropy” is outdated. What matters today – what makes a difference – is volunteering one’s expertise to help solve critical societal issues.
IBM’s Corporate Service Corps program delivers a triple benefit for communities, participants, and IBM:
- Communities benefit as IBM sends its best talent and global experience to tackle business and societal issues in growth markets;
- Participants benefit from unique opportunities to expand their leadership skills and understanding of growth markets, and giving back to society;
- IBM benefits from the development of new leaders with a broad range of skills in a global context, a better understanding of developing economies, and the opportunity to introduce the IBM brand.
Since 2008, more than 1,500 IBMers from more than 50 countries have contributed their expertise in nearly 30 countries via the Corporate Service Corps. Through these engagements, IBMers provide high quality business and IT consulting on critical concerns related to job creation, education, the environment, health care, disaster response, and creating smarter cities. This means more effective public agencies and nonprofits to spur local economic development and better services for residents.
Our Corporate Service Corps, Executive Service Corps and Smarter Cities Challenge programs provide outstanding opportunities for IBMers to develop global leadership skills. Collaborating with top-performing colleagues from around the world, developing and refining consulting skills, building relationships with new clients, and gaining exposure to new markets all help prepare leaders in a globally integrated enterprise. It’s why IBM continues to be recognized as the top global company for leaders, and why we’re continuing to expand these programs to involve more participants, reach new markets, and bring our culture of service to communities around the world.
Robin Willner is Vice President for Global Community Initiatives with IBM Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs.
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Stanley S. Litow in
“Can we extract lessons from the for-profit world and apply them to philanthropy?” That’s the question being asked by Harvard Business School and other institutions that are training tomorrow’s global leaders. At the recent Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC) Social Enterprise Symposium, I spoke with University of Maryland M.B.A. students to help them understand the evolution of philanthropy, and their roles in creating sustainable value to help build a smarter planet.
Young leaders need to understand that corporate philanthropy is an integral part of a successful and sustainable business strategy. For an organization to survive, its core values must remain consistent in a world where everything else is guaranteed to change.
So when it comes to philanthropy, the phrase “from spare change to real change” must represent a values-based commitment to social responsibility. In IBM’s case, this means deploying our best technology and talent to address critical societal issues around the world.
Watch this video to learn about how programs such as the Corporate Service Corps,
P-TECH, and World Community Grid are raising the effectiveness of public-private partnerships to new levels. Read what city mayors and volunteer experts are saying
about improving the quality of life in cities – where 70 percent of the world’s population
lives. Find out how nonprofit leaders are using private-sector management skills to deliver social services more efficiently.
In the world’s most forward-thinking academic, civic, and corporate environments, tomorrow’s leaders are learning from Day One to work together to help manage global challenges. Organizations that seek to lead will attract, motivate and retain top talent by giving them opportunities for service. Meanwhile, the world’s leading enterprises will continue to adapt to change while maintaining their core values of innovation, service,
and citizenship.
Stanley S. Litow is IBM’s Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs
and President of the IBM International Foundation.
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Stanley S. Litow in
Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.
– John Dewey
In my latest op-ed in U.S. News & World Report, I write that only since the end of the Second World War has high school attendance been mandatory. Back in 1945, we understood that while college could be important, finishing high school wasn’t optional – it was essential. But in 2012, the stakes and requirements are much higher. To gain access to 21st Century careers, workers must be significantly better educated than in generations past. And to prepare our children to participate in the global economy, our schools must do a better job of connecting education to employment.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has just announced his city’s intention to do just that. Following the Roadmap for Career and Technical Education developed in collaboration with an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge team — and working out of IBM’s playbook, the STEM Pathways to College and Careers School Guide — Chicago plans to open five grades 9 through 14 schools this fall. Each school will be a public-private partnership among the Chicago Public Schools, the City Colleges of Chicago, and a corporate sponsor. Their mission: to connect education to jobs.
Read my full article in U.S. News & World Report. Then follow the links below to read a variety of perspectives on how civic leaders, educators, parents, students and private industry are working together to improve American public education.
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Download the “STEM Pathways to College and Careers Schools: A Development Guide” playbook
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Posted by
Diane Melley in
If you are in New York today, look up at the Empire State Building. It will be lighted blue and green for International Corporate Philanthropy Day, an international advocacy day intended to build awareness of public-private partnerships and to inspire businesses around the world to engage more fully.
I’ll be commemorating the day by attending the Billion + Change campaign event, where I’ll speak about IBM’s 2.5 million hour service pledge that has helped inspire 500 companies to lend their best business skills and talents to serve the needs of nonprofits at home and around the globe. As a globally integrated enterprise, IBM is committed to supporting all of the communities in which we work and where our employees reside. We are also committed to skills-based volunteerism, by which we “teach a person to fish” by imparting the expertise and intellectual capital of our global workforce. Many of the tools that IBMers are using to make our communities smarter are now generally available to the public free of charge in the form of our Activity Kits.
To see some of the terrific work that IBM is supporting around the world, take a look at our Centennial Grants program, through which we have awarded 11 grants totaling nearly $1 million. These grants – which support projects that apply IBM’s Smarter Planet strategies to community service – fund innovative projects developed by IBM volunteers in areas such as environmental sustainability, economic development, and civic engagement.
Happy ICP Day, everyone!
Diane Melley is Director of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs at IBM.
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IBM Corporate Citizenship Efforts “Enrich the Ecosystem.”
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Stanley S. Litow in
In the March 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes that “when business, academic, and policy leaders collaborate to bridge the gaps [between their silos], they create a fertile environment for job growth and more-inclusive prosperity.” Professor Kanter enumerates four key goals that should be on the agenda of every leader, and cites several IBM citizenship programs – Smarter Cities Challenge, Supplier Connection, Transition to Teaching, and the Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) – as outstanding examples of companies can “[think] outside the building [to find] opportunities to influence the system around them.”
- “Link knowledge creation and venture creation to speed the conversion of ideas into market-ready enterprises. [Smarter Cities Challenge/Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Aquaponics Innovation Center]
- Link small and large enterprises to promote the growth and success of small and midsize companies and revitalize large corporations through partnerships with innovative SMEs. [Supplier Connection]
- Improve the match between education and employment opportunities. Develop a job-ready workforce through apprenticeships and other education-industry links, including new structures for schooling. [New York P-TECH, a grades 9 through 14 institution that directly connects education to employment]
- Link leaders across sectors to develop regional strategies and produce scalable models that build on local assets and attract new investment.”
Professor Kanter concludes:
Besides creating regional coalitions, business leaders can be institutional innovators. Creative leaders think not only outside the box but also—in my preferred metaphor—outside the building, finding opportunities to influence the system around them. Consider the efforts of IBM, already described in this article. They are business-strategic, involve a wide range of functions, and directly address ecosystem challenges. IBM leads the semiconductor research consortium in Albany; assists the aquaponics innovation districts in Milwaukee; runs Supplier Connection for SMEs; participates in creating six-year high schools in New York and Chicago; and retools engineers as educators through Transition to Teaching. Institutional innovations create better ways to focus R&D, supply chain, or training investments. When the private sector uses its core business capabilities to invent new prototypes for structural change, the public sector gets models to take to scale.
Read “Enriching the Ecosystem” (free registration required)
Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the chair and director of Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. Professor Kanter is the author of SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good (2009).
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Posted by
Diane Melley in
At the recent Wharton Social Impact Conference, I spoke about how corporate social responsibility (CSR) can complement core business strategies. This topic could not have been more timely, given IBM’s launch of our new services grants portfolio for 2012.
The evolution of our Corporate Citizenship grants portfolio mirrors that of our corporate strategy. In the same way that we have maintained our core values of service and integrity while adapting to the changing business landscape of our first 100 years, our CSR portfolio has evolved from donations of cash and computer hardware to sharing our wide-ranging expertise to help improve the human condition. Along the way, we have maintained the link between our culture of service and our business strategy in an effort to create sustainable value around the world.
I lead a team whose mandate is to deliver software, services and consulting grants to our nonprofit partners. Our grantees rarely get access to the type of cutting-edge technology that we offer, but with our help they’re able to serve their constituencies better. For example, last year we awarded Families First a grant to access Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), a computer application that examines an organization’s existing data to uncover unexpected patterns and associations – thereby helping to anticipate change and devise strategies to improve outcomes. Using SPSS, Families First was able to vastly improve its analysis of client data to improve risk management and compliance.
We also have donated access to our LotusLive collaboration suite – a “cloud-based” solution that enables quick, easy and secure Web conferencing, file sharing, online community building and more. Cloud computing offers users the ability to increase data storage and application use without investing in new infrastructure. It’s a breakthrough technology that enables our grantees to exchange information and manage projects more easily – all from the convenience of an Internet browser. Our grantees have used LotusLive to:
- Deliver webinars to share best practices across the Latin American Network of fair and sustainable cities;
- Use webinars and file sharing to increase the effectiveness of planning processes; and
- Build relationship networks to connect health care personnel assisting in the Haitian relief effort.
I am humbled every day by the incredible work that organizations in our communities are doing on the ground, and thrilled to help provide the tools they need to work better, faster and smarter.
Diane Melley is Director of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs at IBM.
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