Corporate Social Responsibility In Apple, Volkswagen And British Airways

However, when considering thier corporate social responsibility programmes they couldn’t be much different. Facebook often face much scrutiny from the public and the media as they are often involved in scandals as mentioned earlier leaking people’s personal nformation to other companies. In contast to this Delotte’s have seen the benefits having a good social responsibility programme can have and made the most of it with the help they offer ranging from the local community to worldwide charity organisations. Deloitte’s corporate social responibility programme is very similar to that of Everton FC, this is because although Everton’s social responsibility programme is driven by shareholders; both companies established thier social responsibility programme because they wanted to not because they were under pressure from the public and the media to help provide more for the comminity as we have seen with Facebook. Volkswagen Vokswagen were involved in one of the biggest car scandals ever; Volkswagen decided that it didn’t matter if its cars poisoned the planet by emitting 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide, as long as doing so allowed it to become the world’s leading car maker. They wanted all the torque and fuel economy of a diesel, without diesel's excess emission. This shows that Volkswagen’s only concern was to make money and they had no interest in protecting the planet if it hindered thier profit margin. Volkswagen do have a corporate social responsibility programme haowever, following the ongoing scandal they have been involved in the social responsibility programme because invalid to an extent as they have breached rules to protect the environment so badly. Volkswagen state that sustainability means pursuing economic, social and ecological objectives simultaneously and with equal energy. Therefore they aim to create lasting values, offer good working conditions, and conserve resources and the environment. They also claim that When it comes to the emissions issue, they have failed to live up to our own standards in several areas. The irregularities in the handling of emissions tests contradict everything they stand for and that they will do everything in their power to prevent incidents of this kind from recurring, and they claim they are fully committed to re-embracing their standards and winning back public trust. When considering what drives Volkswagen’s corporate social responsibility programme it is clear that it is public scrutiny as a result of the emissions scandal. Shareholders and investors were the ones that had no interest in anything other than profit which resulted in the emissions scandal. Which therefore indicates that they are not concerned about the companies social responsibility and only developed and enhanced thier corporate social responsibility programme because of the scrutiny they faced from the media. It would also be in the investors and shareholders interest to set up a social responsibility programme following the scandal. Once it was discovered what Volkswagen had been doing in the emissions scandal within a week share prices had fallen by 40%. This highlights the importance of a good corporate social responsibility programme and shows the effects of companies being greedy with their sole intentions being making money and not having a concern for the environment or other factors. Prior to the scandal Volkswagen were the largest car company in the world however, in recent years they have fallen to second after years of being the largest car company in the world. Once again what highlights the importance of a good scoacial responsibility programme is how much the scandal shook the car market and led to several models of car and certain engines no longer being made as they didn’t conform to the regulations but they had been caught like Volkswagen. The scandal had a domino effect on the majority of the car market however it didnt harm other car manufacteurs as badly as the ones Volkswagen own such as Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche. Studies would suggest that the scandal took place as a result of Volkswagen wanting to be the dielsel kings of America, but meeting emissions regulations while offering good performance and fuel economy was too expensive and ultimately the greed of shareholders and investors led to the company suffering a huge amount and shows how much the public care about a corporate social responsibility prograamme that limits the damage to the environment. Apple Apple are a company who have a strong corporate social responsibility programme in place but the success of it can be questioned as they have been involved in several scandals. Apple state that they are committed to the highest standards of social responsibility across their worldwide supply chain insisting that all of their suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes. This wasn’t the case in the Foxconn investigation that took place in 2012. The investigation completly contradicts what Apple say about thier social responsibility with the investigation finding that there was “excessive overtime and problems with overtime compensation; several health and safety risks; and crucial communication gaps that have led to a widespread sense of unsafe working conditions among workers”. Another claim that Apple made was that what happens on your phone stays on your phone. However, following a recent scandal it has been discovered that a small proportion of Siri recordings are passed on to contractors working for the company around the world. This is far less significant than the aformentioned scandal nonetheless it is still a brach of peoples privacy which is something Apple have always been vocal about not doing. The most recent scandal taking place involving Apple is the ‘batterygate’ scandal. The sandal caused much controversy because older iPhones had ‘updates’ brought however in reality they were slowing the phone down so that people would be encouraged to buy a new phone. All of these scandals were caused by Apple being too greedy which was driven by shareholders and investors so that in the short term it would maximise profits. The scandal cost Apple in the long term as once what they were doing was discovered the companies value fell by 74 billion in 24 hours. There seems to be a recurring theme when a business becomes too greedy it damages the companies corporate social responsibility programme and ultimately leads to the business suffering in the long term. This is evident with both Apple and Volkswagen as they focused on short term profit which led to the business eventually suffering. In contrast to this in recent years Apple have done a vast amount of things to help improve their corporate social responsibility and ultimately helping communities and protecting the planet. In 2018 Apple reached a very significant milestone using 100% renewable electricity for 100% of its operations. All of its global facilities are powered 100% by renewable energy. Moreover, the company managed to save 41.5 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) through energy efficiency initiatives in its facilities globally. Apple has also included its suppliers in this program and 44 of them have pledged to use 100% renewable energy for their production. Apple has also taken significant steps in the area of water stewardship including controlling freshwater use, improving the quality of water it discharges from Apple system, and demonstrating leadership by protecting shared water resources. Apple has also engaged communities locally where it operates and manufactures its products to ensure protection of and accessibility to shared water resources. The company has made significant progress in its use of recycled material as well. Apart from reducing the use of plastic in packaging by around 48% and growing its use of recycled plastic, it is using recycled tin, aluminium and cobalt for Apple products and their parts. In 2018, Apple became the first significant partner of Malala fund, allowing a significant expansion of the efforts of Malala Yousufzai’s Malala funds to support girls’ education and advocate for equal opportunity. Apple is also investing in poor and marginalized communities through projects to empower the poor and the backward. Apple has remained a part of the ConnectED initiative right since 2014. It has pledged $100 million of teaching and learning solutions to 114 underserved schools across United states. Apple has donated an iPad to every student, a Mac and iPad to every teacher, and an Apple TV to every classroom. Apple are now investing in electrification of rural areas as well as preventive healthcare and high quality education for low income communities from places ranging from Latin America to India. After considering all of these factors, Apple’s corporate social responsibility programme is driven by both public scrutiny and shareholders. They do a huge amount for communities worldwide yet they are still involved in scandals such as breachingg peoples privacy. British Airways British Airways have a corporate social responsibility programme which covers many fronts from consevation of the environment to improving the wellbring of staff and their workplace. However, in contarst to this British Airways have recently received a £183 million fine for a data breach which is a record fine for a data breach. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the incident took place after users of British Airways' website were diverted to a fraudulent site. Through this false site, details of about 500,000 customers were harvested by the attackers. BA had initially said approximately 380,000 transactions were affected, but the stolen data did not include travel or passport details so the total figure is unknown. In addition to this scandal British Airways has been accused of emitting 18,000 tonnes of excess carbon dioxide each year in a practice used to help airlines save money, according to a BBC Panorama investigation.