Corporate Social Responsibility of Google: Analysis and Evaluation

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Google's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. It begins with an evaluation of Google's CSR initiatives, including environmental sustainability, consumer responsibility, and community engagement. The report then examines Google's corporate communication strategies, highlighting the importance of transparency and the potential dangers of empty boasting. It delves into specific examples of corporate scandals and their impact on reputation. The analysis includes evaluations of Google's CSR report, its form, content, and credibility. The report also identifies key elements and sustainability initiatives. Overall, the report offers a comprehensive overview of Google's CSR efforts, their communication, and the challenges they face in maintaining a positive corporate image.

Title Goes Here 1
TITLE OF THE PAPER CENTERED AND IN CAPS LOCK
by Student’s Name
Code + Course Name
Professor’s Name
University Name
City, State
Date

Title Goes Here 2
Table of Content
Abstract.....................................................................................................................................2
Introduction..............................................................................................................................4
Evaluation and analysis of the company's CSR activities....................................................4
Evaluation of the website.........................................................................................................4
Analysis of the CSR report......................................................................................................4
Table 2.1: How 'green' is my company..................................................................................5
Table 2.2: Attributes of the CSR report.................................................................................7
Describe the form and content of the CSR report:...........................................................7
2. Who is the report designed for?..........................................................................................7
How thorough and credible is the report?.............................................................................8
4. Identify the key elements of the report..............................................................................8
5. Identify two sustainability initiatives for 2018 (or 2109 if details available)..................8
Communicating about CSR....................................................................................................9
The dangers of empty boasting.............................................................................................10
Empty boasting and reputation............................................................................................10
Corporate scandal 1...............................................................................................................11
Corporate scandal 2...............................................................................................................11
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................12
Recommendations..................................................................................................................12
References...............................................................................................................................13

Title Goes Here 3
Appendix A.............................................................................................................................14
Abstract
Corporations like Google have a social responsibility towards its employees,
consumers, and other stakeholders as well as to the environment and communities.
Companies talk about their CSR or corporate social responsibility activities in many forms of
communication. The first section discusses Google’s CSR activities and provides an
evaluation. At the same time, it also discusses the relationship of corporate communication
with the company’s CSR activities and reputation. Google publishes an official CSR report
every year that take notes of their past activities, current actions as well as their future goals.
The tables included highlighting some of their accomplishments and actions along the way.
Meanwhile, some enterprises brag about their activities while not being fully honest about it.
There are many examples of corporate scandals that can vouch for this fact.

Title Goes Here 4
Introduction
The following assignment is a brief discussion of a company’s corporate
communication and corporate social responsibilities. The company chosen here is Google
LLC. Google is a multinational company that is based in America and specializes in
technology. Their operations also involve Internet-related products and services such as
online advertising technologies, cloud computing, software, and hardware. Google also
operates one of the world’s most popular search engines. It is one of the biggest corporations
all around the world. The segments below will analyze Google’s CSR activities, talk about
corporate communication and its relationship with the company’s reputation along with some
instances of corporate scandals.
Evaluation and analysis of the company's CSR activities
Corporate responsibilities help a company to make positive impacts on social issues
and bring changes. It benefits the company as much as it does to the community. Google
maintains its image by contributing to charitable practices to support society while also
garnering huge support from its consumers.
Evaluation of the website
Millennials like to think that they are doing their part when they are choosing a
company that is fulfilling its duties properly. Google supports communities with its
philanthropic activities. The website offers some video clips of the firm’s gallant moves and
the trends behind it.
Analysis of the CSR report
As mentioned in table 2.2, they offer grants and investment opportunities to those who
need it and have earned it. They also marked their position at the top of the list in the most
responsible and ‘Green’ corporation on the planet, as stated in table 2.1. They are the only

Title Goes Here 5
company to operate on wind and solar energy. In 2018, they were on their 11th year of being
carbon neutral while already decreasing their carbon emission by 87% (Wisniewski, 2018).
Table 2.1: How 'green' is my company
1. Company name: Google LLC
2. Industry type: Technology company
3. Is there a CSR department?  Yes  No
4. What is it called? Google’s CSR
5. Is there a CSR Report for 2018?  Yes  No
6. Is it available on the website?  Yes  No
7. Corporate Social Responsibility in Action. Which social change activities does the
company engage in? Identify activities from each relevant category.
CSR activity  OR  Activity
Environment  91% of their waste created by their global data
centre operations were averted away from
landfills.
Consumer responsibility  They offer almost 1 Billion kilometres worth
of substitute transportation results every day to

Title Goes Here 6
the users (Schaltegger, Burritt & Petersen,
2017).
Community  More effective data centres are being created
to reduce energy consumption and creating
jobs.
Employee relations  They design the workplaces to be more secure
and sustainable and encourage the employees
into effective training programs.
Indigenous  They help the indigenous tribes to track and
possibly prevent deforestation in their native
lands through satellite services.
Diversity  They have worked on more than 200 projects
so far that contributes to the company’s
culture of diversity efforts.
8. How ‘green’ is the website? The website itself is not green.
9. How ‘green’ is the company? The company is operating using 100%
renewable energy like wind and solar.
10. CSR indices/rankings Ranked 1

Title Goes Here 7
Table 2.2: Attributes of the CSR report
Describe the form and content of the CSR report:
The report contains details of their current environment-friendly activities and the
support they are offering to the consumers and their employees (Stacchezzini, Melloni
& Lai 2016).
2. Who is the report designed for?
Constituency  OR  Key message.
Investors  to focus on the products and
services to make profits.
Employee present  Employees are valued and
encouraged.
Employees future  Sustainable workplaces are
designed.
Academics 
Community activities  100 million dollar worth of grants
and investments made through
charity programs.
Public officials  To completely abide by the laws
Corporate managers  To make an example through CSR
efforts.
Other  To satisfy the stakeholders by
making efforts and offering
benefits.

Title Goes Here 8
How thorough and credible is the report?
Report elements  OR 
Is this a CRS report? y
Does the report provide details on CSR practices as well as policies? y
Does the CSR report provide systematic data? y
Does the company report data in a comparable form? y
Does the report present future goals as well as past practices? y
Does the report include bad news as well as good news? n
Does the report address the company’s greatest CSR challenges? y
Does the company integrate CSR reporting with its traditional business
strategy and its financial reporting?
n
4. Identify the key elements of the report
Highlighting their efforts of being carbon neutral since 11 years and sustaining on
100% renewable energy sources
5. Identify two sustainability initiatives for 2018 (or 2109 if details available)
Moving towards diverting 100% waste away from landfills from data centers and
decreasing carbon footprints
Communicating about CSR
Google is one of few corporations that have such immense support from communities
and consumers and it is due to their CSR activities. Moreover, their research and
development strategies also satisfy their investors to invest in their business which lets them
focus on their CSR efforts and to continue making changes (Haverfield et al., 2018).
Corporate communication refers to the practice of developing and preserving a
corporation’s brand image. A corporate communications team is supposed to take action to

Title Goes Here 9
uphold communications with internal and external audiences and maintain the company’s
positive image in the public. Both big and small businesses are concerned with their
responsibilities and whether they can satisfy their stakeholders on their expectations.
Stakeholders include the communities, consumers, government, employees as well as
investors. In their eyes, the enterprises are legitimate as long as they are fulfilling their duties.
So, it has become the utmost significance to communicate the entity’s CSR policies and
strategies in public by anticipating everyone’s expectations of them (Maas, Schaltegger &
Crutzen, 2016). The company has to be honest and transparent while communicating their
policies in order to prevent any accusation or scandal. The corporations must incorporate the
policies in the workplace as well as in their business operations. Their concerns about the
environment and the social issues must reflect in their actions as well. For a company such as
Google, it begins with being a fair employer to the employees and implementing a work
culture that promotes diversity and inclusion. In this modern era, consumers are more
concerned with these social responsibilities than ever. So the companies regulate themselves
to put genuine efforts in contributing their part in the significant causes and influence it
positively. Therefore, they garner a positive reputation which makes more people interested
in their business. By that means, it not only helps the society and their image, it also benefits
them in various ways. For instance, Google promises its consumers to come up with the latest
technologies and applications, and services that would help them in daily lives and add more
value. Along with that, they also help indigenous people to keep track of possible
deforestation in their homelands with their technologies (Lo, Ramos & Rogo, 2017). So, they
single-handedly satisfy their customers while also supporting the tribal communities with
their CSR strategies. In order to keep the users happy and satisfied they make holistic
approaches in research and development which as a result impresses the stockholders and

Title Goes Here 10
investors. They perceive the company as a fruitful investment which influences the
company’s market profit and share in the end. Thus, they continue the cycle.
Companies often use media reports or public relations, advertisements and product
labels to communicate with the public on their CSR activities. In the post-modern era, they
also utilize social media platforms to start the conversation to encourage the mass to
participate actively in the discussion. CSR report is another form of their communication on
an official level.
The dangers of empty boasting
Empty boasting is considered as one of the most foolish things to do for any
organization. Boasting is basically the process of bragging yourself and about your
accomplishment, but when someone is bragging about their false achievement that is called
empty boasting. An empty bragging can be very harmful in many ways for an organization
and among them, reputation is a factor that will be harmed most badly.
Empty boasting and reputation
Reputation has been a major factor for Google as it cannot be built in a few days, it
requires loyalty, dedication and true promises throughout a long time span. The most
common thing Google boasts about is its diversity in the work culture and in its work sectors.
But a recent incident in 2018 let many people draw an acquisition of diversity in Google’s
work sector. It all began when an engineer of Google named James Dunmore spread a memo
in his work sector about Google’s diversity and he also told that women are less capable than
men in technology. After that, he was fired but many acquisitions were arising about
Google’s diversity in the workplace.

Title Goes Here 11
Corporate scandal 1
Corporate responsibility headlines scandals can impact an organization in various
ways such as the company’s constituents, their image, credibility, and reputation. For
example in 1990 Nike was accused of their system, abusive labor practices and low wage to
their employees. The company’s reputation was stroke badly when the media started to cover
negative views on them. Many well-known newspapers stared to cover the article such as
Rolling stone, The new york times, etc. The condition gets worse when anti-Nike rallies were
executed in 50 US cities and 11 other countries. The Nike products were synonymous with
slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse which led the customers to not buy the
products (O'Rourke, 2019).
Corporate scandal 2
One of the most foreboding CR scandals is Arthur Anderson. It was an American
audit and accounting firm whose widespread corruption led him to end the journey with a
major loss. Arthur Anderson approved Enron’s financial statement with an overstated value
of about more than 1 billion. When the fact comes to spotlight multiple office branches of
that company destroy the documents and emails related to Enron’s finance. In less than a year
the company went from 28000 employees to a shutdown.
So it can be stated that a company’s reputation, credibility, and image depends on their true
statements, loyalty, and dedication. An empty boasting, false accusation and wrong act can
lead a company to shut down.
Conclusion
This report offers a brief insight into Google on their CSR activities. In the first
segment, two tables have been added with important questions answered regarding this

Title Goes Here 12
matter. Google is a technology giant in the field. Therefore, they also hold a huge
responsibility towards the significant social causes. The content assesses their activities and
offers an analysis. Corporate communication is a vital process that is also linked with CSR.
Companies like Google have to communicate their policies and strategies with the public and
their stakeholders to provide insight into their actions. At the same time, it also discusses
empty boasting that negatively affects a company’s image. In conclusion, the bigger an
enterprise is, the more responsibilities they have to take on.
Recommendations
Since corporate communication has become essential at this point, corporations and
their management also try to come up with ideas on how to communicate more effectively.
The companies must be clear on their agenda and what they are trying to achieve by a CSR
action. Managers should master this concept to build efficient forms of communications that
actually serve their purpose. Furthermore, a company should also be clear what they are
doing and what good that activity would serve. They must convince the public on their
agenda if they want to seem legitimate in the process (Stanciu, Condrea & Zamfir, 2016). In
addition, they should also build a long-term goal and stick with it for years which proves their
dedication and determination to the matter.