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Sustainability
Balancing economic growth, social development, and environmental protection
Energy supports economic prosperity and growth by fueling industry, agriculture, and transportation; heating and lighting schools, homes, businesses, and hospitals; and improving living standards around the world. It is a critical enabler of modern life and progress.
As the world’s largest publicly traded integrated energy company, ExxonMobil’s primary responsibility is to find, develop, and safely deliver reliable supplies of energy to people around the world while providing a return to our shareholders. In a growing and advancing world, where expanding energy demands coincide with expanding expectations of energy companies in terms of social and environmental performance, this is no small challenge.
We are committed to helping meet the world’s energy needs while addressing the challenge of sustainability—balancing economic growth, social development, and environmental protection—so that future generations are not compromised by actions taken today. It is our view that successful companies are those that see business objectives and sustainability objectives as interlinked.
For a number of years, our business lines have been incorporating sustainability considerations in their operations and sharing the outcomes with stakeholders. To further assist this process, in 2009, we formed a corporate-level sustainability working group to enhance our coordination and progress in this area. This year, we actively engaged with some of our key business customers to discuss sustainability issues, including our environmental performance. In 2010, our focus will include internal information sharing, process and guidelines development, and further external engagement.
Corporate citizenship and sustainability
Our corporate citizenship strategy guides how we address the sustainability challenge. To aid reporting and strengthen ownership, we base our efforts on six citizenship focus areas. Our goal is not simply to align our activities with society’s expectations, but to support the long-term success of our global business.
Citizenship Focus Areas
Corporate Governance 
ExxonMobil's unwavering commitment to high ethical standards and business integrity is critical to our competitive advantage and shareholder value. We expect our employees to integrate our commitment to corporate governance into their activities and decision-making. Our globally deployed management and control systems are designed to support this integration and make it possible to conduct safe, reliable, and ethical operations worldwide.
Safety, Health, and the Workplace
ExxonMobil protects the safety of our employees, contractors, customers, and the public by managing both personnel and process safety. Reducing safety, security, and health risks in the workplace is our core value. It also contributes to improved reliability, lower costs, and higher productivity. Our workplace policies foster an environment free of harassment and discrimination on any grounds, which encourages employee development and a positive atmosphere. This also helps us recruit and retain the most talented individuals.
Environmental Performance
We are committed to conducting business in a manner that protects the environment. We integrate environmental improvement into our business strategies and address key environmental issues specific to each business. Integrating environmental considerations during the development of a project improves design and operational reliability; and reduces costs over the life of the project. Operating in an environmentally sound manner helps maintain our license to operate, enhances local community relationships, and creates competitive advantage for the company.
Managing Climate Change Risks
ExxonMobil recognizes the dual challenge of providing energy necessary for economic development while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with energy production and use. Our efforts to reduce GHG emissions from our operations and consumer use of products include improving energy efficiency, implementing proven emissions-reducing technologies, and developing breakthrough technologies for the long term. Such technology investments attract world-class partners and offer potentially significant business opportunities. Improving energy efficiency also reduces costs.
Economic Development
We seek to create long-term economic and social benefits from our projects and presence. In addition to the substantial revenue flows our operations generate for host governments, we employ a variety of economic support and incentive programs to help reduce barriers to development, improve local infrastructure, create jobs, enhance education, and drive economic activity. Developing a skilled workforce and reliable supply chains of local goods and services improves the local business environment, reduces costly delays, and leads to local economic growth and higher standards of living.
Human Rights and Security
We believe our business presence should have a positive influence on the people in the communities in which we operate. Respecting human rights is essential for helping to create a stable business environment. Operating in a manner that promotes respect for human rights enhances employee morale, protects our license to operate within a community, and reduces potentially costly risks, such as litigation or interruptions to our operations.
Up close:
Managing sustainability issues at ExxonMobil
Sustainability issues are managed at—and communicated through—all levels of the Corporation.
Example of management in action
Goal: Improve energy efficiency across worldwide refining and chemical operations by 10 percent between 2002 and 2012.
Approach: Following approval by the Management Committee, the Refining and Chemical businesses are responsible for achieving the goal. Under the guidance of the presidents of Refining and Chemical, site operations management implements facility-level energy intensity improvements. Our Corporate Safety, Security, Health, and Environment Department collects data on progress from the businesses and presents it annually to the Management Committee and the Public Issues and Contributions Committee of the Board for review and discussion.
