Citizenship @ Microsoft
Citizenship at Microsoft is about serving the needs of communities and fulfilling our responsibilities to the public.
Microsoft’s mission is to help people and businesses around the world realize their full potential. Our Citizenship work plays a vital role in delivering on that mission as we apply our technology expertise and resources to help solve societal challenges on both a global and a local scale.
Our Citizenship Mission
Serve globally the needs of communities and fulfill our responsibilities to the public.
Our Citizenship Approach
In 1975 Microsoft was an unknown software company with a single product and the promise of delivering on a new way of computing. We have since grown to become one of the largest companies in the world. With that growth comes the responsibility to contribute positively to society on a global scale.
We do so in two ways: Serving Communities and Working Responsibly.
As a company, we have a responsibility to help create social and economic opportunities wherever we work, live, and do business. Microsoft works with partners to create social opportunity by applying technology to a range of pressing social issues. These include supporting nonprofits, education, humanitarian needs, healthcare, and energy and environmental sustainability. Technology also fosters economic opportunity and creates jobs. Through our core business and through global programs, we work to strengthen local economies by supporting workforce development, IT infrastructure, research, innovation, and access to technology.
We employ exceptional local people around the world; we use our skills to serve local needs, especially in education; and we support local organizations, customs, and cultures. In return for our efforts, we are able to benefit from diverse talent, become part of local economic life, and participate positively in the community.
Citizenship at Microsoft is also about the way we work every day – about the values we bring to our business practices and operations. We seek principled approaches to how we conduct our business that uphold our responsibilities to the public. Those responsibilities manifest themselves in our Citizenship activities and encompass everything from adding features that make our products more accessible to those with disabilities to how we manage our suppliers to how we communicate with and engage the full range of stakeholders.
Our commitment to responsible business practices is foundational to who we are as a company and specific information related to our work in various categories (responsible sourcing, online privacy and safety, environmental sustainability, governance, et al) is provided in this report.
However, there is one critically important issue - human rights – that spans all categories. In June 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed new Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This decision represented a significant milestone in the history of business and human rights: More clarity exists today than ever before on governments’ duty to protect human rights and the responsibility business has to respect human rights. As a result of this development, we will be focused in FY12 on the key human rights questions now faced by companies. Those questions relate to how companies (specifically Microsoft) should apply the UN Guiding Principles to our business strategy and operations.
As noted elsewhere, Microsoft endorses the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, as a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and we will use both the Declaration and UNGC to inform and guide our work in developing a holistic approaching meeting our human rights responsibilities within the context of the newly endorsed Guiding Principles.
Stakeholder Engagement and Responding
to International Priorities
Microsoft Citizenship work is also informed by engagement with thousands of stakeholders around the world, ranging from human rights experts to parents concerned about the online safety of their children. In working to conduct our business with integrity, we engage with a wide range of stakeholders across all parts of our business operations. We also benefit from participating in a range of groups and initiatives that address corporate responsibility, including Business for Social Responsibility, the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, Net Impact, and the World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative.
In particular, our work is informed by and aligned with internationally recognized priorities and frameworks, such as the United Nations Global Compact and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. We seek to align our Citizenship reporting to the Global Reporting Initiative’s G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.
- Download the Microsoft UN Global Compact Communications on Progress (PDF file, 307 KB)
- Download the Microsoft Commitment to the UN Millennium Development Goals (PDF file, 397 KB)
What's Next in Citizenship
In FY2011, we initiated planning to evolve Microsoft’s Citizenship approach, which we will refine over the course of FY2012. This represents the third generation of Citizenship at Microsoft over the past dozen years, and it continues to support our corporate mission to help people and businesses around the world reach their full potential.
To enhance our commitment to working responsibly, in FY2012 we are conducting an in-depth review to assess and further strengthen our work to promote responsible business practices across our supply chain. We are also sharpening our work to serve communities, where we are launching a new set of programs focused on providing opportunities for youth. In addition, we are developing a more focused engagement with the product and business groups to support efforts to serve communities through technology.
Microsoft will continue to work to expand its commitment to transparency. We have made progress in this year’s Citizenship Report, and we plan to build on this by setting clearer forward-looking goals in our FY2012 Citizenship Report. As always, we have an ongoing commitment to engage with our stakeholders, and we welcome input and feedback on how we are performing and how we are communicating.
