2011 Microsoft Citizenship Report: Working Responsibly

• Share
• Share on Stumble Upon
• Share on Digg
• Share on Delicious
• Follow Us
• Follow us on Facebook
• Share On Twitter

Working Responsibly

“Microsoft is committed to principled, accountable, and transparent business practices that meet our responsibilities as a global company. We appreciate the importance of talking with and listening to those who are affected by our decisions. And we’re committed to learning from groups and individuals that are leaders on the social, economic, and environmental issues of our day.”– Brad Smith,
General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs

Our Company Citizenship @ Microsoft GRI Index and Additional Reporting Download the Microsoft
2011 Citizenship Report

Archived Reports

Select 2010 2009 2007-2008 2006 2005 2004 2003

Highlights

The following are some of our goals in each of our Working Responsibly focus areas. Many of these are goals that we reported on or set for ourselves in our FY2010 Citizenship Report. For detail on progress achieved against these goals, see the relevant sections of this report.

 

Our People

Goal	Target Date	FY2011 Progress	FY2011 Details
Regularly evaluate compensation and benefits to meet employee and market needs	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Announced significant changes to our pay structure. We are raising employees’ base salaries, providing more cash up front by reducing performance-based stock award targets for most employees. Starting in FY2012, employees in particularly competitive positions or markets will receive an additional pay increase.
Increase executive leadership support and accountability in diversity and inclusion	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Deepened direct executive involvement in company-wide diversity and inclusion planning. In FY2012 and beyond, this will create greater visibility and accountability for diversity and inclusion results.
Recruit, advance, and retain senior-level women globally	Ongoing	BEHIND	The percentage of women pursuing careers in technology continues to decrease. We are working to address the issue along with other industry partners and organizations
Continue to encourage employees to volunteer their skills	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Created an online tool to match the skills of employees with nonprofits in need

Environmental Sustainability

Goal	Target Date	FY2011 Progress	FY2011 Details
Reduce carbon emissions per unit of revenue by 30 percent compared with 2007	2012	BEHIND	The rise in cloud computing is requiring more data center capacity, which in turn is causing the use of more energy. We will continue to work to achieve this goal, particularly by making our data centers more efficient.
Build new data centers that average 1.125 in Power Use Effectiveness (PUE)	2012	ON TRACK	Achieved a PUE of 1.15 to 1.20 in our newest data center
Enhance our global carbon footprint tracking system to also track water consumption and waste	FY2011	ON TRACK	Added water tracking to our system and improved our waste tracking capabilities. The results on water are available in this report. We are working towards more detailed reporting on waste in FY2012.
Create new energy efficiency guidelines for our product groups	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Developed energy efficiency guidelines for Windows products. In FY2012, we will work to develop energy efficiency guidelines for our cloud services.
Develop new environmental guidelines for the software industry as a whole	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Currently working with peers to develop two new industry-wide metrics to track carbon emissions and water use.
Work with partners to find solutions that allow cloud computing to grow, while reducing environmental impacts	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Worked with peers and third-party organizations, including the Green Grid, to find new ways to make cloud computing more energy efficient

Responsible Sourcing

Goal	Target Date	FY2011 Progress	FY2011 Details
Update our Vendor Code of Conduct	FY2011	ACHIEVED	Updated the code to strengthen human rights, anti-corruption, and customer security and privacy. The new code became effective at the beginning of FY2012.
Increase transparency	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Briefed socially responsible investors, advocacy groups, and industry peers on our policies, programs, and progress. We also increased the level of detail that we make public about our supply chain in our annual Citizenship Report.
Eradicate conflict minerals from the technology industry’s supply chain	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Worked with suppliers to help them launch conflict-free sourcing smelter tracking and management systems, which are at various stages of development. We also worked with industry peers through the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition to support an industry-wide Conflict-Free Smelter Program.

Privacy and Safety

Goal	Target Date	FY2011 Progress	FY2011 Details
Teach online safety to people around the world	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Helped teach more than 12 million students, teachers, parents, and consumers safer online habits and practices
Develop strong privacy and safety public policy frameworks	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Created new resources to help policymakers understand online challenges and how we can work together to solve them
Partner to fight online crime	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Worked with partners to shut down major Internet crime operations such as the Win 32/Rustock botnet
Create company-wide guidelines on online freedom of expression	FY2011	ACHIEVED	Adopted a company-wide Freedom of Expression policy based on international human rights standards and the Global Network Initiative

Integrity and Governance

Goal	Target Date	FY2011 Progress	FY2011 Details
Expand stakeholder engagement and dialogue	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Redesigned and expanded our corporate Governance and Citizenship content on the Investor Relations website, in addition to maintaining regular communications with stakeholder groups
Engage with others on industry best practices	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Engaged in cross-industry dialogues through the Conference Board Governance Center, Stanford Institutional Investors’ Forum, the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals, and the Council of Institutional Investors to help develop best practices
Examine how we manage enterprise and external risk	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Expanded our disclosure related to the role of the Board and its committees in risk management
Maintain our strong practices and performance	Ongoing	ON TRACK	Achieved strong ratings from independent rating agencies, including a global market rating of 9.5 from Governance Metrics International

Compliance

Goal	Target Date	FY2011 Progress	FY2011 Details
Strengthen support for industry standards in Windows Internet Explorer	FY2011	ACHIEVED	Published more than 40 documents with the release of Internet Explorer 9 that explain its support for web standards. No other browser vendor provides this level of documentation.

Microsoft Employee Poll Results

Note: Employee poll responses to the questions reflected in this table have not changed significantly since last year. We continue to invest in building high levels of employee participation in providing feedback.