Capitol Hill, ExxonMobil & BCLC

The last day of 'team events' kicked off with a super-stretch limo ride from hotel to Capitol Hill for tours of key buildings and breakfast with some active lobbyists and chief of staff for Congressman. We were hosted by a number of ExxonMobil representatives who lead us to The State Department (which I learnt is the US version for Foreign Affairs).

We visited Sewell-Belmont house which is the oldest residence on Capital Hill - http://www.sewallbelmont.org/ it houses the oldest feminist library and historical information on women's movements that lead to women in the US being given the right to vote in the 1920s.

Sewell-Belmont House:

Me heading to Congress...

We then headed to the State Department - which is a VERY impressive building and are the offices of Hillary Clinton's staff who work in diplomacy & foreign affairs. We had a lunch discussion with a team looking into international projects to support 1) Women & Girls 2)Heath care entrepreneurship etc

ExxonMobil office I visited in Virginia



ExxonMobil

Who I met: Noa Gimelli, Corporate Citizenship, ExxonMobil Corporation

Company info:
The Exxon Mobil Corporation, or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company,[3] and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are located in Irving, Texas.

ExxonMobil is one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world, having been ranked either #1 or #2 for the past 5 years. However they are currently 4th according to Forbes Global 2000. Exxon Mobil's reserves were 72 billion oil-equivalent barrels at the end of 2007 and, at then (2007) rates of production, are expected to last over 14 years.[4] With 37 oil refineries in 21 countries constituting a combined daily refining capacity of 6.3 million barrels, Exxon Mobil is the largest refiner in the world,[5][6] a title that was also associated with Standard Oil since its incorporation in 1870.[7]

ExxonMobil is the largest of the six oil supermajors[8] with daily production of 3.921 million BOE (barrels of oil equivalent). In 2008, this was approximately 3% of world production, which is less than several of the largest state-owned petroleum companies.[9] When ranked by oil and gas reserves it is 14th in the world with less than 1% of the total.[10][11]

Key messages: Discussed a range of issues including

1) The model/structure of Corporate Citizenship within ExxonMobil (link to core business vs work of Foundaation). Annual report drives metrics and active assessment. 19 internal interviews and 250 reviews of the report. http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Imports/ccr2009/pdf/community_ccr_2009.pdf


2) The focus areas of Corporate Citizenship (Women's economic opportunity, Careers in Maths & Science, Community development, Malaria etc)...example of Supply Chain responsibility and potential to work with contractors

3) Engaging change in a 'Texas' culture - tapping into those with influence & authority to be change agents.

Useful tips -
1) 'Materiality assessment' template to assess the priority of issues facing internal and external stakeholders
2) CATALYST group for gender policy in private sector - New York conference

US Chamber of Commerce: Business Civic Leadership Centre (BCLC)

Who I met:  Stephen Jordan, Executive Director and Senior Vice President of the Business Civic Leadership Center.

Topic: The role of businesses in sustainability and community involvement and improvement programs.

The Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) is a 501(c)3 affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation. BCLC is the U.S. Chamber's resource and voice for businesses and their social and philanthropic interests.   

BCLC's vision is for the positive role of business in society to be understood and advanced. Our mission is to promote better business and society relations and improve long-term social and economic conditions by:

BCLC works with leaders from the business, government, and nonprofit sectors to address and act on shared goals.  Our overarching goal is to help build good will, good relations, and good markets by focusing on issues that affect businesses from a social and economic standpoint.

Stephen Jordan is the founder and executive director of the Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC), the corporate citizenship affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.Stephen leads BCLC's engagement with a broad spectrum of companies, chambers of commerce, government agencies, and non-profit organizations in the United States and overseas. He has worked on numerous U.S. and global development and disaster recovery challenges including Katrina, Cedar Rapids, the Southeast Asia Tsunami, and the Haiti earthquake.

In addition to his work at BCLC, Stephen currently serves on the U.S. National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Board of Governors of the Corporate Responsibility Officers' (CRO) Association and the New World Institute.  Stephen is also a Caux Round Table fellow.

Key Messages: NGO partnerships a realistic option for global disaster response work, their 'global corporate citizenship' partners would be great to tap into and learn more.