The development of a country’s economy in many parts of the world has caused the increased consumption of energy and gasoline in particular as the main fuel that run vehicles and machineries in plants. In turn, the increasing demand will influence the price of the natural resources as suggested by the law of demand and supply under special condition. To be specific, the oil consumption in the U. S. undoubtedly continues rising as the result of a large number of factories and its machines that fueled by oil and its derivatives like diesel etcetera.
Figure 3 shows that oil consumption in the U. S. since 1950 – 2003. In addition, despite issues of global warming and further environmental hazards, fossil fuels are still human greatest energy source for transportation and generating industrial machineries. In this nature of strong influence towards people’s lives, fossil fuels are endless matter of discussions and debates, from among people with influence in the House of Representatives, to even housewives in the local park. The price of gasoline is being the topic more than others.
Concerning the oil and gas industry, this paper will discuss a multinational oil company, Chevron, especially regarding their commitment to conducting corporate social and environmental responsibility. Prior to the discussion of social and environment program that Chevron performs, this paper will discuss the company background of Chevron including their business and competitors. 2. Social and Environmental Responsibility Standard The need to conduct the so-called social and environmental responsibility by a company has driven the birth of several principles or standards regarding the criteria of good social and environmental responsibility.
They include The Minnesota Principles that is supported by the Center for Ethical Business Cultures, Bellagio Principles that concern with four factors on sustainable development, and Global Sullivan Principles that aim at supporting social, political, and economical for companies in conducting their business. To be specific, Global Sullivan Principles work by asking companies to respect the law, and as part of society, they are to apply these Principles with integrity. In addition, the company who implement the Global Sullivan principles will develop policies, work procedures, and reporting structures that are in line with the principles.
By committed to these principles, therefore, a company will carry out following initiatives: • Committed to maintain the human rights where the companies operate • Encourage the implementation of equal opportunity standard for employees ay any levels regardless the gender, age, color, religious belief, race, and ethnicity. It also supports the operation of business that prevents the exploitation of female abuse, children, and other kinds of abuse. • Provide opportunity for employees to advance their skill and capability in order to improve their economic and social opportunities.
• Present a safe and healthy workplace for employees including the protection of human health and the environment • Support the implementation of these Principles with any individuals of organization that a company makes business. • Companies will be apparent in the implementation of these Principles (Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, 2005) 3. Company Background of Chevron Chevron is a company that grows from a merger and acquisition occurred in the past. The company has a great concern over delivering energy to customers around the world.
The company has three main core businesses: exploration and production, chemicals, and manufacturing, marketing, and transportation. Currently, Chevron becomes the fifth-largest integrated energy company worldwide. According to Yahoo! , its main competitors are Dutch company named Shell and French company named Total. Chevron’s Headquarter is located in San Ramon, California. Its globalization objective has driven the company to exist in approximately 180 countries to deliver its products ranging from power generation, marketing and transportation, exploration and production, and refining, to name a few (“Chevron: Company Profile”, 2005).
The merger between Chevron and Texaco highlights the consolidation in oil and gas industry such as happened between Exxon and Mobil. The merger between Chevron and Texaco merger aims at strengthening their position in oil industry. Merger of Chevron and Texaco was approved in November 2000 with deal value about $35 billion. Chevron’s top executive David O’Reilly that became the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chevron Texaco said following the merger that the combined company will be much stronger and is able to fulfill US energy needs (CBS News, 2000).
The reason of merger between Chevron and Texaco is to close the gap with Exxon Mobil Corporation who has conducted merger a year ago. However, the merger of Chevron and Texaco also gives bad impacts to their employments in which there are more than 4,000 jobs of 57,000 combined jobs at two companies will eliminated. One of key strategic position of the company is the decision to merge with Unocal, giving the company with much more diverse and highly skillful global work force at about 53,000 employees worldwide (“Chevron: Company Profile”, 2005).