ARMONK – IBM released its ninth annual Corporate Responsibility Report on Monday, saying . “Corporate responsibility is an integral part of IBM's corporate culture and drives how the company engages with clients, employees, shareholders and communities”.

According to the company's 2011 Corporate Responsibility Report, which is now available at www.ibm.com/responsibility/2011, commitment to socially and environmentally responsible behavior yielded a broad range of benefits: reducing energy usage, creating a new model for secondary education, and using technology and expertise to help small businesses grow.

These and other accomplishments are detailed in IBM's 2011 Corporate Responsibility Report, a year-to-year comparison of the company's citizenship and philanthropic projects, community partnerships, environmental stewardship, and employment policies and practices.

IBM lists as key topics in the report:

• Sustainable Practices are Good for Business
• A Year of Advances in Corporate Responsibility

The report also details how IBM in 2011:

• Held the largest corporate community service event in history, the Celebration of Service, yielding more than 1,000 years worth of service by engaging more than 300,000 IBMers from 120 countries. They worked on 5,000 different projects ranging from improving education and healthcare to disaster relief response and conservation.
• Increased corporate donations of cash, technology and services to US$196.1 million, the 11th consecutive year that IBM donations increased.
• Pioneered a new model for economic development and education by opening Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-TECH, in New York City. It is the first grades 9-14 school, linking high school, college and career in one.
• Helped to fuel economic growth and job creation in the U.S. by creating Supplier Connection, a consortium of 16 companies that have a collective supply chain spend of $300 billion and make it easier for small businesses to become suppliers to large companies.
• Convened more than 100 IBM leaders from around the world for the first Global Diversity and Inclusion Summit, continuing IBM's commitment to diversity.
• Launched the Pro Bono Privacy Initiative, a group of privacy and legal professionals who engage with human services agencies to help them with privacy and data protection.
• Sent 115 IBM employees to 24 cities, from Johannesburg, South Africa to St. Louis, Mo., as part of its Smarter Cities Challenge, helping city leaders devise strategies to improve efficiency, spur economic growth and engage citizens.
• Increased its global first and second tier spending with diversity-owned suppliers to $3.2 billion, providing more global opportunities to diversity-owned businesses.