Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Strategy
The vision underlying the message was that the pursuit of profits had to be tempered by care for the environment and concern for people - both now and in the future.
This meant that if Shell wanted to stay in business, prosper and grow in the future, it had to find effective ways to incorporate the principles of sustainable development into its business practices - not as an option but as a necessity to survive.
Shell reviewed all aspects of its activities in light of what it learned about sustainable development and society's changing expectations towards the behaviour of business.
In 1997, Shell decided that, in parallel with its efforts at internal transformation, it would launch a new global, social investment effort that would concentrate on working with external partners to advance sustainable development worldwide. This decision ultimately led to the establishment of the Shell Foundation.
Shell’s worldwide social investment initiative promotes sustainable development. Their main aim is to maximize benefit to the society and environment and to have integrity in their operations. The main aim is to maximize benefit to the society and environment and to have integrity in their operations.
There are 6 main programs under the Shell Foundation namely: Aspire, Trading UP, Embarq, Breathing Space, Excelerate, and Climate Change

ASPIRE: Through a long and close partnership with GroFin - a specialist business developer and financier - Shell Foundation helped pioneer a new business model specifically designed to service the Growth Finance sector. GroFin actively work with local entrepreneurs to help them establish sustainable businesses and in so doing, realise both attractive financial returns for investors and a suite of social returns, including job creation.

Trading UP Trading UP acts as a ‘bridging entity’ connecting major retailers with developing world producers and small businesses. It works to remove the barriers that often prevent such relationships developing. It does this by forming partnerships with retailers and providing producers with seed-capital, business mentoring and advice on product development and supply chain management. It works with a variety of intermediaries, from NGOs to full for-profit businesses, to deliver these services. The programme is market-driven which means it provides major retailers with a tailor-made service that sources products they and their consumers want and takes the risk out of dealing with developing world producers.

Embarq EMBARQ was co-founded by the Shell Foundation in 2002 as the World Resources Institute’s Centre for Sustainable Transport. It acts as a catalyst for socially, financially, and environmentally sound solutions to the problems of urban mobility, mainly in developing world cities. In Mexico City, for example, it helped develop Metrobus – a 20-kilometres long bus corridor, serviced by 97 articulated buses that carry more than 315,000 people each day. Journey times and pollution have been significantly reduced.

Excelerate Two factors underpin the Excelerate programme strategy which we believe are critical to delivering energy services to the poor in ways that are both financially viable and scaleable. They are provision of both skills and finance to local entrepreneurs in India to assist with the start up and growth of businesses who provide affordable modern energy services to the poor and collaboration with Indian finance institutions (particularly microfinance) to establish appropriate and innovative consumer financing schemes that enable the poor to purchase modern energy products.

Breathing Space Breathing Space has signed a partnership with Envirofit International, a U.S. not-for-profit organisation to design and market a new range of improved stoves – and to find commercial partners to manufacture and distribute stoves. The aim is to see 10 million stoves sold in five countries in the next five years.

Climate Change: Bioenergy
As part of the Foundation's focus on tackling both the lack of access to electricity experienced by almost two billion people and climate change it is supporting the growth of start-up businesses in India that provide electricity using BioEnergy technologies such as biomass gasification and biogas.
Historically, most rural electrification programmes in India have failed, either because grid extension schemes led to prohibitively high electricity prices for consumers, or because the provision of new electricity was not provided in a commercial way and for cash-generating purposes.
Bio-energy produced from agricultural waste feedstock (both animal and plant), and delivered using decentralised market-based mechanisms linked to cash-generating micro-enterprise, provides a real opportunity to address this challenge.
The first organisation to receive support is Husk Power Systems (HPS), a start-up business in the Indian state of Bihar. Using small Indian-made biomass gasification plants, HPS produces electricity from rice husks (the agricultural residue generated when rice is harvested) and sells it back profitably to the community on a pay-per-usage basis.

Shell’s CSR in Nigeria:
The company brings reliable lighting and electric power to people and small businesses who’ve never known it before, creating thousands of jobs and educating and training thousands in the process. The company has spent millions working with NGOs and community development organizations to strengthen education and health care, provide vocational training and establish protected nature reserves. Shell generates billions of dollars in export earnings while providing the federal government with half or more of its revenue (http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/07/shell-nigeria-csr-corporate-social-responsibility/ ). In 2006, Shell paid $3.5 billion in taxes and royalties to the Nigerian government (http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/Tuodolo09.pdf).
In a region and country where publicly provided infrastructure and services are badly lacking, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) has often stepped in and acted in lieu of government. SPDC is heavily involved in the provision of infrastructure in the communities. SPDC is building roads, schools, clinics and providing portable water. Though these are typical areas for government intervention, SPDC has stepped into the gap to help in improving the standard of living of local communities.
Specific community development programs include micro credit scheme and health scheme. SPDC has about 27 clinics in the delta and a major supporter of education of young children, with over 17,000 children on Shell scholarship at any point in time. In 2010 SPDC and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) provided more than $22.85 million of a total $71 million to local community projects.

Environmental Conservation
Shell has also become active in environmental conservation in the Delta. In recognition of the importance of the Niger Delta’s rich biodiversity, SPDC in 2006 joined with the government, forest communities and NGOs to develop Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs) for two forest reserves.
In 2007, SPDC and NGO partners contributed to the passing of a biodiversity law by the Edo State government, one of the first such laws by a state government (http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/07/shell-nigeria-csr-corporate-social-responsibility/