Ponying Up for America's Future

While the United States suffers through its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, some companies are trying to help where they can. AT&T is one such company.

On Thursday, the company released its 2008 Citizenship and Sustainability Report, in which it highlighted, according to this company news release, "more than $865 million in multi-year investments for important education, environmental and volunteerism programs to help strengthen communities, stimulate economic growth and ensure America's global competitiveness." You know, just your basic goal to improve the country in multiple ways. No biggie.

The news release featured AT&T programs involved with preventing high school dropouts, enabling job shadowing for students, AT&T employees and retirees volunteering more than 10 million hours last year, and the company investing more than half a billion dollars in alternative-fuel vehicles (as I covered in this earlier blog).

In addition, for the first time, the company took the Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) G3 Guidelines into account when developing their report. Those guidelines give companies a framework when it comes to sustainability reporting.

You can learn more about AT&T's citizenship and sustainability goals here.

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng