Better Health for All

Occidental Petroleum's operations have severe negative health impacts, evidenced by 3,275 instances of falsified lab reports across 404 locations, minimizing levels of carcinogens like benzene in soil and groundwater.

This led to a remediation system shutdown in 2023 and a violation notice, representing a severe breach of data integrity and risk transparency. The company's dominant oil and gas segment and past activities have also resulted in over $5.2 billion in environment-related penalties since 2000, indicating significant health-harming externalities and a high share of revenue from activities with negative health outcomes. Despite these, Occidental has implemented substantial mitigation efforts, including achieving zero routine flaring in U.S. oil and gas operations in 2022 and an approximate 80% global reduction from 2020 levels by 2024, alongside significant GHG and methane emission reductions. For its employees, Occidental offers comprehensive, cost-free mental health programs through Lyra Health , and an Employee Assistance Program, along with extensive preventative health measures like biometric screenings, flu shots, and fitness programs. The company demonstrates strong vulnerable reach and health equity efforts, providing clean drinking water to over one million people in disaster areas and remote communities, , supporting 130,000+ families with food, and contributing $10 million to the Houston Methodist Community Scholars Program for uninsured and underserved patients, , which also trains healthcare professionals. During public health emergencies, the company has donated over $1 million to the American Red Cross and water disinfection products to over one million people. It also invests in public health education through the Global Water Center.

Fair Money & Economic Opportunity

Occidental Petroleum Corporation operates primarily in the oil and gas industry and is not a financial institution.

The company does not offer lending, deposit services, or other financial products to consumers. Therefore, all KPIs related to customer financial services, pricing, fees, inclusion initiatives, data accessibility, fair lending compliance, wealth building outcomes, financial literacy, debt burden, geographic inclusion, and product simplicity are not applicable to its core business model. The provided articles discuss the company's own debt reduction , general community investments not specific to financial inclusion , corporate financial practices , and lobbying for corporate aid , none of which constitute evidence for the company providing fair financial services or economic opportunities to underserved communities.

Fair Pay & Worker Respect

Occidental Petroleum states a commitment to fair pay and worker respect, emphasizing competitive compensation, diversity, inclusion, and comprehensive health plans

. The company also invests in safety programs . However, Occidental Petroleum has faced multiple class action lawsuits. In 2022, a lawsuit alleged violations of wage-and-hour laws, specifically failure to pay overtime . Earlier, in 2016, a lawsuit claimed misclassification of employees as independent contractors, which allegedly denied them overtime pay . Another lawsuit from 2016 accused the company of not paying over $265 million in legally mandated profit-sharing to workers in Ecuador .

Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing

Occidental has a Supplier Code of Conduct that addresses ethical behavior, human rights, and subcontractor diligence, maintaining a zero-tolerance policy for unethical dealings and providing an Integrity Helpline for violations.

Historically, the company faced issues including river contamination in the Peruvian Amazon from 1971-2000, which led to a lawsuit settled in 2015, and was linked to human rights abuses in Colombia in 1998. The company has also been criticized for limited supply chain transparency. However, the provided articles do not contain specific quantitative data points required to score any of the KPIs for fair trade certifications, audit frequency, substantiated forced or child labor incidents in the last three years, supply chain traceability coverage, median remediation speed, percentage of contracts with ethical clauses, share of spend on high-risk materials, or supplier diversity spend.

Honest & Fair Business

Occidental Petroleum incurred $1 million in regulatory fines in January 2023, paid by two subsidiaries for violations of federal air quality regulations.

The company's governance policies mandate that at least two-thirds of its Board members are independent directors, and it operates with an Independent Chairman and committees composed entirely of independent directors. Occidental maintains a comprehensive Code of Business Conduct with strict anti-bribery and corruption policies, which includes due diligence on prospective business partners and contractors. An Ethics and Compliance Program integrates risk assessments and training across the organization, with over 90% of employees receiving training on the Code of Conduct principles in 2023.

Kind to Animals

Occidental Petroleum Corporation's primary business as an oil and gas exploration and production company and chemical manufacturer does not involve activities typically assessed by most 'Kind to Animals' KPIs, such as animal testing, animal-derived ingredients, or animal agriculture. Consequently, no evidence was found to score KPIs like cruelty_free_cert_share, alt_testing_usage, humane_cert_ops_pct, ethical_input_sub_pct, supplier_audit_pct, cage_free_source_pct, animal_testing_policy, animal_testing_volume, innovation_investment_pct, animal_agriculture_ethics, animal_free_rd_collaboration, or public_policy_engagement. For wildlife_conservation_impact, the company has enrolled over 1.6 million acres in conservation agreements

, and manages six sites certified by the Wildlife Habitat Council, receiving the Ibis Award in 2024 , . It committed approximately $12 million over three years for Lesser Prairie-Chicken conservation across nearly 1.8 million acres , and contributed to the Pecos Watershed Conservation Initiative with a total conservation impact of at least $7 million . However, the articles do not provide specific, measurable biodiversity impact metrics, such as documented population increases or quantified biodiversity indices, required for positive scoring tiers. While the company was accused of illegal gas flaring contributing to environmental and wildlife harm in 2021 , and faced allegations of significant environmental damage in Peru in 2006 , the presence of substantial conservation initiatives prevents it from fitting the rubric's most negative tiers, which describe an absence of conservation efforts or nominal, scattered projects. Therefore, this KPI cannot be scored based on the provided evidence.

Planet-Friendly Business

Occidental Petroleum reported a 20.4% decrease in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions from 2019 levels, alongside a 65.2% reduction in methane emissions.

The company demonstrates water stewardship by using 97% non-fresh water for its operations. Occidental has invested significantly in carbon management, acquiring Carbon Engineering for $1.1 billion to advance Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology. Its subsidiary, 1PointFive, secured U.S. permits to store up to 500,000 metric tons of CO₂ annually from its Stratos DAC facility. Occidental partnered with Microsoft to supply 500,000 carbon credits over six years through carbon capture. Further low-carbon initiatives include a partnership with TAE Technologies to explore fusion energy for powering DAC facilities and an evaluation with ADNOC for additional DAC facilities and CO₂ sequestration hubs. The company also has a joint venture to extract lithium using advanced technology at a geothermal facility. However, a joint venture in the U.S. was cancelled by the Colombian President due to environmental concerns related to fracking.

Safe & Smart Tech

Occidental has a cross-departmental committee that addresses ethical and privacy concerns related to AI implementation

. However, the company is actively seeking an AI Ethics & Risk Manager to design and maintain a risk management framework for AI projects and create ethical AI policies , indicating that formal policies and frameworks are still under development.

Zero Waste & Sustainable Products

Occidental Petroleum has applied circular design principles to several product categories and operational processes. This includes a joint venture to commercialize TerraLithium Extraction Technology, which is designed to minimize waste compared to traditional methods

. The company's Low Carbon Ventures unit also partners to produce sustainable aviation fuel and bio-ethylene by utilizing carbon dioxide as a feedstock, reducing reliance on non-renewable resources . Furthermore, Occidental demonstrates waste reduction through its water stewardship, sourcing 97% of water from non-fresh sources and treating and recycling approximately 90% of produced water in Oman for enhanced oil recovery . These efforts represent at least five distinct waste reduction initiatives with measurable results.