Month: June 2018

NEW YORK, June 20, 2018 – Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing standards of ethical business practices, announced today that 12 more companies have recently joined the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). With the addition of the new members, the BELA community climbs to over 200 organizations for the first time. BELA has quickly become one of the most influential business communities dedicated to fostering best practices in governance, risk management, compliance, and ethical culture and working to continuously improve the programs and methodologies that allow integrity to flourish throughout the business world.

The new member companies include:

·      Deluxe Corporation
·      General Motors
·      Intermountain Healthcare
·      Kellogg Company
·      Kohl’s Department Stores, Inc.
·      Las Vegas Sands
·      Lumileds
·      Privilege Underwriters
·      RELX Group
·      SunTrust Bank
·      The Nature Conservancy
·      The Southern Company

“The incredible growth of BELA reflects the commitment from companies across the globe to go beyond employing ethical practices to sharing best practices in order to collectively make the world a better place and their businesses more successful,” said Erica Salmon Byrne, Executive Vice President and Executive Director, BELA. “We are proud to serve as both a convener of and collaborator in that conversation through BELA, and look forward to its continued growth ahead.”

Consistent research — including data gathered by Ethisphere — shows that organizations with a strong ethical culture regularly outperform their peers. Each year, Ethisphere publishes data from its “Ethics Premium” study, which compares those companies deemed to be ethical in their business practices with the financial performance of the US Large Cap Index, demonstrating the advantages gained by companies that prioritize ethics. In an ever-changing business environment, this data underscores the value of cultivating innovative and tireless approaches to ethical achievements.

“The value of being perceived by consumers, investors, and the general public as being ethical and responsible cannot be overstated in today’s ecosystem, so SunTrust is excited to join Ethisphere’s BELA community of companies engaged in understanding and improving ethical behavior,” said Arnold B. Evans (pictured right), Executive Vice President, Ethics Officer, SunTrust Bank, a financial company dedicated to Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being for the people, businesses, and communities it serves. “Our purpose-driven approach explicitly challenges each SunTrust teammate to operate at a higher standard. We welcome the opportunity to interact and learn from other leaders with a similar mindset because it will only make us better.”

“Trust is difficult to gain, simple to lose, and vital to our business, so as a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries, operating ethically and with integrity is essential to maintain the trust and confidence of our employees, customers, investors, and community,” said Jennifer Jung (pictured left), Chief Ethics Officer of RELX Group, a global professional information and analytics company. “We are excited about our association with BELA and to learn best practices as well as hidden gems of information from experienced colleagues and to tap into valuable resources that will help us in our ongoing efforts to measure and continuously enhance our compliance programs and practices.”

To date, Ethisphere’s current BELA membership exceeds 200 companies, representing 30 industries headquartered in 15 different countries. “These companies are working together to help codify leading practices across industries and unique organizational cultures, measure and benchmark with a variety of business peers, and consistently improve ethical behavior within their respective companies and across global markets,” said Salmon Byrne.

Member benefits

BELA members receive enterprise-wide access to a special member resource center, which features company-contributed expertise from leading multinationals such as SABIC, Dell, Realogy, Wyndham Worldwide, Teradata, and many more. Other benefits include a downloadable monthly podcast series called “Integrity Matters,” hosted by Al Rosa, Chief Compliance Director, General Electric, which is designed to connect experts and expertise around the globe. Moreover, BELA members also have access to exclusive benchmarking data, including the opportunity to benchmark their ethics and compliance programs and practices annually against other leading companies. Another added benefit of this membership is the year-round access to networking and sharing best practices at both in-person and virtual events around the globe.

The Business Ethics Leadership Alliance was founded by Ethisphere after the financial crisis of 2008. Founding members include General Electric, PepsiCo, Walmart, JLL, and a unique foundation of visionary multinational institutions who understood that continuous improvement was best addressed through shared values and collective action. BELA’s membership has grown to a large community of companies who recognize the inherent value of promoting ethical leadership and world-class compliance culture. Learn more about BELA by visiting http://bela.ethisphere.com. To nominate a company to join BELA, contact Director of Member Engagement Sarah Neumann at [email protected].

Full release on Newswire here.

About Ethisphere 

The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs, including Ethics Inside® Certification and Compliance Leader Verification™. More information about Ethisphere can be found at https://ethisphere.com.

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Media Contact
Aarti Maharaj
Director of Communications
646-480-9715
[email protected]
@Ethisphere 

Firms to conduct first detailed ethics benchmarking study of communications and marketing functions in major corporations.

NEW YORK, June 13, 2018 – Ethisphere and EthicOne today announced a major new ethics research and benchmarking initiative for the communications and marketing industry. Ethisphere, the global leader in business ethics, and EthicOne, the ethical brand strategy and communications partner of Ethisphere, will conduct the first-ever benchmarking of corporate marketing and communications functions to determine the essential practices for the most ethical companies.

The study, which comes on the heels of major crises of ethics and trust in the industry, will include a wide cross section of Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees, but is open to other corporations and organizations that want to compare their communications functions with these global ethics leaders. U.S. Bank and Voya Financial are leading the way as founding participants of the study.

“Chief Communications Officers and CMOs are increasingly responsible for building brands based on ethics, transparency and trust,” said David Herrick, Managing Principal of EthicOne. “But with that critical mandate must come a new model for organizing, governing and practicing communications. Our study of the world’s leading companies will help the entire marketing communications industry step up to its responsibilities to build brands with ethics at the core.”

The study will explore the role of the communications function in ethics leadership, culture, trust and transparency, and stakeholder engagement. The governance, authority, reporting relationships and organizational structures of the communications functions in leading companies will also be evaluated.

“At U.S. Bank we believe in doing the right thing for our customers and our communities. This mindset has helped us build trust with all of our stakeholders,” said Dana Ripley, Chief Communications Officer, U.S. Bank. “This research will identify best practices for communications functions and teams in an era where we must focus on transparent communications. We are pleased to join other corporate leaders in benchmarking best practices for the entire marketing communications industry.”

“Over the past decade, Ethisphere has significantly advanced global knowledge of the best practices in business ethics,” said Timothy Erblich, CEO, Ethisphere. “We are now in a position to bring the same level of analytical rigor to the communications and marketing functions in leading global companies.”

Ethisphere and EthicOne are opening participation to the benchmarking study beginning this week. For more information about how companies can participate in the study and receive detailed insights, visit: https://ethisphere.com/ethicone-benchmarking-study/.

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About Ethic One
EthicOne helps the world’s leading companies and organizations turn their commitment to ethical business practices into market leadership. In partnership with Ethisphere, we benchmark and advise clients on best practices in communicating and marketing ethics leadership, and we build the strategies and programs to help them activate their ethics leadership with employees, customers, investors and regulators. For more information, visit https://www.ethicone.com.

About Ethisphere
The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs that include: Ethics Inside® Certification and Compliance Leader Verification™. More information about Ethisphere can be found at https://ethisphere.com.