SunTrust Bank, Kellogg, the Nature Conservancy, General Motors Among the Latest to Join the Ranks of Leading Companies Committed to Best Practices in Business Integrity
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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