Ethisphere Announces Launch of 2025 World’s Most Ethical Companies® Application Process
Annual recognition process opens for organizations interested in showcasing their commitment to conducting business with integrity, and highlight positive impacts to communities and stakeholders
Phoenix, AZ – July 31, 2024 – Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, has launched the call for applications for the 2025 World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition. Now in its 19th year, the annual World’s Most Ethical Companies designation honors organizations that display outstanding ethics, compliance, and governance practices. Those interested in applying for the recognition can request an application here: Application – Worlds Most Ethical Companies
In 2024, 136 organizations received the World’s Most Ethical Companies honor, representing 44 industries and 20 countries. To view the full 2024 honoree list, visit https://www.worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees/
“The World’s Most Ethical Companies process not only enables organizations to gain recognition for their dedication to a robust ethical culture, leading compliance and governance practices, and ESG impact programs, but also to gain insights into how their approach compares to best practices and expectations from key stakeholders, including regulatory agencies, employees and shareholders,” stated Erica Salmon Byrne, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Chair, Ethisphere. “We are delighted to celebrate the good that companies can do through robust programs focused on business integrity.”
To enable organizations to prepare for the 2025 application process, Ethisphere is offering several valuable resources available to anyone interested in the recognition:
- Webcast series focused on the 2025 World’s Most Ethical Companies application process. This two-part series offers guidance on how to approach the application, updates to the 2025 Ethics Quotient® questionnaire, available resources, and more. These sessions are available on-demand for those who register. Sign-up for the webcast series.
- Insider’s Guide to the World’s Most Ethical Companies: This special edition of Ethisphere Magazine offers insights into the critical data points that unite the 2024 honorees; a walkthrough of the applications process; and a deep dive into how the Ethics Quotient application questionnaire will be changing this year. Additionally, it showcases the best practices of seven 2024 honoree companies—Southwire, Clarios, J.M. Smucker, Best Buy, Colgate-Palmolive, SeAH Holdings, and PepsiCo—that collectively embody the E&C maturity that exemplifies those that receive the recognition. Download the Guide.
The Application Process
For many organizations, the process itself is valuable for understanding how programs compare to leading practices, identifying gaps, and charting a path forward. The journey to the World’s Most Ethical Companies starts with a qualitative and quantitative assessment across five weighted categories: governance; third party management; ethics and compliance program; a culture of ethics; and environmental and social impact.
This proprietary rating system, known as the Ethics Quotient® (EQ), is at the heart of the selection process for this prestigious honor. Featuring more than 250 multiple-choice and text questions, the EQ evaluates an organization’s performance in an objective, consistent, and standardized way. Organizations can start the application process by visiting www.worldsmostethicalcompanies.com.
The deadline to submit the completed assessment and supporting documentation is Thursday, October 31 at 8:00 pm ET.
Ongoing Benefits for Candidates
Upon completing the application review process, candidates receive a Digital Analytical Scorecard which outlines their evaluation scores as they compare to honorees. Organizations have found this information to be valuable for establishing priorities, celebrating their strengths, building a business case for additional budget, and focusing their teams. The scorecard also includes exclusive data and insights only available to candidates, and links to valuable, curated resources to help improve their programs.
Candidates also experience limited guest access to The Sphere—a first-of-its-kind benchmarking platform–to analyze and benchmark their scores to those of honorees, along with exclusive insights and tools to provide further best practices and guidance.
Candidates with exceptional program elements may also be selected to be featured in Ethisphere Magazine and other Ethisphere platforms, such as Ethicast, Ethisphere’s official podcast, and the Global Ethics Summit.
New for 2025
For the 2025 season, the EQ Questionnaire has been significantly revised with new questions and documentation requests to address emerging regulatory topics, clarify lines of responsibility, better understand how organizations approach risk assessment and management, solicit more detailed information about process and practice implementation, and improve and add requests for documentation. Applying organizations will have more opportunity to explain how they uniquely approach the challenges of today’s business operating environment and demonstrate their leadership in doing business ethically.
About Ethisphere
Ethisphere® 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 also helps to advance business performance through data-driven assessments, benchmarking, and guidance. More information about Ethisphere can be found at https://ethisphere.com.
Media Contact
Anne Walker
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