The Ethisphere Institute is a

for-profit Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." A business entity is not necessari ...

company that, for a fee, defines and measures corporate

ethical standards Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied ethics ...

, recognizes companies that do well in those stated metrics, and promotes

best practices A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to alternatives because it tends to produce superior results. Best practices are used to achieve quality as an alternative to mandatory standards. Best practice ...

in corporate ethics. The company is located in

Scottsdale, Arizona Scottsdale is a city in eastern Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is part of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Named Scottsdale in 1894 after its founder Winfield Scott (chaplain), Winfield Scott, a retired Chaplain Corps (United States ...

. The company publishes ''Ethisphere Magazine'' and announces its World's Most Ethical Companies award once a year. The company also offers verification services for corporate ethics under such names as "Ethics Inside Certification" and "Compliance Leader Verification". It hosts the Global Ethics Summit every March in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and manages a community of compliance, ethics and legal professionals known as BELA, the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance.

Operations

The Executive Chairman of Ethisphere, Alex Brigham, created the institute in 2007, as part of Corpedia, a compliance training company. In 2010, Corpedia was sold but Ethisphere's ownership was retained by Brigham.

Criticism

Ethisphere has been criticized for its

business model A business model describes how a Company, business organization creates, delivers, and captures value creation, value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-pub ...

and the possible

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...

created when other companies pay for an assessment. Ethisphere assesses companies based on self-reported data and a survey. Companies dubbed "most ethical" by Ethisphere include

Eastman Chemical Eastman Chemical Company is an American company primarily involved in the chemical industry. Once a subsidiary of Kodak, today it is an independent global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of advanced materials, chemicals an ...

and

Blue Shield of California Blue Shield of California is a mutual benefit corporation and health plan, founded in 1939 by the California Medical Association. It is based in Oakland, California, and serves 4.5 million health plan members and more than 65,000 physicians acr ...

, despite the involvement of both in major public scandals at the time. Ethisphere also awarded Elbit Systems of America, a branch of a large Israeli weapons manufacturer that has been widely protested for its role in the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

, with the title of "one of the World's Most Ethical Companies". Some companies that are recognized often advertise for Ethisphere and pay additional licensing fees for the right to use the year-specific World’s Most Ethical Companies logo.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://ethisphere.com/ Management consulting firms of the United States Business ethics organizations Consulting firms established in 2007 Companies based in Scottsdale, Arizona 2007 establishments in Arizona