Ethisphere Announces the 2024 World's Most Ethical Companies®

Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, today announced the 136 companies that have earned the coveted designation of the World's Most Ethical Companies in 2024. This year's honorees span 20 countries and 44 industries.

2024 marks the 18^th annual World's Most Ethical Companies recognition. As in previous years, honorees have demonstrated a commitment to ethical business practices through robust programs that positively impact employees, communities, and broader stakeholders, as well as contributing to sustainable, long-term business growth.

The full list of the 2024 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at https://worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees/.

Fifteen companies on this year's list are being recognized for the first time. There are also six companies?Aflac, Ecolab, International Paper, Kao Corporation, Milliken & Company, and PepsiCo?that have been recognized 18 times, every year since the inception of the World's Most Ethical Companies® in 2007.

"Every day, businesses must earn and keep the trust of stakeholders, from employees and investors, to regulators, and others. By leading with business integrity?and investing in strong governance, an ethical culture, corporate citizenship, and compliance?organizations not only build trust, but also outperform," said Erica Salmon Byrne, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Chair, Ethisphere. "We congratulate this year's honorees and commend their dedication to doing well by those they serve."

Yoshihiro Hasebe, Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kao Corporation, said: "We are honored to have been selected as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for 18 consecutive years. ?Walking the right path' is our core value, and external evaluations such as this are very important to us. We are committed to continuing to advance our program and practices as we work toward ambitious goals and fulfill our purpose to create a better world for the people who use our products, and the communities we serve."

"I'm thrilled that nVent has been recognized as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies®. Absolute Integrity is one our core values at nVent," said nVent Chair and CEO Beth Wozniak. "We know that making ethical choices makes our company stronger and builds trust and transparency. We emphasize to our employees that acting with Absolute Integrity is critical. I'd like to thank all our employees for living our values every day. It is because of our collective efforts that we received this outstanding recognition."

The Ethics Premium: Integrity Outperforms

Ethisphere's Five Year Ethics Premium for 2024 is 12.3% This represents the margin by which publicly traded companies recognized in this year's World's Most Ethical Companies outperformed a comparable index of global companies over a five-year period from January 2019 to January 2024.

"Ever since Ethisphere has tracked the equity performance of public honoree companies, the Ethics Premium has always shown that the programs and practices that lead an organization to be named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies also help it excel financially," Salmon Byrne added. "Strong ethics is good business. The Ethics Premium proves it."

Methodology

The World's Most Ethical Companies assessment is grounded in Ethisphere's proprietary Ethics Quotient®, an extensive questionnaire that requires companies to provide over 240 different proof points on their culture of ethics; environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices; ethics and compliance program; diversity, equity, & inclusion efforts; and initiatives that support a strong value chain. That data undergoes further qualitative analysis by our panel of experts who spend thousands of hours vetting and evaluating each year's group of applicants. This process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify truly best-in-class practices from organizations across industries and from around the world.

Each of the 2024 World's Most Ethical Companies® applicants receives access to a Digital Analytical Scorecard experience. It provides an overview of how the applicant scored against the World's Most Ethical Companies honorees in key categories and offers access to 15 key Ethics Quotient^® data points, along with associated resources, in an interactive format powered by The Sphere?Ethisphere's Ethics and Compliance benchmarking platform.

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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 and measure and improve culture. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies recognition program and provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). For further information, please visit https://ethisphere.com.