Ethisphere 2023 Year-in-Review

“Strong ethics is good business.” That’s the credo guiding Alpine Investors-backed Ethisphere in its quest to help more companies create and strengthen their ethics, governance and integrity practices in measurable, sustainable ways. Scottsdale, Arizona-based Ethisphere has spent the past 17 years providing companies with the data, tools, community and resources they need to create better practices that benefit employees, partners, customers and the world at large.

Whether providing ethics and compliance data, expertise and resources that help large companies make informed decisions or building a network of industry leaders who define the meaning of “good” ethics practices as part of their Business Ethics Leadership Alliance, Ethisphere uses data to understand impact and to help inform corporate decision making. 

The Ethisphere team shares Alpine’s belief that doing good is not only the right thing to do but that it also benefits a business’ bottom line. Both companies understand how businesses that operate with integrity outperform their peers, experience higher employee retention and consumer preference and develop better overall brand recognition.

Now, in partnership with Alpine and its data software platform predictis, Ethisphere spent 2023 applying its proven methods to new areas while strengthening existing initiatives aimed at advancing business ethics around the world.

Launching New Initiatives and Measuring Impact

Highlights from 2023 include how Ethisphere:

• Recognized 135 organizations as the World’s Most Ethical Companies®. The honorees span 19 countries and 46 industries and include eight first-time honorees and six 17-time honorees. The 2023 World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees outperformed a comparable index of large-cap companies (“SOLUSLCG”) by 13.6% from 2018 to 2023.
• Launched The Sphere, an online platform that enables companies to benchmark their ethics, compliance, social impact and governance practices against those of their peers as well as organizations that have earned the World’s Most Ethical Companies® designation. The Sphere includes an extensive library of related regulatory guidance, expert-driven best practices and resources (e.g., guides, training, case studies).
• Hosted five signature events—including the Global Ethics Summit, the ESG Forum and summits in Europe, South Asia and Asia Pacific—and 50 peer roundtables. Attendees heard from regulators about expectations for robust programs, from senior leaders about how they are addressing the most pressing ESG issues today, and from Ethisphere experts, highlighting the data and practices of leading organizations.
• Launched four key risk assessments with partners to reach thousands of organizations, enabling them to measure and improve existing systems for diversity, equity and inclusion; improve mental health at work and collaborate with third parties on human rights and environmental requirements.
• Worked with 300 global organizations to measure and improve their ethical culture then used those learnings to launch several reports featuring their expertise and data representing 3 million employee responses.

Boosted by Alpine Support

Ethisphere credits Alpine with helping them define key objectives and maintain focus as they continue to prioritize. They drew on a range of Alpine resources over the past year, including:

The Alpine Growth Summit

The Ethisphere team used materials from the annual Growth Summit—templates, format and supporting documents—to guide decision-making processes and consider how to support and elevate best practices.

The PeopleFirst process

Beth St. Clair, an Alpine PeopleFirst coach, guided the leadership team through PeopleFirst workshops. The PeopleFirst approach also informed the creation of Ethisphere’s manager training curriculum.

Alpine Playbooks

Ethisphere used Alpine’s Customer Success, Pricing and Packaging Playbooks to help support companies on their ethical journeys in more detailed ways. 

Looking Ahead to an Impactful Future

Moving forward, Ethisphere is poised to continue expanding their work to more companies and more industries around the world.

“Being a ‘Force For Good’ means maintaining a mindset focused on the broad spectrum of our stakeholders,” says Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Chair Erica Salmon Byrne. “We’re developing additional products and new functionality that will give people better access to key insights. We believe that accessibility will have a tremendous ripple effect.”

Case studies presented contain the opinions of past and present Alpine portfolio company executives. Alpine makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the information presented here. It should not be assumed that the portfolio companies discussed in these case studies were profitable or that future portfolio companies or experiences will be comparable. Past performance is not necessarily indicative, or a guarantee, of future results. Under no circumstances should these case studies be construed as an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy, any security or as opinions regarding the provision of investment advisory services by Alpine. Please see Alpine’s Terms of Use on Alpine’s website for disclosures.