Mumbai, March 16th 2017: Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, announced that it has been recognised by the Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2017 World’s Most Ethical Company®. This is the first time that Volvo Cars has received this recognition. 124 companies have been listed this year, with Volvo Cars one of only four from the automotive industry.
“I’m very proud that Volvo Cars has been recognised as one of the world’s most ethical companies,” said Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Cars. “Responsible business is a fundamental part of Volvo Cars’ heritage, and engrained in our corporate culture. An ethical approach is not just the right thing to do, but it brings financial value too.”
Maria Hemberg, Senior Vice President Group Legal, General Counsel and Chair of Volvo Cars’ Sustainability Board, commented: “The World’s Most Ethical Company assessment process has helped us drive the continuous improvement of our Compliance & Ethics programme. This achievement is a welcome acknowledgement of our work to date in promoting ethical and responsible practices, both internally and externally.”
“Congratulations to all at Volvo Car Group for being recognised as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies,” said Timothy Erblich, Ethisphere’s Chief Executive Officer. “Volvo Cars embraces policies of diversity and inclusion, is committed to ethical leadership and demonstrates the values of a true global citizen.”
Volvo Cars has a comprehensive Compliance and Ethics Programme aiming at preventing and mitigating a range of legal and ethical risks, covering areas such as corruption, human rights, competition law, export control and data privacy. This includes a Code of Conduct, based on international conventions and standards, which governs and guides the actions of all our employees and business partners. Volvo Cars is committed to fostering a culture of Ethical Leadership. Last year, a new training program for managers was launched, focusing on responsible and ethical business practices. To date, over 400 employees have received this training.
About the Ethisphere Institute
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 the publication of Ethisphere Magazine.
The World’s Most Ethical Company: Methodology & Scoring
The World’s Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute’s Ethics Quotient® (EQ) framework which offers a quantitative way to assess a company’s performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics.
Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (35%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20%), culture of ethics (20%), governance (15%) and leadership, innovation and reputation (10%) and provided to all companies who participate in the process.
