General Motors has been recognized by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as one of the 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies.
GM was recognized for the second year in a row and is the only automotive OEM honoree on this year’s list. In 2021, 135 honorees were recognized spanning 22 countries and 47 industries.
“This extraordinary award is important because it signals to our customers, shareholders and business partners that GM is a company they can trust,” said Michael Ortwein, assistant general counsel and chief compliance officer.
“GM’s Code of Conduct sets forth our fundamental commitment to conduct business openly, ethically and honestly, even when it is difficult to do so. The World’s Most Ethical Company designation is external validation of GM’s core principles and yet another instance of GM leading by example on the path to transform the industry.”
Over the last year, GM has demonstrated its unwavering commitment to the safety of its employees, customers and communities – from producing millions of face masks and 30,000 critical-care ventilators to combat COVID-19, to explicitly condemning racism and designating $10 million to support organizations that promote inclusion and racial justice.
Today, the company is working to become the most inclusive company in the world while accelerating its all-electric future to mitigate the effects of climate change. GM will invest $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicle development by 2025 and will offer 30 new EVs globally in the same year. And by 2040, GM plans to be carbon neutral in its global products and operations.
“While addressing the tough challenges of 2020, we saw companies lead – above all other institutions – on earning the trust of stakeholders through resilience and a commitment to ethics and integrity,” said Ethisphere CEO Timothy Erblich. “The World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees continue to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to the highest values and positively impacting the communities they serve. Congratulations to everyone at General Motors for earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies designation.”
Methodology and scoring
Grounded in Ethisphere’s proprietary Ethics Quotient®, the World’s Most Ethical Companies assessment process includes more than 200 questions on culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity and initiatives to support a strong value chain. The process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify the leading practices of organizations across industries and around the globe.
This year, the process was streamlined and question set expanded to gauge how applicants are adapting and responding to the global health pandemic, environmental, social, and governance factors, safety, equity, and inclusion and social justice.
Honorees
The full list of the 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies can be found at https://worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees.
General Motors PR
