Peter Schorsch
Florida Power and Light’s parent company was named one of the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” by a leading corporate ethics tracker Monday.
Juno Beach-based NextEra Energy was one of 131 companies worldwide to make the annual Ethisphere Institute list, and it is the fourth time in 10 years the energy company was recognized.
“Transparency and sustainability are no longer mere buzzwords for corporations,” NextEra board member Sherry Barrat said. “As a Board member, my role is not only one of oversight, but one of stewardship, that is, ensuring that these corporations are both valuable and worth preserving.”
Ethisphere compiles the list of companies based on their grades in five weighted categories: ethics and compliance program (35 percent), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20 percent), culture of ethics (20 percent), governance (15 percent) and leadership, innovation and reputation (10 percent).
NextEra Energy joins some of the largest corporations in the country on the 2016 list, including Intel, PepsiCo and Prudential Financial. Fellow Sunshine State company Baptist Health South Florida was also named one of the world’s most ethical companies for the sixth year in a row.
Ethisphere has published the annual list since 2007, when the company was founded as part of compliance training company Corpedia.
“In each of the last ten years, the Ethisphere Institute has measured companies who demonstrate leadership in areas like citizenship, integrity and transparency as the World’s Most Ethical Companies,” company CEO Timothy Erblich said. “It is both thrilling and humbling to see the results of our joint efforts to advance the standards of corporate behavior, and the ways that this behavior influences and improves the human condition.”
Erblich added that market data shows that “companies that operate with transparency and integrity are better performing over the long term.” He said he expects that “integrity premium” will only become more impactful as companies are increasingly valued “through the lens of enhanced standards and behavior.”
