National Grid Named 2015 World's Most Ethical Company for 5th time

March 11, 2015 - Waltham, MA /3BL Media/ – National Grid announced Monday that it has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2015 World’s Most Ethical Company®.

The World’s Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes those organizations that have had a material impact on the way business is conducted by fostering a culture of ethics and transparency at every level of the company.

Being a five- year honoree underscores National Grid’s commitment to leading ethical business standards and practices ensuring long-term value to key stakeholders including customers, employees, suppliers, regulators and investors. National Grid is one of only eight companies in the Energy and Utilities category, and 132 companies worldwide, to be honored this year.

“Being recognized by Ethisphere is a tribute to the employees at National Grid. They have truly embraced ethics and made great strides in building it into our corporate culture. It’s also recognition that we have a ‘best in class’ ethics and compliance program, the foundation of which results from our strong leadership and the fact that ‘Always Doing the Right Thing’ is at the center of everything we do as a company,” said William J. Holzhauer, National Grid’s US Director of Ethics and Compliance.

“The World’s Most Ethical Companies embrace the correlation between ethical business practice and improved company performance. These companies use ethics as a means to further define their industry leadership and understand that creating an ethical culture and earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition involves more than just an outward facing message or a handful of senior executives saying the right thing,” said Ethisphere’s Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Erblich. “Earning this recognition involves the collective action of a global workforce from the top down. We congratulate everyone at National Grid for this extraordinary achievement.”

The World’s Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute’s Ethics Quotient™ (EQ) framework developed over years of research to provide a means to assess an organization’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. The EQ framework and methodology is determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere’s network of thought leaders and from the World’s Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel.

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%).

The full list of the 2015 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found here.

Senior executives of honorees contribute high-level insights and best practices to the well-regardedWorld’s Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing (download Volume 2 here). Additional insights gleaned from the World’s Most Ethical Companies will be released in a series of whitepapers and infographics over the coming months (download the 2014 Insights). Organizations interested in how they compare to the World’s Most Ethical Companies are invited to learn more about benchmarking services.

About National Grid

National Grid (LSE: NG; NYSE: NGG) is an electricity and natural gas delivery company that connects nearly 7 million customers to vital energy sources through its networks in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It is the largest distributor of natural gas in the Northeast. National Grid also operates the systems that deliver gas and electricity across Great Britain.

Through its U.S. Connect21 strategy, National Grid is transforming its electricity and natural gas networks to support the 21st century digital economy with smarter, cleaner, and more resilient energy solutions. Connect21 is vital to our communities' long-term economic and environmental health and aligns with regulatory initiatives in New York (REV: Reforming the Energy Vision) and Massachusetts (Grid Modernization).

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About the Ethisphere InstituteThe 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 and The World’s Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: http://ethisphere.com .