IKON Office Solutions Named to Business Ethics 100 Best Corporate Citizens
Press release from the issuing company
VALLEY FORGE, Pa.--May 15, 2003-- IKON Office Solutions, the world's largest independent distributor of document management products and services, today announced that it has been ranked #36 on Business Ethics magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens list for 2003. The 100 Best Corporate Citizens is a ranking of organizations that have solid corporate practices and excel at serving a variety of stakeholders.
"All of our stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, employees and shareholders, are at the top of our mind as we conduct business," said Matthew J. Espe, IKON's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Our goal is to create an environment where our employees can be proud and our stakeholders can be confident in IKON as a corporation that upholds high standards of integrity and acts in a professional and ethical manner at all times. IKON is rigorous in its compliance with our internal code of ethics and core company values, and in today's business environment, it's more important than ever to focus on corporate and ethical responsibility."
The 100 Best Corporate Citizens list is based on analysis done by KLD Research and Analytics, Inc., an independent research firm. The magazine determined the rankings by examining firms in the Russell 1000 (the 1,000 largest publicly traded firms) with good corporate practices that serve a variety of stakeholders including: community, minorities and women, employees, environment, non-US stakeholders and customers. These practices are then weighed against lawsuits, regulatory problems, pollution emissions, charitable contributions, staff diversity counts, union relations, and awards to then rank the contenders. Other companies on the list include General Mills (#1), IBM and Intel.
"We are proud of the recognition we have received for our efforts on business ethics, particularly diversity and compliance," said Don Liu, Senior Vice President, Corporate Compliance Officer and Chairman of IKON's Diversity Council. "As a Company, we have been focused on improving our diversity among our employees and through initiatives such as our supplier diversity program and IKON's charitable activities. In the past several years, we have increased our focus on legal and regulatory compliance as well as our ethical principles."