LS&Co. has a long and distinguished history of corporate citizenship, including our unwavering commitment to responsible business practices. We believe our values and strong belief in doing the right thing are the foundation of our success – it informs everything we do here. And word is spreading.
Today, Ethisphere Institute announced Levi Strauss & Co. as a 2016 World’s Most Ethical Company®. This honor is reserved for a small number of companies around the world that demonstrate — through their programs, policies and actions — that corporate integrity stands alongside operational factors as a key business driver. We are honored and humbled to receive the distinction—for a third consecutive year—among some fantastic and inspiring corporate peers. We are among 131 companies representing 54 industry sectors and 21 countries on five continents. And, we’re one of only two in the apparel category.
“We’re all proud to work for a company with a proven track record of the highest ethics and integrity, where we consciously choose to do harder right thing over the easier wrong, thing” said Seth Jaffe, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of LS&Co. “We have paved the way for many years, and are pleased to see that we’ve had an outsized impact on the industry.”
Ever since 1853, our first year in business, our founder Levi Strauss made a practice of giving back to the community. And ever since we’ve had a long history of firsts.
- We were one of the first to integrate our factories.
- We were the first multinational apparel company to establish a comprehensive workplace code of conduct for our manufacturing suppliers.
- We were the first Fortune 500 company to grant domestic partnership health benefits.
- In 2011, we launched a program, called Worker Well-being, to improve the lives of the apparel workers who make our products.
- We were one of the first companies in our industry to establish a Restricted Substances List.
This list goes on, and we’ll continue to take bold steps to lead the way to a brighter future. Through our commitment to ethical business practices, we hope to shape future industry standards by introducing tomorrow’s best practices today.
