CHICAGO,
IL-November 3, 2011 - The Better Business Bureau serving Chicago & northern
Illinois (BBB) announces the winners of the 2012 Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics, which spotlights companies that exemplify ethical
business practices. The fifteenth annual awards luncheon
ceremony will be hosted on Thursday, December 1st at the Hilton Rosemont
Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont. Winning awards will be presented to: AT&T Inc.;
Hyatt Regency Chicago; West Suburban Bank; Clune Construction Company; Vintage
Tech Recyclers, Inc.; Luna Chicago, LLC;
and LaPelusa Home Improvement Inc.
Honorable
Mentions will be awarded to: XSport Fitness; Varco Windows And Doors; and Seal
Chicago, LLC.
“As the recent headlines have reflected, ethical
business practices have taken a beating on Wall Street, the banking industry,
housing and other marketplaces,” said Steve J. Bernas, president & CEO of
the Better Business Bureau serving Chicago and Northern Illinois. "The Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics
honors companies that make a demonstrable effort to promote ethical business
practices, and we are pleased to see the number of businesses who, in the eyes
of their customers and other associates, meet that threshold."
The award recipients are selected by an independent
panel of judges each year. Bernas continued, "This year's participants and
winners have reaped many rewards as a result of their commitment to achieving
and maintaining high ethical standards including stronger customer loyalty,
enhanced reputation, and greater employee commitment."
The 2012 competition had the largest number of
nominations and entries with over 2,060 nominations from a wide variety of
businesses, explained Bernas.
“This variety in entries and the subsequent winners
and honorable mentions reflect an increasing interest by more and more
companies in using ethical business practices in their operations as their
primary method of self-regulation,” Bernas said. “This belief is the
cornerstone of the BBB system.”
Companies are judged in five categories based on their
number of employees. Bernas noted that the presentation of awards is just the
tip of the iceberg for companies that do it right by working with their customers,
suppliers and other organizations in an ethical manner. It remains important
for people to inform the BBB when they have done business with a company that
did an exemplary job. Many of the over 2,060 nominees for this award were the
result of consumers alerting the BBB to companies who 'do it right'.
This year's event has been made possible through the
generosity of the following sponsors: ABC
7 Chicago; Abt Electronics & Appliances; Access One, Inc.; ADP; The Apartment
People Ltd; AT&T Inc.; CDW Corporation; Combined Insurance Co. of America;
Delaware Place Bank; DeVry Inc; Dex One Corporation; Grants Appliances
Electronics & More; Hallberg Commercial Insuror's Inc.; Hanson Material
Service; The Inland Real Estate Group, Inc.; Integrated Project Management Co.
Inc.; Luna Chicago, LLC; The Pampered Chef, Ltd.; Sears Holdings Corporation; Tribune
Media Group; Urban Imaging Group, Inc; Walgreens; XSport Fitness.
Consumers can nominate an ethical business on our Web site
at http://chicago.bbb.org/torchnomination
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As a private, non-profit
organization, the purpose of the Better Business Bureau is to promote an
ethical marketplace. BBBs help resolve buyer/seller complaints by means of
conciliation, mediation and arbitration. BBBs also review advertising claims,
online business practices and charitable organizations. BBBs develop and issue
reviews on businesses and nonprofit organizations and encourage people to check
out a company or charity before making a purchase or donation.
