Avista named as one of the 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere for the second time

SPOKANE, Wash., Feb. 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avista Corp. (NYSE: AVA), a Washington state-based energy company with operations spanning five states, has been recognized by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as one of the 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies. This is the second consecutive year Avista has received this recognition.

Since Avista was founded on clean, renewable hydropower in 1889, the company has been able to serve its customers with an electric generation mix that’s more than half renewable, while keeping its carbon emissions among the lowest in the nation. Today, Avista continues to move closer to its goal to serve its customers with 100 percent clean electricity by 2045 and to have a carbon-neutral supply of electricity by the end of 2027. Avista recently updated the corporate responsibility section on its website at https://investor.avistacorp.com/corporate-responsibility/our-commitment

“Avista has always been committed to balancing reliability and affordability while maintaining responsibility for our environmental footprint. We strive to improve the lives of customers through the safe, responsible, and affordable delivery of energy, in a way that is trustworthy, innovative and collaborative. These guiding principles are founded on a long tradition of corporate responsibility that is built upon our commitment to manage the social, environmental and economic effects of our operations,” said Avista President and CEO Dennis Vermillion. “We’re honored to receive this recognition, because it acknowledges our belief that integrating corporate responsibility into our business builds trust, forges lasting relationships, strengthens morale, reduces risk, delivers enhanced value to our shareholders, and ultimately enables us to more effectively deliver on our vision to provide better energy for life.”

This is the second consecutive year that Avista has been recognized by Ethisphere as one of only nine honorees in the Energy & Utilities industry, based on Ethisphere’s assessment. In 2021, 135 honorees were recognized spanning 22 countries and 47 industries.

“While addressing the tough challenges of 2020, we saw companies like Avista earn the trust of stakeholders through resilience and a commitment to ethics and integrity,” said Ethisphere CEO Timothy Erblich. “The World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees continue to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to the highest values and positively impacting the communities they serve. Congratulations to everyone at Avista for earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies designation.”

Methodology & Scoring
Grounded in Ethisphere’s proprietary Ethics Quotient®, the World’s Most Ethical Companies assessment process includes more than 200 questions on culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity and initiatives to support a strong value chain. The process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify the leading practices of organizations across industries and around the globe.

This year, the process was streamlined and question set expanded to gauge how applicants are adapting and responding to the global health pandemic, environmental, social, and governance factors, safety, equity, and inclusion and social justice.

Honorees 
The full list of the 2021 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at https://worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees.

About Avista Corp.
Avista Corp. is an energy company involved in the production, transmission and distribution of energy as well as other energy-related businesses. Avista Utilities is the operating division that provides electric service to 400,000 customers and natural gas to 373,000 customers. Its service territory covers 30,000 square miles in eastern Washington, northern Idaho and parts of southern and eastern Oregon, with a population of 1.7 million. Alaska Energy and Resources Company is an Avista subsidiary that provides retail electric service in the city and borough of Juneau, Alaska, through its subsidiary Alaska Electric Light and Power Company. Avista stock is traded under the ticker symbol "AVA."  For more information about Avista, please visit www.avistacorp.com.

Avista Corp. and the Avista Corp. logo are trademarks of Avista Corporation.

About the Ethisphere Institute
The 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 and measure and improve culture. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition program and provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). More information about Ethisphere can be found at: https://ethisphere.com. 

Media Contacts

Avista Media Contact
Laurine Jue
laurine.jue@avistacorp.com

Ethisphere Media Contact
Clea Nabozny
clea.nabozny@ethisphere.com