March 28, 2024
Annapolis, US 47 F

Hague Quality Water earns BBB’s Torch Award for Ethics

Hague Quality Water of Maryland, a residential and commercial water treatment and plumbing services company with offices in Annapolis and Ocean City, was recently named a winner in the Better Business Bureau 2017 Torch Awards for Ethics. This award, which recognizes outstanding Maryland businesses that intentionally pursue BBB’s six TRUST! Principles, was presented at last night’s harbor side event celebrating the organization’s 100th anniversary at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.

Angie Barnett, third from left, President and CEO of Better Business Bureau serving Greater Maryland, presents Ron Edwards, center, CEO and Founder of Hague Quality Water of Maryland, with Torch Award for Ethics 2017 Winner Award at BBB’s 100th Anniversary Celebration

This annual award is the nonprofit organization’s premier public recognition of businesses that embody BBB’s mission of advancing marketplace trust.

“When Ronald Edwards, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, founded this company in 1993, he implemented the same high standards found in the military in his business values at Hague Quality Water – top quality products and attention to detail while creating a culture of the highest ethical standards.  This family-owned business also strongly believes in helping others, participating in a plethora of charitable causes each year.  I am delighted to name them a winner in the 2017 Torch Award for Ethics,” commented Angie Barnett, CEO/President of BBB serving Greater Maryland.

Barnett continued, “Recognizing all of the Torch Award finalists and winners, while celebrating BBB’s 100 years of service in Maryland, made for a truly inspirational evening. Each Torch Award honoree demonstrates a conviction to make strategic, ethical decisions that cement their relationships with employees, customers, suppliers and their community.”

Nearly 200 business leaders, including members of BBB’s board of directors, attended this milestone event. Maryland Secretary of the Department of Commerce, Mike Gill, presented BBB’s leadership with a Citation from Governor Larry Hogan marking its 100 years of helping Maryland businesses and those who buy from them.

The Torch Awards for Ethics is BBB’s premier public recognition of organizations that intentionally pursue six TRUST! Principles. The award embodies the BBB’s mission of advancing marketplace trust.

The entry must illustrate how the business exceeds marketplace standards for ethics and integrity in its relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, peers and the community.  A Torch Awards for Ethics application requires the organization to state their beliefs around each section’s criteria, to tell a story about how the beliefs are used, how they improved over time, and demonstrate how they monitor their performance against goals, standards or other benchmarks.

Over eighty organizations completed the initial nomination phase for BBB serving Greater Maryland’s 2017 Torch Awards for Ethics. They were pre-screened, but just twenty one had the fortitude to complete the online application. A panel of judges, which included past winners and members of BBB’s Board and Standards & Compliance Committee, selected only five to receive honors for Greater Maryland’s 2017 Torch Awards for Ethics.

For more information about BBB serving Greater Maryland or the Torch Awards for Ethics visitbbb.org/greater-maryland.

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