In 2004, Hazel Henderson founded the EthicMark® Award and the not-for-profit EthicMark® Institute with a start-up donation of $25,000 from a bequest from her aunt.  She subsequently trademarked the EthicMark® emblem through an additional cost personal contribution of $25,000.  

Hazel Henderson is the author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy, winner of the Bronze Award of the 2008 Axiom Business Books Awards; Beyond Globalization; and many other books.  She is also the Founder and Producer of Ethical Markets Media, LLC and the creator and Executive Producer of the Ethical Markets television series, which reaches 49% of U.S. TV homes through PBS and is also available via webcast.  The EthicMark® Award grew out of her work with Ethical Markets Media, LLC, when she decided to create the Award as an ongoing nonprofit activity unaffiliated with any for-profit company.

In 2006, the Institute granted the first EthicMark® Award to The Fund for Global Awakening and The Global Interchange in recognition of their Decade of the Heart all-media forgiveness campaign. The forgiveness campaign was part of the Messages: Awakening the Heart of Humanity media project, and took the slogan “Anger Takes Joy as its Prisoner” into print, television, billboard, and radio ad spots.  The EthicMark® Institute selected the forgiveness campaign to set a clear and very high standard.  All future awardees must meet this benchmark, which represents a central and indispensable characteristic of the EthicMark® brand. 

In 2007, Academy Fellow Hazel Henderson transferred the EthicMark® to the World Business Academy to execute the Award program.