The World's Most Ethical Companies

A new listing picks 110 businesses as model corporate citizens.

The Ethisphere Institute, a New York City think tank, has just announced its fifth annual list of the World's Most Ethical Companies. The selection, open to every company in every industry around the globe, gives its winners an opportunity to trumpet their do-gooding ways. It is not a ranking, so they are all equally winners.

Nearly 3,000 companies were nominated--or nominated themselves--to be considered this year. The record-high number of nominations and applications demonstrates companies' desire to be acknowledged for high ethical standards. The 2011 list, which includes 110 organizations, is the largest since the award's inception in 2007.

Through in-depth research and a multi-step analysis, Ethisphere reviewed nominations from companies in more than 100 countries and 36 industries. Ethisphere's proprietary rating system, which it calls the Ethics Quotient, is based on a series of multiple-choice questions in a survey that is designed to capture a company's performance in an objective and standardized way. The winnowing process includes reviewing codes of ethics and litigation and regulatory infraction histories; evaluating investment in innovation and sustainable business practices; looking at activities designed to improve corporate citizenship; and studying nominations from senior executives, industry peers, suppliers and customers.

"Based on the information in that survey, Ethisphere verifies responses before a final score is provided," says Alex Brigham, executive director of the Ethisphere Institute. "Some of the information is easily verified and publicly available, and other times we request that companies send us non-public information to validate responses. This could include training policies, whistle-blower programs, internal tone-from-the-top communications and so forth."

Once the pool is culled down to a few hundred, Ethisphere cross-checks it against governance lists from organizations including GovernanceMetricsInternational and FTSE for Good. Any company that has had significant legal trouble over the past five years is dropped. Companies that focus on alcohol, tobacco or firearms also get the boot.

The 110 companies that made the final cut this year include first-time recipients Adidas ( ADDDY.PK - news - people ), eBay ( EBAY - news - people ), Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ), Colgate-Palmolive ( CL - news - people ) and 30 other newcomers. Thirty-one companies from last year disappeared, generally because of litigation or ethics violations, as well as increased competition from within their industries. Twenty-six companies have been recognized as a WME company for all five years, and 50 more have made the list at least twice.

This year's list also includes more global companies, with 42 winners from outside of the U.S., including six from Japan.

"This year we had more nominations for companies based outside of the United States than ever before," Brigham says. "We also had more foreign-based companies recognized than ever before. This is a positive sign to us, as it indicates that ethics is becoming a serious issue around the world, and foreign companies are more frequently developing best-in-class ethics and compliance programs than in prior years. So far we have received increasing numbers of WME nominations every year, and we hope to keep that trend for the 2012 World's Most Ethical Companies recognition, too."

He also says, "We have heard from a number of CEOs who tell us of multiple benefits their organizations receive from the World's Most Ethical recognition," including retaining customers because of the increased trust that such third-party recognition brings, and improved employee morale. Many studies indicate that the most skilled workers prefer to work for ethical companies. "And of course receiving WME recognition reinforces the work that the ethics departments are doing at these companies, and so they receive added attention and praise from senior leadership, which is great," Brigham adds.

Company	Industry	Country
AECOM Technology	Engineering/Design	US
Accenture	Business Services	Bermuda
Adidas	Apparel	Germany
Adobe Systems	Computer Software	US
Aerospace Corporation (The)	Aerospace/Defense	US
Aflac	Insurance	US
American Express	Financial Services	US
Australia & New Zealand Banking	Banking	Australia
Autoridad del Canal de Panama	Transportation/Logistics	Panama
Avaya	Telecom Hardware	US
Baptist Health South Florida	Healthcare Services	US
Becton Dickinson	Medical Devices	US
Best Buy	Specialty Retail	US
British Land	Real Estate	UK
CH2M HILL	Engineering/Design	US
CRH	Construction	Ireland
Caterpillar	Industrial Manufacturing	US
Cisco Systems	Telecom Hardware	US
Co-operative Group (The)	Food Stores	UK
Colgate-Palmolive	Consumer Products	US
Comme Il Faut	Apparel	Israel
Cummins	Automotive	US
Deere & Co	Industrial Manufacturing	US
Denso	Automotive	Japan
Dun & Bradstreet	Business Services	US
East Japan Railway	Transportation/Logistics	Japan
Eaton Corporation	Industrial Manufacturing	US
Ecolab	Chemicals	US
Electrolux	Consumer Electronics	Sweden
Encana	Energy/Utilities	Canada
Fluor	Engineering/Design	US
Ford Motor	Automotive	US
Freescale Semiconductor	Electronics/Semiconductors	US
Gap	Apparel	US
General Electric	Diversified Industries	US
General Mills	Food/Beverage	US
Granite Construction	Construction	US
Hartford Financial Services Group	Financial Services	US
Henkel	Consumer Products	Germany
Hennes & Mauritz	Specialty Retail	Sweden
Hitachi Data Systems	Computer Hardware	US
Hospital Corporation of America	Healthcare Services	US
Housing Development Finance	Financial Services	India
Indra Sistemas	Aerospace/Defense	Spain
International Paper	Forestry/Paper/Packaging	US
JM Huber	Chemicals	US
Johnson Controls	Automotive	US
Jones Lang LaSalle	Real Estate	US
Juniper Networks	Telecom Hardware	US
Kao Corporation	Consumer Products	Japan
Kesko	Food stores	Finland
Kimpton Hotels	Hotels/Travel/Hospitality	US
Manpower	Staffing	US
Marriott International	Hotels/Travel/Hospitality	US
Medicis	Specialty Pharma	US
Microsoft	Computer Software	US
Milliken & Company	Industrial Manufacturing	US
NYSE Euronext	Financial Services	US/Netherlands
National Australia Bank	Banking	Australia
Natura Cosmeticos	Health/Beauty	Brazil
NextEra Energy	Energy/Utilities	US
Nippon Yusen Kabushi Kaisha	Transportation/Logistics	Japan
Noblis	Business Services	US
Northumbrian Water	Energy/Utilities	UK
Parsons Corporation	Construction	US
Patagonia	Apparel	US
PepsiCo	Food/Beverage	US
Premier	Healthcare Services	US
Premier Farnell	Electronics/Semiconductors	UK
Rabobank	Banking	Netherlands
Rezidor Hotel Group	Hotels/Travel/Hospitality	Germany
Ricoh	Consumer Electronics	Japan
Rockwell Collins	Aerospace/Defense	US
Royal Philips	Medical Devices	Netherlands
Salesforce.com	Computer Software	US
Schneider Electric	Industrial Manufacturing	France
Singapore Telecom	Telecom Services	Singapore
Solae	Food/Beverage	US
Sompo Japan Insurance	Insurance	Japan
Sonae	Specialty Retail	Portugal
Standard Chartered Bank	Banking	UK
Starbucks Coffee	Restaurants/Cafes	US
Statoil	Energy/Utilities	Norway
Stonyfield Farm	Food/Beverage	US
Stora Enso	Forestry/Paper/Packaging	Finland
Svenska Cellulosa	Forestry/Paper/Packaging	Sweden
Swiss Re	Insurance	Switzerland
Swisscom	Telecom Services	Switzerland
Symantec Corporation	Computer Software	US
T-Mobile USA	Telecom Services	US
Target	Specialty Retail	US
Ten Thousand Villages	Specialty Retail	US
Teradata Corporation	Computer Software	US
Texas Instruments	Electronics/Semiconductors	US
Thomson Reuters	Media/Publishing/Entertainment	Canada/UK
Timberland	Apparel	US
UPS	Transportation/Logistics	US
Umicore	Metals	Belgium
Unibail-Rodamco	Real Estate	France/Netherlands
Vestas Wind	Energy/Utilities	Denmark
Waste Management	Engineering/Design	US
Wegmans	Food Stores	US
Westpac Group	Banking	Australia
Whole Food Market	Food Stores	US
Wisconsin Energy	Energy/Utilities	US
Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance	Insurance	US
Wyndham Worldwide	Hotels/Travel/Hospitality	US
Xerox	Consumer Electronics	US
Zappos	Internet	US
eBay	Auctions	US

Thanks to Jacquelyn Smith / Forbes