2011 World’s Most Ethical Companies | Ethisphere™ Institute

2011 World’s Most Ethical Companies

The World’s Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business “ethically” and translate those words into action. WME honorees demonstrate real and sustained ethical leadership within their industries, putting into real business practice the Institute’s credo of “Good. Smart. Business. Profit.”

There is no set number of companies that make the list each year. Rather, the World’s Most Ethical Company designation is awarded to those companies that have leading ethics and compliance programs, particularly as compared to their industry peers. This year, there are 110 World’s Most Ethical Companies. Of these companies, 36 are new to the list in 2011 and 26 companies dropped off from the 2010 list. These “drop offs” generally occurred because of litigation and ethics violations, as well as increased competition from within their industry.

IT CAN PAY TO BE ETHICAL

Investing in ethics is beneficial for any company, even in a recession. The below graph compares the “WME Index,” or all publicly traded 2011 World’s Most Ethical Company honorees, against the S&P 500 since the initial World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition from 2007.

2011 WORLD’S MOST ETHICAL COMPANY SELECTION PROCESS:

1. The Methodology

A methodology committee of leading attorneys, professors, government officials and organization leaders, assisted Ethisphere in creating the scoring methodology for the World’s Most Ethical Companies awards.

2. Candidate Selection

Over the course of the year, companies across the world submitted their applications to become 2011 World’s Most Ethical Companies. Based on these applications, as well as information Ethisphere gathered throughout the year, a list of semi-finalists was created.

3. In-Depth Analysis

At this stage, semi-finalist companies were notified and given an in-depth survey questionnaire to fill out regarding their ethics and compliance program, governance and corporate responsibility.

4. Further Refinement

Ethisphere then conducted data analysis on hundreds of companies based on their responses to the survey, as well as documents and information researched and requested by Ethisphere to confirm survey responses. Every company was then given an EQ score based on the results of the survey and measured against seven distinct categories. These categories were Corporate Citizenship and Responsibility; Corporate Governance; Innovation that Contributes to the Public Well Being; Industry leadership; Executive Leadership and Tone from the Top; Legal, Regulatory and Reputation Track Record; and Internal Systems and Ethics/Compliance Program.

5. The Winners…

The highest EQ scores for each industry became this year’s 2011 World’s Most Ethical Companies.

You can find more in-depth information on the methodology for 2011’s World’s Most Ethical Companies here.

2011 WORLD’S MOST ETHICAL COMPANIES:

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

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