2011 World’s Most Ethical Companies (big surprises)

[DainBramaged]

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.

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 (this one alone made me hurl)

Forestry, Paper and Packaging

International Paper

Stora Enso Oyj

Svenska Cellulosa

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 Phillips

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

http://ethisphere.com/2011-worlds-most-ethical-companies/

[Drale]

1. Cisco Systems

Except when they where helping China spy on their citizens I suppose.

[999998th word]

28. I was looking for the Onion sig.

[Paradoxical]

2. UPS? GE? Ebay? Yeah, BS.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Paradoxical]

10. Read the article. Still makes no sense.

[DainBramaged]

12. It's not supposed to, jesus christ on a stick

these fucking companies are scum, do any of you get (big surprises) or do i have to draw a map to sarcasm?

[jacquelope]

3. Microsoft?!

:rofl:

Guess they never heard of RedHat...

[RandomThoughts]

4. There are many people that do better in companies.

But it depends how you define ethics.

There is an old loss prevention saying, if someone steals for you, they will steal from you. So the concept of ethics in business makes sense.

However much of what is 'ethical' is counter to large corporate structures, simple things like the very structure of the system is actually unethical, but is built to work in a non perfect world by creating a system of payment and work done.


All of those companies have CEOs that are probably overpaid, so they fail on ethics from the start. However that is not an ethics consideration within their view of the system.


The test of ethics is not slogans on a break room wall to get employees to think there company is a 'good thing'. The reason for much of that. Ethics is when you have to choose between some gain like money, or what is better for society and many people. The very profit motive all of them operate under, makes being ethical very difficult. If they were the shareholders would fire them.


They can be 'ethical' unless it cost more, and even use some dynamics like having a positive brand name linked to the concept of ethical practices, but most companies chose to have a PR campaign of being ethical, and not moving away from profit first for a few as a goal.

Any of those companies break themselves up if they are larger then is best for society? Any of them turn ownership over to workers with most profit going to workers? Any of them give up profit for a better social result? How many of them refuse unconstitutional Homeland security or NSA demands for watching civilians? How many participate in two tier systems like fusion centers?


They are ethical in an Orwellian fashion for PR.

But none of them have sent me the beer and travel money that is due.

Yet.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RandomThoughts]

21. Within the context of your perception.

And understanding some may see it that way.

Have you considered that I am due beer and travel money and many experiences?

[DainBramaged]

22. Yes!

[provis99]

5. General Electric is on the list. Most unethical corporation in the world.

Bullshit list. Any list that also has Caterpillar, Microsoft, and Best Buy on their list is laughable.

[DainBramaged]

7. Which was the point of (big suprises) but don't let that stop anyone....

[provis99]

8. you're happy these were listed as ethical?

Aren't you even amused that the companies self-selected themselves as ethical companies according to the article?

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Egnever]

14. The real question is

Why post it in the first place? Since you seemingly think its bullshit.

[DainBramaged]

19. I've been waitng for your appearance

goodbye, I will enjoy clicking the big red X for you! AND the rules state I can tell you I put you on ignore!!! So there ya go!!!

[DainBramaged]

30. Let's try this again, you don't get it, period.

Read down just a few replies and you'll see a better explanation, how's that?

[Drale]

9. Caterpillar is an great company to work for

I know several people who work for them and they are treat really well. I don't know what their scale for ethics of this list is but I can only tell you what I've seen in real life.

[PA Democrat]

13. And the unethical ones are even WORSE!

[Brickbat]

15. I got it.

As soon as I saw the phrase "particularly as compared to their peers", I got it.

:hi:

[Matariki]

17. How is General Electric on this list?

Weapons manufacturing amongst other things?

[DainBramaged]

20. And that is the point!

[Matariki]

26. I think I'm missing the point then

I read the article. Do you mean *your* point in posting the list?

[DainBramaged]

27. These are not ethical companies by any stretch of the imagination (the majority)

and it saddens me that some of you don't understand how farcical this list is. Most of these companies will use this list to publicize their 'ethicalness' and a whole lot of people will believe it, just like some of you don't understand this list is utterly absurd.


One quick example, do you know how many DECADES GE fought against cleaning up the PCB mess they created in the Hudson River?


http://www.riverkeeper.org/campaigns/stop-polluters/pcbs/

Between 1947 and 1977, General Electric (GE) dumped an estimated 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the Hudson River. The source of the PCB discharges was two GE capacitor manufacturing plants located in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls, New York, about 50 miles north of Albany. GE’s PCBs are now found in sediment, water and wildlife throughout the Hudson River ecosystem as far south as the New York Harbor. They are also found in people.

On May 15, 2009, GE began Phase 1 of the long-delayed clean-up of those PCBs. Phase 1 dredging is scheduled to run for approximately 6 months in the upper Hudson and remove only 10% of the PCBs slated to be removed. Phase 2 will remove the remaining targeted contaminants and operate for several years.


Did anyone even notice I wrote this?


Whole Food Market (this one alone made me hurl)

[baldguy]

18. By necessity, a short list.

And "ethical" only in relation to other corporations, not as an absolute measurement.

[rurallib]

23. Ethisphere must be a Murdoch company?

ye gads!

[TBF]

24. LOL - AmEx is owned by Bank of America now. But I do like Zappos. nt

[PBS Poll-435]

25. American Express is not owned by Bank of America. nt

[Violet_Crumble]

29. Australian banks are ethical? Like hell they are...

ANZ, NAB and Westpac are all part of the big 5 banks that keep on gouging customers by hiking interest rates far beyond those set by the Reserve Bank and charging exhorbitant fees for customers to switch their mortgages to other financial institutions. They were so bad that the govt had to intervene. But, hey. Maybe they use recycled photocopying paper and switch their lights off for Earth Hour, so that probably balances it all out....

[tpsbmam]

31. Um, you might want to check the website. Unveiling keynote speaker? Chamber of Commerce

COO. From the front page:


"Ethisphere’s Unveiling of 2011 World’s Most Ethical Companies to Feature Keynote by U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s COO David Chavern."

[DainBramaged]

32. I know, why is this so hard?

Does the phrase (big surprises) mean I am enamored with the choices, or maybe I saw some huge flaws in the process and the companies 'selected'?





I cannot believe how hard this is for people to understand, I just cannot. DU surprises me yet again.


Figure it out for yourselves folks, it's bedtime.

[Kat45]

33. I used to work for Thomson (before it merged with Reuters)

It was a pretty good company to work for--until they outsourced my entire department to the Philippines (or was it India?). That was over 10 years ago. (I haven't found a good job since.)

And I sure don't get Microsoft and GE on the list.

[zalinda]

34. Wegman's is a pretty good company

I don't know if they have changed their policies now, but when I worked there 10 years ago, after 3 months you could get medical. They start a little above minimum wage. They train their employees to always put customers first, always be helpful. They give away college scholarships to their employees. They like promote from within. And when it gets very busy, they call people from other departments to help bag groceries.

True story - As employees we were to park way out in the back of the parking lot, to leave the good spaces for the customers. In comes Danny Wegman (the CEO) walking from the back of the parking lot, with a bunch of other suits. This was during the holiday week, either Thanksgiving or Christmas. All of a sudden a call comes for the baggers to come to the front of the store, so we can get our customers out through the door faster. I couldn't believe my eyes, all the suits came forward and started bagging. They bagged for a good 1/2 hour before the rush was more manageable.

They buy what they can from local farmers, in season, and proudly put up the farm's name, so people know where the produce came from. Another chain market decided to try to go head to head with Wegman's, and put up a brand new store in the adjacent shopping center. When you went in that store, it was empty. There would be maybe 2 or 3 cashiers, and they were taking there time, as there was hardly any customers to keep them busy. Then go over to the smaller Wegmans and you would have all 10 registers going full tilt. The other store finally called it quits after 3 years, and Wegmans remade their store into a much larger one.

Oh, and Wegmans makes great artisan bread, and donates the day old bread to food banks, along with other things.

Wegmans always seems to make the top 100 places to work. I couldn't tell you if they are blue or red. All I know is that they treat their employees and customers well.

zalinda