by Rebecca Walker — March 24, 2010—An annual list of the most ethical companies in the world has been released by the Ethisphere Institute, an international think-tank dedicated to the creation, advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability.
Companies related to facilities management that are on the list include Milliken & Company; ARAMARK; Caterpillar; CH2M Hill; Eaton; Johnson Controls; Jones Lang LaSalle; and Sodexo.
According to the Ethisphere Institute, there is no set number of companies that make the list each year. Rather, the designation is awarded only to companies with leading ethics and compliance programs, particularly as compared to their industry peers.
This year, there are 100 World’s Most Ethical Companies. Of these, 26 are new to the list in 2010 and 24 companies dropped off from the 2009 list. These “drop offs” generally occurred because of litigation and ethics violations, as well as increased competition from within their industry, explains the organization.
This is the fourth year Ethisphere has published the rankings, which appear in Ethisphere Magazine‘s Q1 issue.
Through in-depth research and a multi-step analysis, Ethisphere reviewed thousands of nominations from companies in over 100 countries and 36 industries in order to determine the winners.
The methodology includes reviewing codes of ethics, litigation and regulatory infraction histories; evaluating the 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.
Read about the methodology and view the complete list of the 2010 World’s Most Ethical Companies online.
