Ethisphere’s 2009 World’s Most Ethical Companies uses a strict methodology to judge which international companies can call themselves ethical world leaders.
This year 20 companies dropped off the list, a new 25 made it to the list and that brought the total to 99 companies. Only 99 companies made the qualifications and only 44 of those have made it three years in a row.
Ethisphere’s committee included government officials, professionals and attorneys from over the world and went through an in-depth analysis of all semi-finalists. The website examined companies on their corporate citizenship and responsibility; corporate governance; innovation that contributes to public well being; industry leadership; executive leadership and tone from the top; legal, regulatory and reputation track record; internal systems and ethics/compliance programs.
The list of winners included companies like Dell, Google, Intel, Cisco but also Honeywell International and The aerospace Corporation who both listed in the category “Aerospace and Defense”.
Honeywell International is the company that the famous Honeywell Project was created to oppose. From 1960 to 1990 the Honeywell Project campaigned against (what was then) the Honeywell Corporation in order to persuade them to drop their weapons manufacturing business.
In September 1990, Honeywell spun off (most) of its military work into a new company called Alliant Techsystems. They deny the Honeywell Project influenced that decision at all.
According to Wikipedia, Honeywell is 44th in a list of US companies responsible for air pollution. The United States Environmental Protection Agency lists Honeywell as the worst offender of Superfund toxic waste.
The 2009 World’s Most Ethical Companies (in alphabetic order) are:
- Accenture
- Accor
- Aflac
- American Express
- AstraZeneca
- Avaya
- Baxter International
- Becton Dickinson
- Best Buy
- BMW
- Caterpillar
- CH2M Hill
- Cisco Systems
- Cleveland Clinic
- CRH
- Cummins
- Danone
- Dell
- Duke Energy
- Dun & Bradstreet
- Eaton Corporation
- Ecolab
- Flint Hills Resources
- Fluor
- FPL Group
- Freescale Semiconductor
- Gap
- General Electric
- General Mills
- Harris Corporation
- Henkel
- Holcim
- Honeywell International
- HSBC
- IKEA
- Intel
- International Paper
- John Deere
- Johns Hopkins Hospital
- Johnson Controls
- Jones Lang LaSalle
- Kao
- Kellogg Company
- Marks & Spencer
- Marriott International
- Mattel
- McDonald’s
- Milliken
- Nike
- Nippon Yusen Kaisha
- Novartis
- Novo Nordisk
- Novozymes
- Oracle Corporation
- Patagonia
- PepsiCo
- Petro-Canada
- Pitney Bowes
- Premier
- Rabobank
- Ricoh Company
- Rockwell Automation
- Royal Philips
- Safeway
- salesforce.com
- SC Johnson & Son
- Sempra Energy
- Sodexo
- Sompo
- Standard Chartered Bank
- Starbucks
- Statkraft
- Stonyfield Farm
- Stora Enso
- Svenska Cellulosa (SCA)
- Swiss Re
- Symantec
- Target
- Ten Thousand Villages
- Texas Instruments
- The Aerospace Corporation
- The Hartford Financial Services
- The Principal Financial Group
- Thomson Reuters
- Time Warner
- T-Mobile
- Toyota Motor
- Trader Joe’s
- Unilever
- United Parcel Service
- Vodafone
- Waste Management
- Westpac Banking Corporation
- Weyerhaeuser
- Wisconsin Energy
- Xerox
- Zappos.com
In Pure Spirit
What do you think? Does this reward suggest that Honeywell has turned the corner and are now trying very hard to defend the environment and corporate ethics or does this bring the award into question?
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