Adidas, General Mills Drop Off ‘Most Ethical’ List; Kellogg’s, Hasbro, Alcoa Join

Starbucks, Patagonia and General Electric are among the 23 companies that have been named for six years running to Ethisphere’s Most Ethical Companies list, while Adidas and General Mills are among the major brands to have dropped off the list.

Swedish electronics manufacturer Electrolux joined the list this year, as did Intel, Hasbro, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oreal, Honeywell, Time Warner, Alcoa, Tata Steel, Marks & Spencer, CostCo, PetCo and Kellogg’s.

The 2012 list includes a record 145 companies, up from 110 in 2011. This year 43 of the companies listed are from outside the U.S.

The list honors companies that exhibit leadership in ethics and compliance. Ethisphere’s selection process is based on a questionnaire and due diligence research that consider companies’ ethics and compliance programs; reputation and legal compliance record; governance; culture of ethics; and corporate citizenship and responsibility.

Companies dropping off the list this year include aerospace company Indra Systemes, automotive company Denso and industrial equipment maker Caterpillar.

Last year, Adidas was named in the apparel category along with 2012 repeat firms Gap, Patagonia and Timberland. Throughout 2011 Adidas and fellow sportswear brands Nike and Puma were targeted by Greenpeace for their use of a Chinese textile manufacturer that the environmental group said had a questionable pollution record. All three firms have committed to eradicating hazardous chemicals from their supply chain by 2020 as a result of the campaign.

General Mills – manufacturer of food brands Cheerios and Yoplait – is another noticeable absentee from the 2012 list. PepsiCo, Solae and Stonyfield, the other firms named in the 2011 food and beverage category, all made the 2012 list, along with new addition The Kellogg Company.

Ethisphere’s full list of World’s Most Ethical companies 2012: