World's Most Ethical Companies

Westpac Banking Group has emerged again as the only Australian company to make it onto a global list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies.

The list is published by the Ethisphere Institute, a US think-tank set up to research and promote profitable best practices in governance, business ethics, compliance and corporate social responsibility.

Westpac appears on the third annual World’s Most Ethical Companies list.

Ethisphere Institute says making it onto the World’s Most Ethical Companies list proves to be more and more difficult every year. This year Ethisphere received a record number of nominations from companies in over 100 countries and 35 industries.

This year, 99 companies made the cut. Twenty companies dropped off the list from last year, and 25 companies were newcomers. A remarkable 44 companies are "three-peats," making the list for the past three years.

Ethisphere conducted data analyses on hundreds of companies based on their responses to its 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.

Some of the companies making the global list in 2009 is the US Aerospace Corporation, apparel company Nike, UK banking group HSBC, US Food outlet McDonalds, Sweden’s speciality retailer, IKEA and US telecom hardware company Cisco Systems.