Retailers’ ethics don’t make Ethisphere grade

The Ethisphere Institute is out with its “World’s Most Ethical Companies” list and the names of retailers are few and far between.

The Most Ethical list includes 132 total companies, but the only companies included in the retail category were Petco and Marks and Spencer. The apparel category included Gap Inc., Hennes & Mauritz and Levi-Straus & Co. Suppliers receiving the Most Ethical designation included Colgate-Palmolive, Henkel AG and Japan’s KAO Corp., in the consumer products category and Kellogg, PepsiCo, Hershey and Iillycaffé in the food and beverage category. Hasbro and Mattel were named Most Ethical in the toys and games category.

Ethisphere doesn’t attempt to rank companies the way Fortune’s Best Companies to work for list does with its 1 to 100 ranking. But what both lists have in common is that only companies who submit an application are considered for inclusion. Consequently, the lack of retailers, especially on the Ethisphere list may be more a function of whether an application was submitted than a statement about ethics or the quality of work environment. Neither group discloses how many applications are submitted.

In Ethisphere’s case, the rationale for not disclosing the size of the sample from which the 132 Most Ethical honorees were chosen is as follows: “We established this policy at the very beginning of our program so that companies have the freedom to apply and be measured against others in total confidence and so that those who are honored recognize that their programs are being measured both competitively and on their own merits.”

According to the organization, the Most Ethical designation recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business “ethically” and translate those words into action. Honorees not only promote ethical business standards and practices internally, they exceed legal compliance minimums and shape future industry standards by introducing best practices today.

“Companies today are challenged by a complex and often conflicting set of laws and regulations around the world, yet despite the lack of a global rule of law there’s a growing commonality about how to do business the right way,” said Ethisphere’s CEO Timothy Erblich. “More and more, we’re finding that stakeholders from employees and customers to executives and investors understand that ethical leadership drives outcomes ranging from operational performance to corporate integrity, transparency and workforce behavior. We’re delighted to honor these companies who not only understand the various components of what makes a company ethical but are dedicated to building an environment that makes it so.”