Ethisphere Institute has released its list of the 2011 World's Most Ethical Companies. There is no set number of companies that make the list. Almost 3,000 companies were nominated - or nominated themselves - to be considered this year, but only 110 were honored, the largest number since the award's inception in 2007.
In the computer software category, five companies were named: Adobe Systems, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Symantec Corporation, and Teradata Corporation. Only Hitachi Data Systems was present in the Computer Hardware section. In Telecom Hardware, three were listed: Avaya Inc., Cisco Systems, and Juniper Networks. Under Electronics and Semiconductors, the three picked were Freescale Semiconductor, Premier Farnell, and Texas Instruments.
Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and Google did not make the list. Neither did Intel, AMD, or Nvidia. Frankly, more tech companies that we know did not make the list than companies that did.
"At the heart of the evaluation and selection process for Ethisphere's World's Most Ethical Companies is Ethisphere's proprietary rating system, the Ethics Quotient (EQ)," the Ethisphere Institute explains. "The framework of EQ is comprised of a series of multiple choice questions that capture a company's performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected is not intended to cover all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance or ethics, but rather it is a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies. The EQ framework and methodology was determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere's network of thought leaders and from the World's Most Ethical Companies Methodology Advisory Panel."