The 12 least ethical companies in the world

[witchcurlgirl]

Can ethics be quantified? Or, better yet, can a lack of ethics be quantified?

This week, the Swiss research firm Covalence released its annual ranking of the overall ethical performance of multinational corporations. The idea behind the Covalence research is that there's value -- both for companies and consumers -- in measuring corporations against an ethical standard. (We're hoping this idea also applies to Wall Street firms.)

To complete its ethics index, Covalence compiled both quantitative and qualitative data, spanning seven years, for 581 companies. The data encompass 45 criteria that include labor standards, waste management and human rights records. And because it is a reputation index, the Covalence survey also incorporates media, industry and NGO documents into its evaluation.

Of course, while the index had its winners -- the first-, second-, and third-place companies were IBM, Intel, and HSBC, respectively -- we were more interested in the companies with the lowest ethical ratings. Among those companies with the most awful records are some of the usual suspects in the oil and mining industries but Covalence also found some lesser-known offenders.

Check out a snapshot of the 12 companies with the worst ethical ratings, and some of the things they've done to earn the ranking:

10. Total SA. French oil and gas company Total has been accused of building a pipeline with the aid of slave labor in Myanmar. In addition, in 1999 one of the company's oil tankers, the Erika, which had 30,000 tons of oil on board, sunk off of the coast of Brittany. A French court later asked the company to compensate the victims of the spill

9. Grupo Mexico. Grupo Mexico, the mining giant, placed ninth worst in the Covalence ethical index. In 2007, miners at Mexicana, the copper mine in Cananea, northern Mexico (pictured), went on strike to protest safety and health violations -- and more than two years later, the workers are still striking. But just today, Grupo Mexico proposed a new deal to workers aimed at resolving the dispute.

8. Syngenta.The Swiss agriculture and chemicals company Syngenta ranked eighth worst in the survey. The company was fined by the EPA in 2008 for pesticide-related infringements, and one of its former employees was recently awarded nearly $2 million after she was wrongly fired for reporting discrimination in the workplace.

7. RyanAir. Michael O'Leary, the CEO of Irish budget airline Ryanair, is known for his outrageous behavior and aggressive cost-cutting measures. Employees of his company are reportedly forbidden from using the company's pens or charging their cellphones with its electricity. And O'Leary has been known to get nasty with customers, allegedly yelling and cursing at one person who requested a refund after a relative fell ill.

6. Occidental Petroleum. Occidental, one of America's largest oil and gas companies, has been involved in a number of territory disputes in multiple countries, including Ecuador and Colombia. The company also drew ire from environmentalists in 2005, when it proposed building a road through Ecuador's Yasuní National Park.

5. Philip Morris. Philip Morris, one of the world's leading cigarette manufacturers, ranked fifth-worst in the Covalence survey. Earlier this month, the company reportedly attempted to persuade the government to abandon its ten-year-old lawsuit against the tobacco industry for allegedly concealing the dangers of cigarettes.

4. Freeport-McMoRan. Freeport-McMoRan, a copper and gold producer, has run into opposition in Indonesia's Papua province, where locals have tried to claim the area's vast gold deposits -- reportedly the largest in the world.

3. Chevron. Chevron, the oil and gas behemoth, has been accused of tax evasion as well a number of environmental infractions in several countries around the world. But perhaps most controversial was a 1998 episode in Nigeria: after protesters took hostages as part of a demonstration against the company, Nigerian soldiers shot at the demonstrators, killing two. Chevron was accused of facilitating the transport of the soldiers, known for their "general history of committing abuses," to the scene. The company, however, was cleared of the charges in 2008.

2. Halliburton. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Halliburton, the oil and gas company famously associated with former Vice President Dick Cheney, was accused of unfairly procuring billions of dollars in government contracts for oil repair in the country.

1. Monsanto, the Missouri-based agriculture giant, ranked dead last in the Covalence ethical index. The company, which leads the world in the production of genetically-engineered seed, has been subject to myriad criticisms. Among them: the company is accused of frequently and unfairly suing small farmers for patent infringement.

The 12 Least Ethical Companies In The World: Covalence's Rankng (PHOTOS, POLL)

[chartreuse]

i knew monsanto had to be number one. they are truly fucking scary. i'm not surprised to see syngenta up there, either.

[Penny Lane]

Totally expected Walmart to be on this list.

[crumpet]

^^^Yeah, the movie Food, Inc. really highlighted this company. Everyone should see that and Fast Food Nation.

[MohandasKGanja]

No Chinese or Russian companies?

[czb]

what about nestle??

[WhateverLolaWants]

^^^ I was thinking the same thing.

[witchcurlgirl]

Here's a sub list on Food and Beverage companies....but this list runs from best rated to worst, opposite the list in the OP

Rank | Company

1. Unilever NV
2. Pepsico Inc.
3. Danone
4. Kraft Foods Inc.
5. Cadbury plc
6. Diageo plc
7. The Coca-Cola Company
8. General Mills Inc.
9. Anheuser-Busch InBev
10. SABMiller plc
11. Kellogg Company
12. Heineken NV
13. Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.
14. Campbell Soup Co.
15. Pepsi Bottling Group Inc.
16. Nestlé S.A.
17. HJ Heinz Co.
18. Sara Lee Corp.
19. ConAgra Foods Inc.
20. Hershey Co.
21. Orkla ASA
22. Ajinomoto Co. Inc.
23. Pernod-Ricard SA
24. Asahi Breweries Ltd.
25. Associated British Foods plc
26. Kirin Holdings Company Limited
27. Fomento Económico Mexicano S.A.B de C.V
28. Uni-President Enterprises Corp.
29. Bunge Ltd.
30. Archer Daniels Midland Company
31. Monsanto Co.

[WhateverLolaWants]

Huh...wonder what Sara Lee did to piss them off...and whether its worse that telling women not to breastfeed while selling them tainted formula (Which Nestle supposedly did in Africa)

[AliceInWonderland]

wait, what has Nestle done? (excuse my ignorance!) yeah walmart should be there too!

[Kathie_Moffett]

Yeah, what has Nestle done? And Diageo? I thought they were just a wine distributor...huh? What COULD they be doing? Really curious about that.

[czb]

nestle promoted infant formula in developing countries, places where there wasn't an abundance of clean water. i think they initially gave the formula away for free and by the time the mothers ran out of the samples their own milk supply ran dry because they had stopped breastfeeding. the price of formula was $$$ than people could afford plus sanitation was an issue.

really sleazy marketing.

[WhateverLolaWants]

Ah yes, thats what it was...

[Kathie_Moffett]

^^thanks! now I remember...ugh. Well, I prefer See's chocolate anyway!

[visitor42]

I thought Cheney's Halliburton would be number 1. Way to go Mosanto!