Seven food and beverage companies from around the world made this year’s list of World’s Most Ethical Companies from Ethisphere. PepsiCo, which is making its 16th appearance, has been honored every year the list has been compiled.
2022 honorees (in alphabetical order):
- ADM (third time on the list)
- Brown-Forman (first time on the list)
- Charoen Pokphand Group (second time on the list)
- Grupo Bimbo (sixth time on the list)
- Illycaffè (10th time on the list)
- Kellogg’s (14th time on the list)
- PepsiCo (16th time on the list)
The honorees are determined using Ethisphere’s proprietary rating system, the corporate Ethics Quotient (EQ). The EQ assesses five categories:
- Ethics and compliance program (35%)
- Culture of ethics (20%)
- Environmental and societal impact (20%
- Governance (15%)
- Leadership and reputation (10%)
A company’s score is determined relative to its peers (i.e., organizations with similar structure, size, and operating environment). While any organization can participate, the system is designed for those with annual revenue of $250 million or more.
Ethisphere notes that the benefits of being ethical are directly related to a company’s bottom line, as the companies on the list have outperformed a comparable index of large cap companies. The five-year “ethics premium” was 24.6% between January 2017 and January 2022.
