2Sustain

The nonprofit advocacy group Mercy for Animals launched an undercover investigation into McDonald’s egg supplier Sparboe Egg Farms and found cruel conditions. Hidden-camera video from the investigation showed a number of abuses, including:

• the use of battery cages, which are banned in California, Michigan and throughout the entire European Union,
• workers burning off the beaks of young chicks and callously throwing them into cages, some missing the cage doors and hitting the floor and
• rotted hens, decomposed beyond recognition as birds, left in cages with hens still laying eggs for human consumption.

In a statement, McDonald’s described the behavior on the video as “disturbing and completely unacceptable.” (more…)

Most Americans have high expectations for the nation’s businesses, but the vast majority also thinks Corporate America failed to meet those expectations in 2010. In fact, when StrategyOne asked 1,081 Americans how well Corporate America did last year, 82 percent assigned a grade of ‘C’ or lower and 40 percent assigned a grade of ‘D’ or ‘F.’ Just 17 percent gave Corporate America an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ for their 2010 performance.

Other survey highlights included: (more…)

In what some are calling a watershed moment in supply chain ethics, Nike, Inc. has agreed to provide financial, medical and vocational support to workers affected by closures at contract supplier factories in Honduras.

Nike announced late last month that it had reached an agreement with the Central General de Trabajadores de Honduras (CGT), representing the former employees of Hugger and Vision Tex factories, and as a result the company has agreed to: (more…)

Ethisphere has released its 2010 list of the World’s Most Ethical (WME) Companies, and again this year, I was struck with the U.S. Ethisphere Institute’s findings which  show, quite clearly,  that it does pay to be ethical.

As the graph below illustrates, even during a recession, the “WME Index” (which includes all publicly traded 2010 WME Companies) beat the FTSE 100 and the S&P 500.

The World’s Most Ethical Company designation is awarded to those companies that have leading ethics and compliance programs, particularly as compared to their industry peers, and this year Ethisphere found 100 companies that made the cut. 26 companies are new to the 2010 list; 24 companies dropped off from the 2009 list. (more…)

With news of the Madoff scandal dominating the headlines once again, it’s no surprise I’m thinking about ethics today. Remember my post from April, the one in which Ethisphere Magazine showed us that over the past five years, the world’s most ethical corporations have significantly outperformed the S&P 500 in terms of average stock growth percentile? Ethisphere Magazine made a convincing argument that it pays to be ethical, but why is this? Are employees more productive if they’re working for an ethical company? Maybe ethical companies foster greater loyalty?

(more…)