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

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:

#12 Barrick Gold Corporation

Twelfth worst in the Covalence ranking is Barrick, the Toronto-based gold-mining corporation. Allegations against the company include charges that it had a hand in the burning of at least 130 homes near its Porgera Mine in Papua New Guinea and that it manipulated land titles in Australia and Chile. The company was also blamed in a toxic spill in Tanzania that left dangerous levels of arsenic in the area around its North Mara mine, and its attempts to mine the Pascua Lama region along the Argentina-Chile border were associated with a 56-70% shrinking of nearby glaciers. A team of the company's engineers and technicians in Los Cacaos, Dominican Republic is pictured.

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Comments

[Angela Rossoni]

06:29 AM on 02/02/2010

Mediaset is the 11th least ethical company, according to Swiss analyst Covalence: have they been payed by tycoon Rupert Murdoch? I think that it is a subtle exploiting of an apparently authoritative and unbiaised study to protect the private interests of a business man whose companies should have appeared in this list.

[Bronxdude]

03:07 PM on 02/01/2010

What about UnitedHealthcare?

[Motnitram]

04:59 AM on 02/01/2010

Look! If we continue to bank at Bank of America or Wells or Chase... if we continue to buy GMO food from Monsanto... if we continue to support the political corruption by voting for Republicans or Democrats who put the same corrupt people in the Treasury and the Fed... then we deserve what we get.

Or... we could move our money out of the big banks, buy from local farmers, barter, grow our own food, support our local communities.... We might as well do it voluntarily now, because if we don't, we'll be doing it out of desperation soon enough.

[DonRoberto]

12:01 AM on 02/01/2010

How appropriate that the corporation that gave the world the term "astroturf" should be on this list.

[madelinet]

08:26 PM on 01/30/2010

A few of the companies that were named such as Chevron, really took me aback. I never thought that there were so many corporate giants out there who are so unfeeling and unethical. Is it necessary to their success to step on the little people just to stay on top. Have a little compassion, show some moral ethics. My eyes have now been opened and I will not ignore the immoral values that these companies have stained our world with. That French company that was accused of using slave labor to further their business ventures...appalling! Slavery and the use of such in my book is the epitome of immoral conduct.

[jabdart]

11:24 AM on 01/30/2010

This year a couple of countries in Africa grew Monsanto corn exclusively; because they got a great deal on the price of the seed; and the crops failed. Was that the new seed Monsanto's developing because their patent is about to run out on the Round Up Ready breed??

[Babele]

10:37 AM on 01/30/2010

Glad to see Monsanto is numero uno. Forbes named them company of the year for all of their destruction. Gotta question Forbes on that one. Someone must be sleeping on the job. Or they were paid handsomely ;)

Monsanto continues to control the seed market with seeds that don't re-germinate forcing farmers to buy from them year after year. They dump millions of pounds of PCB's illegally, they are guilty of bribing companies in other countries, they use false advertising in labeling their toxins as safe for the environment, they lie to the public about the health effects of eating genetically modified food, their food is ladled with dioxin and they lie about it, and they have been caught paying protesters to rally for them and their fake food claiming it is healthy. Nothing seems to stop them.

This is an absolutely insane and dangerous company.

[stargazer13]

11:33 AM on 01/30/2010

very scary about Baxter should have received the Brittney prime time air week after week treatment

but as you can tell almost no one knows of this story !

[Babele]

01:47 PM on 01/30/2010

right, and every time I link to the news about what they did, my post gets scrapped.

[seth47591]

04:16 PM on 03/03/2010

I am not a fan or Monsanto.
Monsanto abandoned that project that would have allowed the production of seed that could not then be re grown. Whether it didn't work or because of pressure the terminator gene didn't come to reality. Please don't post ignorant statements that take away from true stories about the evils of Monsanto.

[stargazer13]

07:58 PM on 01/29/2010

massive just massive baxter should have been listed !!

[topachic25]

11:47 AM on 01/29/2010

Is there any surprise when you learn that an ex lawyer for Monsanto now sits as a supreme court justice rulling on the very things he advised Monsanto on?! Unfortunatly however, it is a surprise to most.(BTW in case you didn't know it's Clarence Thomas). The probelm with these companies is that so many people who lobby congress, or who are now major politcal players have a vested interest in these companies, or they were former employees, or even sitting on a board for monsanto and then working with the FDA. There is convolusion and severe conflict of interest within our government regarding these companies. So hold a mirror up to ANY of these unethical companies, and you will find our countries leaders looking straight back at you with their pockets full.

[KrautMan]

10:41 AM on 01/29/2010

This voting and the whole ethics discussion in business environments is just plain stupid. We lost every reason to expect ethically responsible companies when we allowed limited liability entities. As it is it does make as much sense to expect ethics from a company as it makes sense to expect it from a stone or a bushfire.

[totaldisbelief]

09:18 AM on 01/29/2010

Can't we relist these companies as the Most Likely To Get Ex--Ploded?

[Tom Joad]

09:33 AM on 01/29/2010

...we should relist them at the most likely to get their 'representatives' elected to Congress...

[Tom Joad]

09:10 AM on 01/29/2010

Resource extraction industry and Agribusiness - no surprises here.

[JDHART]

07:55 AM on 01/29/2010

What, no Black Water?

[Tom Joad]

09:11 AM on 01/29/2010

Xe (nee Blackwater) activities pale in comparison to the havoc wreaked by these global capitalists.

[totaldisbelief]

09:20 AM on 01/29/2010

Blackwater is in a class all by itself.

[wired]

07:10 AM on 01/29/2010

Add Michael Moore:
http://www.mackinac.org/12024

[rekk]

12:09 PM on 01/29/2010

You're kidding me. You're going to associate some pork in Michigan as being on the same level as Monsanto who has sued small farmers out of their farms across all of the US and many in the developing world (fact)! This is nothing to say of the disputed adverse health effects of consuming genetically altered plants (corn scare, anyone?). Scratch any Republican and I think you'll find pork there too. So pick on the person whose views you don't agree with and conveniently ignore the corrupt practices of your favorite officials.

[PiedemontVA]

06:21 AM on 01/29/2010

What chevron did was a shock! I expected shady dealings from hburton, but I am embarassed to admit that I had no idea about many of the others. Thanks to hp for posting!