Starbucks, Patagonia and General Electric are among the 23 companies that have been named for six years running to Ethisphere’s Most Ethical Companies list, while Adidas and General Mills are among the major brands to have dropped off the list.

Swedish electronics manufacturer Electrolux joined the list this year, as did Intel, Hasbro, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oreal, Honeywell, Time Warner, Alcoa, Tata Steel, Marks & Spencer, CostCo, PetCo and Kellogg’s.

The 2012 list includes a record 145 companies, up from 110 in 2011. This year 43 of the companies listed are from outside the U.S.

The list honors companies that exhibit leadership in ethics and compliance. Ethisphere’s selection process is based on a questionnaire and due diligence research that consider companies’ ethics and compliance programs; reputation and legal compliance record; governance; culture of ethics; and corporate citizenship and responsibility.

Companies dropping off the list this year include aerospace company Indra Systemes, automotive company Denso and industrial equipment maker Caterpillar.

Last year, Adidas was named in the apparel category along with 2012 repeat firms Gap, Patagonia and Timberland. Throughout 2011 Adidas and fellow sportswear brands Nike and Puma were targeted by Greenpeace for their use of a Chinese textile manufacturer that the environmental group said had a questionable pollution record. All three firms have committed to eradicating hazardous chemicals from their supply chain by 2020  as a result of the campaign.

General Mills – manufacturer of food brands Cheerios and Yoplait – is another noticeable absentee from the 2012 list. PepsiCo, Solae and Stonyfield, the other firms named in the 2011 food and beverage category, all made the 2012 list, along with new addition The Kellogg Company.

Ethisphere’s full list of World’s Most Ethical companies 2012:

Aerospace And Defense Rockwell Collins USA The Aerospace Corporation USA Agriculture Ethical Fruit Company Ltd UK Apparel Comme Il Faut Israel Gap Inc USA Patagonia USA Timberland USA Automotive Cummins Inc. USA Ford Motor Company USA Johnson Controls, Inc. USA Banking National Australia Bank Australia Old National Bank USA Rabobank Netherlands Standard Chartered Bank UK Westpac Group Australia Business Services Accenture Ireland Dun & Bradstreet USA Noblis USA Paychex, Inc. USA William E. Connor & Associates Ltd. Hong Kong Chemicals Ecolab, Inc. USA The Mosaic Company USA Pantheon Enterprises USA Computer Hardware Hitachi Data Systems USA Intel Corporation USA Computer Software Adobe Systems USA Microsoft USA Salesforce.com USA Symantec Corporation USA Teradata Corporation USA Wipro Ltd India Construction CRH plc Ireland Granite Construction Inc USA Consumer Electronics Electrolux Sweden Ricoh Japan Texas Instruments USA Xerox Corporation USA Consumer Products Colgate-Palmolive Company USA Hasbro, Inc. USA Henkel AG & Co. KGaA Germany Kao Corporation Japan Kimberly-Clark Corporation USA Diversified Industries General Electric Co. USA E-commerce eBay Inc. USA Electronics Applied Materials, Inc. USA Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. USA Premier Farnell plc UK Rockwell Automation USA Energy And Utilites: Natural Gas Encana Corporation Canada NiSource Inc. USA Sempra Energy USA Spectra Energy Corp USA Energy And Utilities: Electric EDP Energias de Portugal Portugal ENMAX Corporation Canada National Grid UK/USA Energy And Utilities: Wind Vestas Wind Denmark Energy And Utlities: Water Northumbrian Water Group UK Energy: Oil Alyeska Pipeline Service Company USA Statoil Norway Engineering And Design AECOM Technology Corp USA CH2M HILL USA Fluor Corporation USA Parsons Corporation USA Environmental Services Waste Management USA Financial Services American Express USA NYSE Euronext USA/Netherlands The Hartford Financial Services Group USA Thrivent Financial for Lutherans USA TSYS USA Food And Beverage Kellogg Company USA PepsiCo USA Solae, LLC USA Stonyfield USA Food Service Aramark USA Forestry, Paper And Packaging International Paper USA SCA Sweden Stora Enso Finland Weyerhaeuser Company USA Health And Beauty L’ORÉAL France Natura Cosmeticos Brazil Shiseido Co Japan Healthcare Services Baptist Health South Florida USA Hospital Corporation of America USA Novation USA Premier Inc USA University Hospitals USA Industrial Manufacturing Deere & Company USA Eaton Corporation USA Honeywell International Inc. USA Kennametal Inc. USA Milliken & Company USA Schneider Electric France The Timken Company USA Insurance: Brokerage Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. USA Insurance: Health Aflac Inc. USA Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina USA Blue Shield of California USA Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation USA Insurance: Property And Casualty Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. Japan The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies USA Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc. Japan Insurance: Reinsurance Swiss Re Switzerland Leisure And Hospitality Holland America Line USA Kimpton Hotels USA Marriott International, Inc. USA The Rezidor Hotel Group Belgium Seabourn USA Media Thomson Reuters US/UK Time Warner Inc. USA Medical Devices Becton Dickinson USA Coloplast Denmark Henry Schein, Inc. USA Royal Philips Netherlands Metals And Mining Alcoa USA Tata Steel Ltd India Umicore Belgium Pharmaceuticals And Biotechnology Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation USA Professional, Scientific And Technical Services Concurrent Technologies Corporation USA SRA International, Inc. USA Real Estate British Land plc UK Jones Lang LaSalle Inc USA Realogy Corporation USA Restaurants And Cafes Starbucks Coffee Company USA Retail- Food Stores Kesko Finland Safeway Inc. USA SONAE Portugal The Co-operative Group UK Wegmans USA Whole Foods Market, Inc. USA Retail-general Costco USA Marks and Spencer UK Target USA Retail-specialty Best Buy Co., Inc. USA OfficeMax USA Petco USA Ten Thousand Villages USA Staffing Services ManpowerGroup USA Telecommunications Equipment Cisco Systems USA Juniper Networks USA Telecommunications Services Portugal Telecom Portugal SingTel Singapore T-Mobile USA, Inc. USA Transportation And Logistics Nippon Yusen Kabushi Kaisha Japan Panama Canal Authority Panama UPS USA

(Source: www.environmentalleader.com )