Does Ethical = Profitable?

Ethisphere Institute just published its annual list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies:

“This year, 99 companies made the cut. Twenty companies dropped off the list from last year, and 25 companies were newcomers. A remarkable 44 companies are ‘three-peats,’ making the list for the past three years.”

What’s more, a graph accompanying the article plots out the growth over the past five years for the World’s Most Ethical Companies as compared to the S&P 500, and you can see for yourself how it comes out:

Of course, over at the The Business Ethics Blog, Chris MacDonald points out that drawing conclusions from this data may be a bit hasty:

“It’s an interesting graph, to be sure, but it doesn’t show what they claim it shows. What it shows is correlation, not causation.”

Nevertheless, it’s an interesting pattern, and a great list. Check it out.

Via Ethisphere Institute.