2007 World's Most Ethical Companies

Dole has been elected as one of the 2007 World's Most Ethical Companies

Ethisphere Magazine recognizes and rewards ethical leadership and business practices worldwide.

The winners of the World’s Most Ethical Companies are the standouts. Each forces other companies to follow its leadership or fall behind. Each uses ethical leadership as a profit driver.
Ethics are absolute. Business ethics are relational. And ethical leadership requires a position of influence.
What does that mean? Certainly there are absolutes to business ethics, such as respecting employees and stakeholders, competing fairly and within the law, and being a responsible corporate citizen.
Companies routinely compete for recognition for their “corporate citizenship” or “best place to work” award. And predictably, a select few pharmaceutical companies, a handful of consulting and high-tech firms, and a couple of retailers appear near the top of the list.
The absolutes are the necessary grounding for a company to have strong core values to build upon. The context is the environment in which a company operates, both geographically as well as industrially.
The best lens through which to view a company’s ethical leadership behavior is to examine a company compared to other companies in the same industry. Are they leading, are they following, or are they ignoring? And to be a leader, the company needs to have or build a competitive edge, such as size or technology, which allows it to be influential.
In assembling the 2007 rankings of the World’s Most Ethical Companies, the researchers and editors of Ethisphere examined more than 5,000 companies across 30 separate industries looking for true ethical leadership.
We looked for absolutes. We examined companies in relational context of their industries. And we looked for influential leadership that moved others to change or follow.
Companies were measured in a rigorous eight-step process and then scored against nine distinct ethical leadership criteria.

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Dole was the only one Fresh Fruit, Vegetables and Flowers company ranked by Ethisphere Magazine.
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As part of the 2007 Word’s Most Ethical Companies analysis, Ethisphere Council researchers interviewed dozens and dozens of companies in great depth about their compliance and ethics activities. This included talking to “both” CEOs (the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Ethics Officer) in most cases. Following are some excerpts and reports from selected companies that we found particularly worth highlighting.

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The winners of the World’s Most Ethical Companies are the standouts. Each of these companies has materially higher scores versus competitors in their industries. Each forces other companies to follow its leadership or fall behind. Each uses ethical leadership as a profit driver. And each of these companies embodies the true spirit of Ethisphere’s credo: Good. Smart. Business. Profit.

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View the complete article at: http://www.ethisphere.com/Ethisphere_Magazine_0207/WME-2007-Q2

Dole Organic Website: building the link between the farm and the organic consumer

In February 2007, Dole Organic Program launched its website doleorganic.com with the objective to approach the organic consumer to the origin of the product.
Three months later, this initiative has been accepted as a great idea and as something that should be replicated.
Dole Organic Program will launch its BETA version of doleorganic.com very soon. The new version will include many of the suggestions received including the feedbacks and comments left on the contact e-mail and those published on blogs and websites.

Dole Organic Program is committed with the transparency and the building of a new relationship with Dole consumers.

This is just the beggining.

Regards,
Dole Organic.

Here they are some comments about the website: doleorganic.com

Chews Wise by Samuel Fromartz: The Transparent Banana?
" Dole revealed a shape of things to come in the food market - Transparency! - by allowing customers to see where their bananas come from."

Groovy Green by Steve Balogh: The Transparent Banana? "... transparency is beginning to show up in the grocery store. What a great concept."

Digital Media Wire by Rohit Bhargava: Dole´s Organic Bananas and the Importance of Backstories "...the effort represents a great example of new thinking that product marketers are using to capitalize on the global trend towards ethical consumerism..."

American Feast´s Sustainable Food Blog by Tim Tango: Look up your Food Online "... This is an ingenious use of the Internet and one that should be replicated..."

Typepad by Amelia Torode: Talking Green Bananas "...it's a really smart piece of creative thinking... educated consumers are still looking for "the story behind..."

"I am fascinated by the Dole Organics story - on their site they are picking up on blog posts and consumer comments about this initiative. I think that this is a great case study of who to use the web to a smart, positive effect."

chroma by Dino Demopoulos: Transmedia Bananas "...it's pretty smart. And it gives you an excuse to use the phrase "transmedia bananas".

Treehugger by Kara DiCamillo: Do you know where your banana has been? "We find this a very interesting concept that seems extremely beneficial for consumers."