Last Updated Jun 11, 2008 5:12 PM EDT

What else does it mean? Profits. As I mentioned yesterday, companies that behave ethically routinely outperform their shady competitors. The companies named to the Ethisphere list are crushing the S & P 500.
So how do you get on this list? Well, you act ethically. You do the right thing. You bring about ideas that will expand the public well being. This is the no-brainer part.
But no company is an angel. All companies take a hit for bad practices at one time or another. I've even questioned some on the list (see Starbucks' tip dilemma). But what separates these companies from the rest, as Ethisphere so eloquently puts it, is that they respond to a crisis "not with a PR campaign, but with real action, such as complete transparency for the public and significant effort given to fixing the core problem."
Everyone does the wrong thing sometimes. Responding with the right thing is how you reclaim your ethics.