Last week, the Ethisphere Institute—an organization dedicated to best practices in corporate responsibility—released its 6th annual World's Most Ethical Companies list. The list is designed to recognize companies that demonstrate leadership in promoting ethical business standards.

This year's list includes 145 organizations from a wide range of industries, with 43 of those companies being based in the U.S.

“Each year the competition for World's Most Ethical Companies intensifies as the number of nominations submitted for consideration grows,” Alex Brigham, Executive Director of Ethisphere, said in a statement. “This year's winners know that a strong ethics program is a key component to a successful business model, and they continue to scrutinize their ethical standards to keep up with an ever-changing regulatory environment. Corporate ethics has become much more important globally, as well, and that is reflected in the truly global nature of this year's honorees.”

Some of the U.S.-based winners include American Express, The Gap, Patagonia, Hasbro and Starbucks. According to Ethisphere, all the companies honored not only promote ethical business standards, but also exceed legal compliance minimums.

In a statement, Hasbro President and CEO Brian Goldner expressed pride in making the list. “Hasbro continually strives to go beyond simple compliance in the areas of corporate social responsibility and business ethics,” he said. “Integrity plays a central role in everything we do at Hasbro, and being named to Ethisphere's 2012 World's Most Ethical Companies list is a distinct honor and provides our Company and our employees with some well-deserved recognition in demonstrating how seriously we approach corporate citizenship.”