List announces year's most ethical companies

Ten Thousand Villages, a nonprofit fair-trade company with a retail store in Austin, has been named as one of the world's most ethical retail companies.

Forbes Magazine and the Ethisphere Institute, a research-based organization that promotes efficient and ethical business models, annually a list of businesses with ethical practices. This year, the organizations recognized 93 companies.

The Ethisphere Institute and Forbes collaborate with professors, attorneys and government officials to evaluate companies nominated for the list. After verifying the qualifications of every candidate, Ethisphere sends an in-depth questionnaire to each company to learn more about its business practices.

Gap, Target Corporation, Ikea and Trader Joe's were also awarded in the retail category.

Ten Thousand Villages, which has a retail store on South Congress Avenue, establishes long-term relationships with artisans around the world by selling their products in the U.S. and Canada.

The artisans are paid 50 percent of the profit upfront then receive the rest when their items sell.

The company offers artisans from five continents and 33 countries the opportunity to sell their products and provides a creative outlet in which they can make a fair wage, Austin store manager Kitty Bird said.

The products found within the company's inventory range from jewelry to kitchen utensils to decorative drums and hammocks. Nancy Martin, a volunteer who works at the Austin location, has been with the company since September. Her favorite pieces are the blue and white glazed ceramics from Vietnam.

"I love the bright primary colors," Martin said. "It's nice to be surrounded by beautiful things a few hours every day."

The recognition is more than an international distinction, said Kristen Jenkins, a spokeswoman for Ten Thousand Villages. She said she hopes the distinction will help "shed a little more light onto the fair-trade mission."

"We are one of the only nonprofit fair-trade retailers," Jenkins said. "Other retailers like Gap or Target Corporation are introducing ethical processes into their daily businesses. [Ten Thousand Villages] is based on ethical practices."

This was the first year Ten Thousand Villages was nominated for the list. Jenkins said company officials were unaware that the questionnaire they received in 2007 was part of the nomination process for the award.

The company, including its local board of directors, is managed primarily by volunteers.

"We call our CEOs 'chief ethical officers,'" Jenkins said. "Everyone who works at Ten Thousand Villages is a CEO."