Ecolab Named One of World's Most Ethical Companies for Eighth Consecutive Year by the Ethisphere Institute

ST. PAUL, Minn., March 20, 2014 /3BL Media/ -- Ecolab Inc., the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services, has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, an independent center of research promoting best practices in corporate ethics and governance, as a 2014 World's Most Ethical Company^®.

This is the eighth consecutive year that Ecolab has been honored with this award, which recognizes organizations that continue to raise the bar on ethical leadership and corporate behavior. The World's Most Ethical Company award recognizes Ecolab's leadership in compliance, ethics, corporate responsibility, sustainability and governance. Ecolab has received this honor every year since the award's inception in 2007.

"At Ecolab, we help more than one million customers throughout the world solve complex business challenges while abiding by our high ethical standards," said Ecolab Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, 
Douglas M. Baker, Jr. "This business imperative extends from our 45,000 employees to our innovative solutions and the way we work with our customers, to the communities in which we operate. Our commitment to integrity across our business drives our company performance and our ability to deliver on our purpose to make the world cleaner, safer and healthier."

"The entire community of World's Most Ethical Companies believe that customers, employees, investors and regulators place a high premium on trust and that ethics and good governance are key in earning it," said Ethisphere's Chief Executive Officer, 
Timothy Erblich. "Ecolab joins an exclusive community committed to driving performance through leading business practices. We congratulate everyone at Ecolab for this extraordinary achievement."

The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient™ framework. The Ethics Quotient framework has been developed over years of effort to provide a means to assess an organization's performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics. The Ethics Quotient framework and methodology was determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere's network of thought leaders and from the World's Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel.

Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (25 percent), reputation, leadership and innovation (20 percent), governance (10 percent), corporate citizenship and responsibility (25 percent) and culture of ethics (20 percent).

The full list of the 2014 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/.

About Ecolab
A trusted partner at more than one million customer locations, Ecolab (ECL) is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that protect people and vital resources. With 2013 sales of $13 billion and 45,000 associates, Ecolab delivers comprehensive solutions and on-site service to promote safe food, maintain clean environments, optimize water and energy use, and improve operational efficiencies for customers in the food, healthcare, energy, hospitality and industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world.

For more Ecolab news and information, visit www.ecolab.com. Follow us on Twitter @ecolab or Facebook at facebook.com/ecolab.

About the Ethisphere Institute
The Ethisphere^® Institute is an independent center of research, best practices and thought leadership that promotes best practices in corporate ethics and governance and enables organizations to improve compliance, mitigate risk, and enhance relationships with employees, business partners, investors and the broad regulatory community. Ethisphere evaluates and benchmarks compliance and governance programs, honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies^® recognition program and publishes Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs that include: Ethics Inside^® Certification, Compliance Leader Verification™ and Anti-Corruption Program Verification™. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: www.ethisphere.com.

(ECL-C)

Ecolab Media Contact:
Roman Blahoski, 651-293-4385
MediaRelations@Ecolab.com
or
Ethisphere Media Contact:
Clea Nabozny, 480-397-2658
Clea.Nabozny@ethisphere.com