Microsoft is among the world’s most ethical companies, according to a list from the Ethisphere Institute in New York.

Overall, 110 company’s made the prestigious list, including Microsoft and 35 other newcomers. The list was reported by Forbes.

Ethisphere explains the list:

There is no set number of companies that make the list each year. Rather, the World’s Most Ethical Company designation is awarded to those companies that have leading ethics and compliance programs, particularly as compared to their industry peers. This year, there are 110 World’s Most Ethical Companies. Of these companies, 36 are new to the list in 2011 and 26 companies dropped off from the 2010 list. These “drop offs” generally occurred because of litigation and ethics violations, as well as increased competition from within their industry.

Ethisphere says it pay to be ethical, offering up a chart that shows companies that land on the do-good list have performed better than the S&P 500 since EthiSphere started keeping track in 2007.

Starbucks also is on this year’s list.

In a Tuesday event, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates urged tech executives to to use their businesses as an way to donate to their community.