ls man page says: Using color to distinguish file types is disabled both by default and with --color=never. With --color=auto, ls emits color codes only when standard output is connected to a terminal. The LS_COLORS environment variable can change the settings. Use the dircolors command to set it.
Add: Or use LS_COLORS=; export LS_COLORS to override any ls="ls --color" aliases others might have set up for us, and thus make sure colors are off.