How we rate
Scoring retail brands based on public evidence
Good On You rates retail brands based on widely agreed best practices for sustainability. For any brand, we independently assess hundreds of data points to arrive at a simple score—designed to inform better choices for both consumers and businesses.
WHAT WE RATE
Critical social and environmental issues
Each rating is based on both comprehensive research and expert analysis of a brand’s policies and practices throughout its supply chain. Brands receive an overall score based on sub-scores for people, planet and animals. Within each pillar, we rate a range of sector-specific issues.
People
The treatment of workers throughout a brand’s supply chain. Including living wages, freedom of association (the right to join a union), worker safety, gender equality, child labour, and more.
Planet
A brand’s environmental policies and circularity. Including resource use and waste, biodiversity and deforestation, climate change, product design, durability and repair/reuse, and more.
Animals
A brand’s commitment to animal welfare. Including supply chain tracing, animal-derived material use (including wild animals), animal testing, credible certifications, and more.
RATINGS SCOPE
We rate more than just a brand’s products
Greenwashing often begins with a claim about a single product in isolation of a brand’s wider track record. That’s why Good On You widens the scope to consider a brand’s product mix alongside all relevant policies and practices across the entire value chain where the impact really lies.
RATING SCALE
One overall score = lots of underlying data
The overall and pillar ratings simplify Good On You’s comprehensive assessments into a user-friendly five-point scale, which corresponds to a more nuanced score out of 100 (currently available exclusively in Good On You’s tools for businesses and brands). This makes our research—considering up to 1,000 data points per brand, with each issue weighted according to impact—comparable at a high level.
These brands disclose some information in one or more areas and consider some issues but do not yet sufficiently address the impacts across their supply chain.
TRANSPARENT DATA
Why we rate brands on public evidence alone
Good On You rates brands using only publicly available information. That’s because meaningful sustainability means full transparency. We go deep into the public record: corporate policies, sustainability reports, third-party certifications, investigations published in trusted media outlets, multi-stakeholder registers and more. Our ratings system rejects vague greenwashing and only considers specific, precise, and relevant evidence.
OUR METHODOLOGIES
Distinct for each sector, developed by experts
Good On You designs sector-specific methodologies to assess best practices for all brand types we rate, including fashion, beauty, and other retail verticals. Our methodologies distinguish brand size, large and small. And our in-house experts keep them current through ongoing consultation with industry leaders, academics, and organisations (such as Fairtrade, Fashion for Good, and Four Paws).
INDEPENDENT BY DESIGN
Independent analysts, independently monitored
A big way Good On You is different from other rating schemes is that our ratings team and process are fully independent. We select and rate brands on our own initiative, and anyone can request a rating. Brands have no input in their ratings beyond what is publicly disclosed. And this independence is assured by an independent monitoring body.
EMPCO COMPLIANCE
How to use ratings as a sustainability label
From 27 September 2026, the EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (EmpCo) requires that any sustainability label shown to consumers is independently monitored; based on a credible certification scheme; and open to brands on fair, non-discriminatory terms. Our scheme for top-rated brands meets these requirements, so eligible ratings can be used as a compliant sustainability label.
Find the latest rating for any brand
We publish every rating summary on our directory, and provide tools that help businesses go deeper into the data to make decisions and engage consumers.