Transparency is key to the Good On You brand rating system and essential for meaningful and verifiable industry progress. That’s why Good On You only considers publicly available information. Here’s what you need to know to successfully provide evidence for your updates.

 

Brands should disclose on their own websites

We consider a brand’s website (including sustainability reports or other published PDFs linked from the website) as the primary source for disclosures, as consumers have a right to know this information as they are shopping. This information should be easily visible and accessible to consumers and other stakeholders when they land on your website.

In certain cases, a link to an external third party might be more relevant such as a brand's CDP (check the guidance below for specific information types).

 

Use specific and tangible language when disclosing

In general, your public disclosures should be specific and provide tangible actions and evidence. For example, don't say something like “our suppliers recycle offcuts where possible”, as it’s vague and imprecise. Rather, share specific facts such as “40% of offcuts were reused and 30% recycled”.

 

How to add evidence in Good Measures 

When you answer a question, you'll see an option “+Add evidence”. Just click on it and enter the relevant URL and any comments you think would be helpful for Good On You’s analysts to know (for example, specifics as to where to find the relevant evidence such as the page number for a PDF).

You should provide URLs to the most specific evidence that demonstrates your disclosure on the answers provided in each issue. Good On You’s ratings analysts will manually verify that the information available at the URLs you submit is suitable evidence. Learn more about why evidence is sometimes not accepted. 

 

Guidance on providing evidence for specific types of information

Standards and certifications:

Ensure correct usage of the certification logo. You may provide a link to the external third party that publishes your certification or score. Learn more about how Good On You incorporates standards and certifications.

Product mix:

For some evaluations, the inputs into the business need to be identified such as:

  • Material usage in fashion products
  • Ingredients or commodities in beauty products
  • Inputs like equipment, technology or other capital investments in services businesses

Ideally, these proportions should be listed specifically in a sustainability report, indicating the relevant page number(s).

Aggregated disclosures are advisable to enable consumer transparency on company practices as a whole. Where aggregated disclosure is not available, clear disclosures on individual product pages will be assessed to estimate prevalence of a material, ingredient or other input across the entire product offering. If the product pages do not disclose the relevant materials or product-level certifications, the information cannot be verified.

Targets and progress:

Evidence of targets disclosed on your website or in publicly accessible reports will be reviewed. Good On You will verify on external websites where relevant—for example, checking the Science-Based Targets initiative website to see that a target has been approved.

Wherever possible you should clearly report performance against previous targets on the brand website and/or in company reports. Learn more about how Good On You considers targets and progress made.