Glossary
The terms that appear on a product page, defined plainly, each with the source we took the definition from.
- Brand-level score
- A score assessed for the whole company rather than this specific product — labour practices and climate targets work this way. We label these, because treating company data as product data would overstate what we know.How we score
- Carbon offset
- Paying for emissions to be reduced or removed somewhere else, instead of cutting a company's own. It is a different thing from reducing the brand's own emissions.How we score
- Certification
- How rigorous the certifications behind a product are, and whether each one was matched to a live entry in the certifier's own register.How we score
- Certified organic
- A label saying a product meets an organic standard. We record it as printed, and it counts towards a score only when we match it to the certifier's own register.How we score
- Climate
- Whether a brand has an emissions target that someone independent has validated, and whether it reports progress against it. It is assessed for the whole company, not for one product.How we score
- Composite score
- The single number we show for a product: the weighted average of the dimensions we hold evidence for. A dimension we hold nothing for is left out of it, never counted as a zero.How we score
- Coverage
- How much of what is being weighed we actually have evidence for. A score resting on only some of the dimensions tells you far less than one resting on all of them, so we always show both.How we score
- Coverage threshold
- The least evidence a product needs before we rank it against others, stated as a share of the dimensions we weight. The figure is published on the methodology page.How we score
- Cruelty-free
- A label saying a product was not tested on animals. The brand applies it; we record it and do not score it.How we score
- Fragrance blend
- On a cosmetic label, “parfum” or “fragrance” stands for a mixture of scent ingredients that the brand may print as one word instead of listing each one. When a list names a blend, we cannot read what is in it.health.ec.europa.eu
- Hazard assessment
- A published judgement, by a regulator or a scientific committee, of how hazardous a substance is. We compare an ingredient list with published assessments and report what they say; we do not make the assessments.echa.europa.eu
- INCI list
- The International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients list — the standardised ingredient names printed on cosmetic packaging across the EU. Every ingredient must be listed, in descending order of quantity.health.ec.europa.eu
- Ingredient safety
- How a product's formulation reads against published hazard assessments, judged from the ingredients it discloses (for a cosmetic, its INCI list). It is a reading of the list, not a laboratory test of the product.How we score
- Labour
- What a brand publishes about the people in its supply chain, and whether anyone independent has checked it. It is assessed for the whole company, not for one product.How we score
- Microplastics
- Plastic particles smaller than five millimetres. In cosmetics and cleaning products they are either added deliberately, as exfoliants or film-formers, or shed by the product in use. Measuring shedding requires laboratory testing.echa.europa.eu
- Mono-material packaging
- Packaging made of one kind of material, which is far easier to recycle than a mixture of materials that have to be separated first.How we score
- Not ranked
- A product we hold a score for but do not place in a ranking, because its coverage is below the threshold. It can still be found by name.How we score
- Not scored
- What we say about a product for which we hold no qualifying evidence on any dimension. It has no score at all, and that is different from having a low one.How we score
- Packaging
- What a product's container is made of, and what realistically happens to it afterwards: whether it is refilled, recycled or thrown away.How we score
- Plastic-free
- A brand's own statement that a product or its pack contains no plastic. We record it as the brand's statement, and it does not change a score on its own.How we score
- Product family
- A group of product categories scored the same way: on the same dimensions, weighted the same, and read against the same scales. A score compares with scores in its own family, and a family that does not weigh a dimension leaves it out of the score and says why.How we score
- Provisional score
- A score we show for a product that is not ranked, because it rests on too few dimensions to compare fairly. It is a real reading, and it says less than a score that rests on more.How we score
- Recyclable
- Able to be turned into new material by the collection and recycling systems that actually exist where the product is sold, and not only in principle.How we score
- Refillable
- Sold so that the container is kept and refilled from a refill pack or station, instead of being thrown away.How we score
- Registry entry
- A certifier's own public record that a named holder has a certification, identified by a licence number. We treat a certification as checked only when we find the matching entry.How we score
- Science-based target
- An emissions reduction target validated by the Science Based Targets initiative as consistent with limiting warming in line with the Paris Agreement. Validation is what distinguishes it from a self-set goal.sciencebasedtargets.org
- Self-set target
- An emissions target a brand sets for itself, without anyone independent checking that it matches what climate science asks for.How we score
- Third-party audit
- An inspection carried out against a stated standard by someone other than the brand or its supplier.How we score
- Vegan
- A label saying a product contains no ingredients of animal origin. The brand applies it; we record it and do not score it.How we score
- Weighting
- How much each dimension counts towards the composite score. The weighting in use is published on the methodology page.How we score