How we score
Methodology version 3.0.
What a score means
A score is a weighted average of the dimensions we have qualifying evidence for, and of nothing else.
The percentage is a percentage of the top of our published scale, not of anything in the product: 80% is four fifths of the way up scales that end at 100, and does not mean that 80% of its ingredients are safe or of its packaging can be recycled.
A dimension we have no evidence for is left out of the calculation and shown as a gap. It is never counted as a zero, because not knowing something is not the same as it being bad. That also means two products with the same number may not rest on the same amount of evidence, which is why the is always shown beside the score.
When a product can be ranked
We only rank a product when we have evidence for enough of the dimensions we weight for its :
- Personal care: at least 4 of the 6 dimensions we weight.
- Household cleaning and laundry: at least 4 of the 6 dimensions we weight.
- Food and drink: at least 3 of the 4 dimensions we weight.
- Baby care: at least 4 of the 6 dimensions we weight.
Below that we do not rank the product, and it does not appear in the list of results. Search for it by its exact name and we show it below the ranked products, marked Not ranked, and its page says what we know about it and what we do not. Its badge carries the count the score rests on: the number of dimensions we hold a value for, out of the ones we weight.
A product with one verified strength should not outrank a product we know far more about. Ranking it anyway would reward the brands that have told us the least.
Working a score out
The example is a personal-care product.
The dimensions we weight all count the same by default: none is worth more than another. The weighting will become yours to set, and until it does this is the weighting every score on the site was computed with. The panel under the search box shows the steps that will set it, and for now every one of them is on Neutral.
Say we hold a qualifying score for 2 of the 6 dimensions we weight, and nothing at all for the other 4.
- Ingredient safety80 × 50 = 4000
- Packaging60 × 50 = 3000
- Divided by the weight we have7000 ÷ 100 = 70%
The divisor is 100, the weight of what we have. It is not 300, the weight of all 6: dividing by that would count the 4 dimensions we know nothing about as zeros, and a gap is never a zero.
The coverage is 2 of 6, and the threshold above asks for at least 4, so we would publish this product and its 70%, and not rank it.
Product families
Products are grouped into families of categories that are scored the same way: on the same dimensions, weighted the same, and read against the same scales. A score is a position on our scales over its own family's dimensions, so a coffee and a shampoo are each scored out of 100, but not on the same things. Compare a score with scores in the same family.
Personal care
Categories: Shampoo, Conditioner, Body wash, Facial cleanser, Moisturizer.
Weighed on: Ingredient safety, Packaging, Certification, Labour, Climate, Microplastics.
Household cleaning and laundry
Categories: Laundry detergent, Dish soap, All-purpose cleaner.
Weighed on: Ingredient safety, Packaging, Certification, Labour, Climate, Microplastics.
Food and drink
Categories: Coffee, Chocolate.
Weighed on: Packaging, Certification, Labour, Climate.
Not weighed: Ingredient safety. Our ingredient scale reads a formulation against hazard assessments made for cosmetics and cleaning products. It is not a scale for food, and we make no statement about what a food does to the body.
Not weighed: Microplastics. The scale measures microplastic released by a product in use, such as a cosmetic or a detergent rinsed down the drain. It does not describe a food or a drink.
Baby care
Categories: Baby wash, Baby wipes.
Weighed on: Ingredient safety, Packaging, Certification, Labour, Climate, Microplastics.
What counts as evidence
A dimension only counts towards a score when we hold evidence for it that we have read and can name. We keep where each piece of evidence came from on record, and product pages do not link to those sources yet. What a brand says about itself, such as “vegan” or “eco-friendly”, is never scored, and is not shown on a product page.
The dimensions
Each dimension is scored by hand against the scale below. The scales are published in full so you can apply one yourself and see whether you would have reached the same number.
They are not all the same length. Microplastics has 5 steps where the rest have 6, because every step on it is a laboratory measurement: there is no partial-disclosure rung for a test that was either run or not.
For Personal care, Baby care:
How the formulation reads against published , based on its full .
- 100No ingredient carries a published hazard flag; full INCI list disclosed
- 80Full INCI disclosed; only ingredients with low published concern
- 60Full INCI disclosed; contains an ingredient with contested assessments
- 40Full INCI disclosed; contains an ingredient flagged by a recognised body
- 20Partial disclosure, or an undisclosed or parfum blend
- 0No ingredient disclosure available
For Household cleaning and laundry
How the formulation reads against published hazard assessments, based on the ingredients its label and its ingredient data sheet disclose.
- 100No ingredient carries a published hazard flag; full ingredient disclosure
- 80Full ingredient disclosure; only ingredients with low published concern
- 60Full ingredient disclosure; contains an ingredient with contested assessments
- 40Full ingredient disclosure; contains an ingredient flagged by a recognised body
- 20Partial disclosure, or an undisclosed fragrance or perfume blend
- 0No ingredient disclosure available
Not weighed for: Food and drink.
What the container is made of and what realistically happens to it afterwards.
- 100, or no packaging at all (solid or naked format)
- 80 and widely in the target market
- 60Recyclable, mixed materials requiring separation
- 40Recyclable in principle, rarely collected in practice
- 20Single-use mixed plastic
- 0Single-use, non-recyclable
How rigorous the certifications behind this product are, and whether each one was matched to a live .
- 100Multiple independent certifications, all registry-matched and current
- 80One rigorous certification, registry-matched and current
- 60Certification held at rather than for this product
- 40Certification claimed and plausible, but no registry entry located
- 20Self-declared standard with no independent audit
- 0No certification of any kind
What the brand publishes about the people in its supply chain, and whether anyone independent has checked it. Assessed at .
- 100 supply chain, findings published in full
- 80Third-party labour covering the production sites
- 60Supplier list published; audit summaries but not full findings
- 40Policy published with no evidence of independent verification
- 20General statement of intent only
- 0Nothing published on labour or supply chain
Whether the brand has a target anyone independent has validated, and whether it is reporting progress. Assessed at .
- 100Validated with published progress against it
- 80Validated science-based target, no progress reporting yet
- 60Target submitted for validation, or emissions disclosed without a target
- 40 with no independent validation
- 20 only, with no reduction target
- 0No climate target or disclosure
Laboratory-measured microplastic release. Requires specialist testing, so this is absent for almost every product today — and in the families that ask it, it is like every other dimension, which makes it the largest single reason is low across the catalog.
- 100Lab-tested, no measurable microplastic release
- 75Lab-tested, release below the strictest published threshold
- 50Lab-tested, moderate measured release
- 25Lab-tested, high measured release
- 0Contains intentionally added microplastic ingredients
Not weighed for: Food and drink.
Links and commission
A product page or card may link to where the product is sold in your market, or to the page of the brand itself. Some of those links may earn us a commission. That never affects a score or a rank.
This is kept true in the code, not only promised here. The code that scores a product and the code that decides the order of the results cannot read the links at all, and a test, src/catalog/offer-boundary.test.ts, fails the build if either ever could. We record no price, and nothing about what a link earns.
What has changed
Version 3.0, 2026-09-26
Products now belong to families, and each family is weighed on the dimensions that apply to it. Personal care is weighed exactly as before, on six dimensions counted equally, with four needed to rank, and no score or rank in it changed. Household cleaning and laundry, and baby care, are weighed on the same six. Food and drink is weighed on four, packaging, certification, labour and climate, and needs three to rank; ingredient safety and microplastics do not apply to it, and the methodology says why. Household products have their own wording for ingredient safety, read from the ingredients they disclose rather than an INCI list.
Version 2.0, 2026-09-20
Microplastics joined the default weighting, so every score is weighed over six dimensions where it was five, and every coverage figure is out of six. A product now needs evidence for four of the six to be ranked, where it needed three of the five. Nothing about a rubric step changed.
Version 1.0, 2026-09-19
First published version: five dimensions counted equally, and a product ranked when we hold evidence for three of them.