How would a consumer know if a brand is really sustainable or ethical?

At Your Sustainable Guide we have rating bands that portray the allotted ratings based on a brand’s ethic and sustainability. Before the customer shops from his/her favorite brands, he/she can check these ratings to know if he/she is purchasing smart or not. Our ratings are calculated keeping in mind the brands’ impact on people, planet, and animals. Today thousands of consumers and retailers use our ratings to make a conscious decision.

How Does Our Rating System Work?

Your Sustainable Guide’s brand ratings help you envision the brand’s climate change impact, carbon contribution, labor working conditions, labor working usage, health and safety, ownership and control, consumer protection, business ethics, and customer service. How does it work? We value the customer’s point of view and rate the brands accordingly using trusted data sources.

Our data sources

We source data from third party data indices including Investment Firms, Fashion Transparency Index and CDP Climate Change and Water Security projects, Social Media Sentiments, Fair Trade, Fair Wear Foundation, Cradle to Cradle, OEKO-TEX Made in Green, Global Organic Textile Standard etc.

Our principles

• Transparency: The brand must publish information about their production facility, product’s country of origin, labor conditions there, and the impact their factory has on the environment.
• Product’s impact on environment: The brand must mention the lifecycle of the product and what happens to it after the lifecycle ends.
• Evidence: We look for evidence for the claims made by the brand using our independent consultants.
• Users contribution: We look for complaints and ratings made by users on the web and brand’s response to it.

Key issues we rate brands on

As regular consumers of the fashion industry, we all have a right to know our brands inside out. Are they sourcing sustainable materials? If yes, where are they sourcing from? Is the labor involved paid a standard living wage? Are the employees imparted with safe working conditions? How is the brand reducing its carbon footprint? Does the brand use animal-based raw material? All such questions encompass our ratings to give you a comprehensive view of the brands you adore!

People

The people rating assesses the brand’s impact on human capital including labor management, health and safety, standard living wages, human capital development, supply chain labor standards and gender equality.

We look to answer questions like: Does the brand promote gender equality? Does the brand ensure payment of fair and standard living wages? Is child and slave labor involved? Is the brand flexible enough to let the workers avail upskilling opportunities? Do their human resource policies promote mental health? Are the workers provided with a safe working space? Are meaningful third party audits conducted regularly? What precautions are being taken to safeguard the workforce from the devastating effects of COVID-19?

Planet

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that an average American is responsible for casting out 4.4 pounds of waste to the landfill every day. Thus, through our planet rating we assess the brand’s impact on climate change including, carbon emissions, product carbon footprint, financing environmental impact, and climate change vulnerability.

We look to answer questions like: Does the brand use clean tech? Is the brand energy efficient? Does it use clean energy? Does the brand invest in green energy on their premises? Has the brand adopted clean production methods that don’t harm biodiversity? What are the brand’s waste disposal methods? Are there policies or plans published by the brand that impact climate change? What extra measures are being taken by the brand to reduce its carbon footprint? 

Animals

When you aim to ‘sustain’ the environment, you make sure all animals live out their intended life cycle. Our animal rating assesses the brand’s impact on animals, animal cruelty, animal testing, & animal welfare.

We look to answer questions like: Does the brand use animal-based raw material that leads to cruelty towards the animals? Is animal killing practiced in the making of a product? Does the brand test its product on animals? Does the brand use animals in its supply chain? Does the brand associate with suppliers that are involved in animal cruelty? Is exotic animal skin used in the brand’s supply chain? If not, what are the alternate materials being used and where are they sourced from?