Good On You selects and rates brands on its own initiative without requiring a brand's consent, application, or participation. Consumers can submit requests for brands to be rated, and businesses engaging with Good On You for its B2B data services can also submit requests.
A brand can request a rating or engage with Good On You through the Good Measures platform, but the decision to rate and the rating outcome are determined solely by Good On You in accordance with its published selection criteria and methodology.
This article provides more detail on the industry verticals, categories, and business types that Good On You rates, and those that are out of scope.
Verticals
Good On You rates brands in four industry verticals.
The Good On You methodology has variants that address sustainability issues specific to the industry vertical. A brand can be rated in multiple verticals if it has a supply chain and operations that are relevant to more than one. For example, Dior has fashion and cosmetics lines of products and is therefore rated in both the fashion and beauty verticals.
A brand's rating is limited to the scope of the vertical. That is, if a brand sells fashion products as well as non-textile homewares (which our methodology does not cover at this time), the rating only assesses impact of the supply chain and operations related to the fashion product range.
The categories covered in each vertical are listed below.
Fashion
Fashion ratings cover brands selling the following categories under their own brand name:
Clothing, including underwear
Shoes
Accessories
Jewellery
Watches
Other textiles (brands that offer predominantly consumer textile products such as bedding and towels may be deemed appropriate to be rated under the fashion methodology as it deals specifically with sustainability issues related to sourcing and manufacturing of textile materials).
Beauty
Beauty ratings cover brands selling the following categories under their own brand name:
Makeup
Nailcare products
Skincare - creams, cleansers, masks, serums and oils, wipes and remover
Suncare and tanning
Haircare
Fragrance
Bath and body - soaps, lotions, hair removal, deodorant, intimate care
Dental - toothpaste, mouthwash
Services
Services ratings cover consumer-facing services businesses. Services ratings are currently only published via Good On You enterprise data products and services (not in the Good On You directory and app).
Beauty services - hairdressers, nail salons, tanning, spas etc.
Fitness and wellness - gyms, yoga studios, sports facilities, massage, physiotherapy etc.
IT services - Electronics repair and rental, internet cafe, photography and printing services, telecommunications resellers.
Material services - dry cleaning, shoe/clothing/jewllery/furniture repair and rental, tailoring
Auto services - car wash, mechanic, car rental etc.
Entertainment - cinema, arcade, bowling alley, museum, events venues.
Financial and professional services - real estate agents, travel agents, tourism and transport services, co-working, currency exchange, legal services, accountant, architect.
Hospitality and education - childcare, tutoring, education.
Home services - Cleaner, pest control.
Some services brands are excluded as they have specific sustainability impacts not covered by the current services methodology. Those include medical and health services,
Medical services - doctors, dental, aged care etc.
Freight, logistics, postage services
Utilities - water, electricity, gas providers
Animal services - vet, grooming, pet care
Casino and gambling
Banks, loans services and insurance
Trade services - builder, plumber, electrician etc.
Services ratings are not consumer-facing within the Good On You Sustainability Label Scheme at the date of publication. They are not eligible for use as a sustainability label under the Scheme until this status is updated.
Retailer
Retailer ratings apply to companies that source wholesale products and sell them under those brand names.
The primary business activity we assess is their sourcing and selling products across multiple brands, as opposed to a supply chain for manufacturing their own branded products. This vertical covers a wide range of product categories such as fashion, beauty, food, household products, homewares, electronics, multimedia, hardware, kids/baby/toys, optometrists, and automotive.
Retailer ratings are not consumer-facing within the Good On You Sustainability Label Scheme at the date of publication. They are not eligible for use as a sustainability label under the Scheme until this status is updated. Retailer ratings are currently only published via Good On You enterprise data products and services (not in the Good On You Directory and App).
Assessment variation by product types
Within each vertical methodology there is further conditionality that ensures certain brands are assessed only on the issues that are relevant to the products they offer. For example within fashion there is assessment related to sandblasting practices that are relevant only to brands that offer distressed denim products. Or there are specific issues related to leather that are only assessed for brands that have shoes and handbags as a dominant product category.
Additionally, for any particular issue, not all assessed initiatives are relevant to all brands but that does not limit the scoring potential for a brand. A beauty brand that does not have a shea commodity supply chain will not be eligible for certain shea related certifications, but that does not limit their scoring potential as other certifications will be relevant for their product range.
Brand size
Before the rating process commences, brands are classified as small or large. This determines which variant of the vertical methodology the brand is assessed against. Small and large brands have different expectations and sustainability practices relevant to their operations.
Read more about the distinction between small and large brands
Parent companies, sub-brands, licensing, and own-label brands
Good On You rates the primary consumer-facing brand entity in order to publish ratings on a level that is most relevant to consumer decision making.
A few distinctions are necessary to define how the brand is rated:
Parent companies: where the brand is owned by a larger company (or multiple), it is typically rated as a large brand (unless the parent company also classifies as small). Analysts look to both brand and parent company disclosures in assessing the brand. Parent companies are expected to disclose sustainability practices clearly and broken down by each brand where relevant.
Sub-brands: Good On You does not typically rate sub-brands, collections or alternatively labelled product ranges unless the supply chain is deemed fundamentally different warranting a separate rating.
Brand licensing and split structures: where a brand name is licensed or used by a separate entity with a fundamentally distinct supply chain for a specific product category or geographic region, it may be rated as a separate entity within a single industry vertical. For example Paul Smith is rated separately to Paul Smith Eyewear under the fashion vertical.
Own/home label brands: some brands may sell both their own branded products alongside being a multi-brand retailer. The own label may be rated under the appropriate vertical while the operation as a retailer could be rated under the retailer vertical. For example Sephora Collection is rated under beauty as an own-label brand, distinct from Sephora the cosmetics multi-brand retailer.
Co-operative / federated structures: in some industries, for example supermarkets, it can be common that a shared brand name is used across completely distinct entities with no unified control of sourcing, policies and operations. These are rated as national brands at the most granular level and disclosures of all eligible entities are sourced to rate the brand.
Entities that Good On You does not rate
Good On You does not rate the following as separate entities:
Parent companies at group level where a consumer-facing brand within the group is rated separately
Sub-brands, collections, or product ranges that share the same supply chain as the parent brand
Generic distributors or wholesalers that do not offer consumer products or services under their own brand identity
Joint ventures or licensing arrangements, unless the licensed entity operates a supply chain that is materially distinct from the licensor — in which case it may be assessed separately at Good On You's discretion (see Brand Licensing above)