A responsible company addresses the environmental and social issues associated with its operations. To rate companies, GoodGuide first defines “what matters” when assessing environmental or social performance and then collects data on a set of indicators that are the best-available measures for assessing performance on each issue. A standard 0 – 10 scale is used to rate companies so that users can compare company x with company y on issue z.
Environmental scores cover a company’s capability to manage environmental problems, the amount of information it makes public about its environmental performance, its resource use and its environmental impacts. Social scores cover a company’s capability to manage social problems, the amount of information it makes public about its social performance, and its impacts on workers, consumers and the communities where it operates.
GoodGuide utilizes over 1,000 indicators to generate its company ratings. Two major types of indicators are used:
- Performance Indicators are based on evidence related to real-world impacts and include: Quantitative Metrics (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions per dollar of revenue, occupational injuries per million hours worked), Certifications & Awards (e.g., is the company certified under the ISO 14001 environmental management standard?), Counts of Events (e.g., number of controversies or health & safety fines), and 3rd Party Ratings (e.g., what is the company’s Human Rights Campaign score?).
- Policy and Program Indicators are based on evidence related to a company’s public commitments or practices and include policy statements (e.g., does the company have a climate change policy) as well as programs and initiatives (e.g., does the company monitor its supply chain for compliance with its policies).
Most GoodGuide ratings are driven by qualitative information about a company’s policies or programs, because quantitative data on real-world performance are rarely made public and relatively few companies are the subject of controversies or the recipient of awards/certifications.
GoodGuide rates two types of companies: (1) publicly traded companies, which are legally required to disclose information on their environmental and social performance, and (2) private companies, which are typically much less transparent about their performance. Company-level information for public firms is primarily obtained from rating services that serve the socially responsible investment market; private company data is collected by GoodGuide’s expert team. GoodGuide currently acquires data from over 1,000 different sources. Our sources include scientific institutions, governmental agencies, commercial data aggregators, non-governmental organizations, media outlets and corporations.
For information on brand specific ratings, see our Brand Ratings Comparison.
