How to Use JoinEthically to Find Ethical Products, Companies, and Causes

JoinEthically is an independent editorial and community platform for researching ethical products, companies, and causes. You can use it in four main ways: browse scored product reviews, check company brand scorecards, read practical guides on living and giving, and ask the community for sourced answers. Everything on the site is built around one shared scorecard — how a product or company treats people, how it treats the planet, and how honest it is about both — so the same three questions apply whether you're buying a base layer or vetting a charity.

Browse the ethical products directory

The Ethical Products section is the site's flagship pillar: independently scored reviews of things to buy across fashion, home, beauty, and tech. Products are ranked on people, planet, and honesty rather than on brand marketing.

According to the site, over 1,200 products have been rated. A featured example is Kadu Wool Co. merino base layers, scored 92 ("Great") and described as traceable to a single regenerative farm in Patagonia.

To use it well:

• Start with the category you're actually shopping in (apparel, home, beauty, tech) rather than scrolling the whole directory.
• Read the score as three separate signals, not one number — a high people score doesn't guarantee a high planet score.
• Open the sourcing behind each point before you decide. The site states that scores are assembled by editors from primary sources such as certifications, disclosures, and factory audits, never from brand press kits.

Check a company's brand scorecard

The Ethical Companies section holds brand scorecards built from public disclosures, labor records, and supply-chain audits. The site says it tracks 340 companies and updates scorecards as new evidence lands.

This is the section to use when you already have a brand in mind — a retailer you're considering, an employer, or a company you've seen make a sustainability claim. Because scores move when a company changes course, a scorecard is a snapshot with a date, not a permanent verdict. If you're comparing two companies, compare them on the same three dimensions and check when each score was last revised.

Read Good Living and Doing Good guides

Two sections cover decisions that aren't purchases:

• Good Living — practical guidance on money, food, relationships, and small daily choices, framed around living with your values intact. The site lists 210 guides.
• Doing Good — vetted charities, volunteering opportunities, and giving guides, positioned around where your time or money goes furthest. The site lists 96 vetted causes.

Use Good Living when the question is "how do I change a habit," and Doing Good when the question is "where should this donation go." Both are editorial sections, so treat them the same way you'd treat the product reviews: check what a recommendation is based on before acting on it.

Ask the community in the Forum

The Forum is where you ask the community directly and get sourced answers. The site describes an AI companion that surfaces relevant reporting as you go, and reports 8,900 members. The section is framed as "sourced, not vibes" — meaning answers are expected to point back to evidence rather than opinion.

This is the right tool when your question doesn't fit an existing review: a niche product category, a company that isn't scored yet, or a cause you want vetted. Ask a specific question and expect answers with links, not just endorsements.

Understand how the scoring works before you rely on it

Every product and company on JoinEthically gets the same scorecard, built on three questions:

Scores are assembled by editors from primary sources — certifications, disclosures, factory audits — and readers can see the sourcing behind every point. The site states that scores are re-checked by hand, not just on intake, and that a score moves if a company changes course.

One caveat worth carrying into any score: a valid certification doesn't automatically validate the claim built on top of it. The site's own investigation into fast-fashion supply chains traced three major labels' recycled-fabric claims back to their mills and found the certifications checked out while the volume math behind them didn't. So when a score cites a certification, it's worth reading what the certification actually covers.

A practical path through the site

If you're new, this order gets you to a decision fastest:

1. Go to Ethical Products and find your category.
2. Open the top-scoring options and read the sourcing notes, not just the number.
3. If a brand appears in your shortlist, cross-check it in Ethical Companies.
4. If nothing fits, post the question in The Forum and ask for sourced answers.
5. For non-purchase decisions, use Good Living (habits, money, daily choices) or Doing Good (charities, volunteering, giving).

The site is free to browse based on the material available; no pricing or login requirements are stated in the sources reviewed here, so check the site directly if you need an account for forum posting or saved lists.