How Ethical Consumer Rates and Compares Brands

Ethical Consumer rates brands by scoring companies against a set of ethical and environmental criteria, then publishing those scores in comparison tables within each product category. The ratings appear in shopping guides that also name Best Buys and flag brands to avoid. The organisation describes itself as an independent, not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder co-operative with open membership, based in Manchester, and says it has been rating companies since 1989. Its stated position is that independent, subscriber-funded research is the way to rate companies without conflicts of interest.

What the ratings cover

The criteria are ethical and environmental, and they vary by product category. The current magazine issue on clothes and trainers shows the range of issues that can feed into a guide:

• Waste, including the dumping of waste clothing
• Materials, including sustainable fabrics and brands' use of sustainable materials
• Workers, including the people who make clothes and trainers
• Animal and chemical concerns, such as vegan and PFA-free trainers
• An Israel-Palestine rating applied to all companies in those guides

So a brand's score is not a single "ethics" number pulled from one list. It reflects the specific issues the researchers decided mattered for that category.

How comparison works in practice

Each guide takes a product category, rates the companies behind the brands, and presents the results as score tables that compare the brands side by side. The clothing guide, for example, covers 31 ethical clothing companies; the trainers guide rates 38 brands, from large sporting names like Adidas and Nike to smaller ethical brands.

Alongside the tables, guides include:

• Best Buy recommendations — the brands the researchers judge to be doing best on the criteria, such as ethical brands positioned against fast fashion
• Brands to avoid — the lower-rated names, presented as what to steer clear of
• Explanatory material — for instance, which fabrics are most sustainable, or how secondhand, repair, resale and making your own fit into a lower-impact wardrobe

The practical effect is that you can compare brands within one category on the same criteria, rather than judging each brand in isolation.

What this means if you want to use it

The ratings are built for spending decisions: the site frames its purpose as helping people use their spending power to change the world for the better, and offers shopping guides plus a weekly newsletter. If you want to check a specific brand, start from the relevant shopping guide for that product category and read its score table and recommendations together — a Best Buy label reflects the criteria in that guide, not a universal ranking across all products.

Two limits are worth knowing. First, coverage is category by category, so a brand only appears where a guide exists. Second, the research is subscriber-funded; the site invites readers to subscribe, and the magazine is available in print and online. The available material does not state prices or whether individual guides are accessible without a subscription, so check the site directly before relying on access.

The organisation also notes Fair Tax Mark and Living Wage Foundation accreditation, which speaks to how it runs itself rather than to how it scores others.