How Good On You's Brand Sustainability Ratings Work

Good On You rates fashion, beauty, and retail brands on a 1–5 scale, with each score shown alongside a label — "We Avoid," "Not Good Enough," "It's A Start," "Good," or "Great" — and a breakdown across three categories: Planet, People, and Animals. The ratings are presented as "simple ratings, rigorous analysis," so the single score is a summary of a deeper assessment rather than a standalone number. Use the ratings to compare brands at a glance or to shortlist better options; treat the category breakdown as the part that tells you why a brand landed where it did.

The scale and what each label signals

The labels are the practical takeaway: a "We Avoid" and a "Not Good Enough" are both low, but the wording signals that the first is a stronger steer away from the brand. When you're choosing between two brands in the same tier, the label alone won't separate them — go to the category scores.

The three categories: Planet, People, Animals

Every rating on the site is split into the same three dimensions, which lets you weight the assessment toward what you care about most:

• Planet — the brand's environmental footprint and practices.
• People — how the brand treats workers and people in its supply chain.
• Animals — animal welfare considerations in materials and testing.

Because all brands are scored on the same three categories, comparisons stay consistent: you can line up a fashion brand and a beauty brand and see which one is stronger on, say, People, even if their overall scores match.

Worked examples from the site's rating list

The published ratings show how the scale plays out in practice:

• Outland Denim — Great, 5/5. The only brand in the visible list at the top tier.
• Gucci, Lush, Pangaia, Aesop — Good, 4/5. A mix of fashion and beauty brands at the second tier.
• Nike, H&M, Zara, Adidas, Lululemon, The Ordinary, Lefties — It's A Start, 3/5. Large, widely purchased brands sitting in the middle.
• Alo, Loewe, MAC Cosmetics, Victoria's Secret, Louis Vuitton, SKIMS — Not Good Enough, 2/5.
• Shein, e.l.f. — We Avoid, 1/5.

Two things stand out. First, brand size and fame don't predict the score — a luxury house like Louis Vuitton sits at 2/5 while a smaller denim label reaches 5/5. Second, the same brand can appear in both fashion and beauty contexts, so check the specific rating entry rather than assuming one score covers everything a company makes.

How to use a rating to make a decision

1. Look up the brand using the site's rating check to get its overall score and label.
2. Read the three category scores and identify where the brand is weak — a 3/5 overall with a strong Planet score but a weak People score tells a different story than an evenly mediocre 3/5.
3. Compare within a tier, not just across tiers. If two brands are both "It's A Start," the category breakdown is what separates them for your priorities.
4. Use the label as a threshold. If your goal is to avoid the lowest performers, filtering out "We Avoid" and "Not Good Enough" is a quick first pass before you dig into details.

Common sticking points

• A single score hides trade-offs. A brand can be comparatively strong on Planet and weak on Animals; the overall number averages that away. Always open the category view before treating a 4/5 as uniformly good.
• Don't read the scale as a grade. "It's A Start" at 3/5 is the midpoint, not a pass mark — the label itself frames it as incomplete progress.
• Ratings are per brand entry, not per product. The site rates brands, so a specific item's materials or a limited-edition line may not be reflected in the score you see.

The site also publishes editorial content alongside the ratings — stories and top picks, such as alternatives to fast-fashion lingerie brands — which is useful when you've identified a brand to avoid and want concrete substitutes at a better rating.