In an era where sustainability claims are plastered across shopping tags, digital ads, and corporate manifestos, consumers are increasingly asking a fundamental question: how do we actually know if a brand is telling the truth? For Good On You, the world’s leading platform for rating fashion and beauty brands, the answer lies strictly in the light of day. By evaluating brands exclusively on publicly available information regarding their environmental, human rights, and animal welfare track records, the platform has established a rigorous framework designed to enforce transparency and hold major corporations accountable.
Operating under the core belief that transparency is non-negotiable for progress, Good On You evaluates thousands of brands using up to 1,000 distinct, publicly accessible data points. This methodology spans three critical pillars: people, the planet, and animals. Through this meticulous process, the platform identifies the companies driving positive change and exposes those that fall short, assigning ratings that range from top-tier performers to critical warnings like “We Avoid” and “Not Good Enough.”
Rather than serving merely as punitive measures, these lower ratings are designed to challenge brands to reform their practices, while simultaneously equipping consumers with the most up-to-date, transparent data available. As Gordon Renouf, CEO of Good On You, points out, understanding a company’s ethical footprint should be as straightforward as checking a product’s price tag or listed features.
Holding Brands Accountable for Their Impact
The urgency of this mission becomes clear when examining the hidden costs of the global fashion and beauty industries. Over the years, consumer revelations have frequently exposed the grim realities behind popular products, such as workers handling toxic chemicals during viscose production, the exploitation of monkey labor in harvesting coconuts for beauty ingredients, and the catastrophic working conditions that culminated in the tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza factory.
Without demands from watchdogs and the public for companies to openly share information on chemical usage, supply chain safety, and labor rights, holding corporate entities accountable for damages remains nearly impossible. Conversely, celebrating industry pioneers who genuinely improve their practices relies entirely on the availability of verifiable public evidence.
To truly transform fashion and beauty, Good On You expects brands to report fully, accurately, and consistently on their operational practices. This level of transparency is essential not only for consumer awareness but also for shaping meaningful regulations around critical industry issues, often requiring the public disclosure of codes of conduct, industry accords, and verified certifications.
Despite growing consumer demand for ethical alternatives, the industry at large still has a remarkably long way to go before public disclosure becomes the baseline standard. Data from Good On You reveals a concerning lack of leadership among the sector’s heavyweights: out of the 40 most profitable fashion brands evaluated by the platform, exactly zero received a “Great” rating, highlighting a profound transparency vacuum among the industry’s largest players.
Out of more than 6,000 fashion brands currently featured in the Good On You directory, 61% of large corporations fail to disclose any meaningful information regarding their water management practices, while 54% remain entirely silent on their chemical usage. While environmental reporting fares slightly better, significant gaps persist, with 18% of large brands and 24% of small brands failing to publish basic details regarding their corporate sustainability policies.
The accountability gap widens further when examining corporate climate pledges. According to Good On You data, 81% of large fashion brands that have established greenhouse gas emissions targets fail to state whether they are actually on track to meet them. True accountability, the platform argues, requires more than just publishing ambitious long-term goals; it demands regular, transparent reporting on a brand’s proximity to reaching those milestones.
Publishing comprehensive sustainability data is not without its internal friction for corporations. Jessica Ouano, a ratings analyst at Good On You, notes that large brands frequently cite internal bureaucracy as a hurdle. Some companies have explained that securing the necessary internal approvals to disclose comprehensive initiatives across all departments presents a distinct operational challenge.
Despite these hurdles, Ouano emphasizes that transparency remains the bedrock of corporate accountability. Open disclosure empowers consumers, activists, and stakeholders to challenge misleading claims or inaccurate reporting. This vulnerability to external scrutiny is likely a primary reason why many major enterprises remain cautious about the sheer volume of data they release to the public.
Small Brands Can Rarely Share the Same Information as Large Ones
Navigating the complexities of sustainability reporting looks vastly different for independent labels compared to multinational conglomerates. Small businesses frequently lack the financial capital, dedicated legal teams, and expansive supply chain connections that large corporations possess to track and report their impacts.
To account for these disparities, Good On You applies a distinct ratings methodology that differentiates between large and small enterprises, utilizing the European Commission’s definition based on annual turnover. This tailored approach acknowledges the structural limitations smaller companies face while maintaining the expectation that multi-billion-dollar corporations must provide deep, rigorous disclosures, particularly regarding corporate policies and carbon targets.
For smaller businesses concerned about how their limited resources might impact their public rating, Good On You offers targeted guidance on better sustainability communication. This advice typically centers on remaining current, specific, and honest about operational realities, while prioritizing the mitigation of issues that carry the most significant environmental and social impact.
When a brand falls short of ideal practices or declines to publish quantitative data, transparency analysts argue that honesty is far superior to silence. It is significantly better for a company to explicitly acknowledge its shortcomings than to gloss over them with vague marketing language that misleads shoppers into believing robust action is happening behind the scenes. When brands publish no data whatsoever, Good On You explicitly highlights this absence within its directory and mobile app, ensuring consumers recognize when a company is withholding details about its actions.
Ultimately, the platform’s overarching mission is to encourage continuous industry-wide improvement and open disclosure. Good On You is actively working to streamline the engagement process, notifying brands prior to rating them and providing generalized guidance on the benchmarks required across its three core pillars. Additionally, the platform offers Good Measures, a dedicated sustainability hub designed to help businesses of all sizes understand their disclosures, identify high-impact areas, and easily update their standing based on verifiable progress.
We Need Greater Transparency to Tackle Greenwashing
The push for uncompromising transparency serves as a vital defense against greenwashing—a deceptive practice where brands obscure the reality of their operations behind sweeping, generalized statements about environmental stewardship. Left unchecked, superficial marketing claims allow the industry to bypass the difficult work of real transformation.
Compounding this issue is the emerging phenomenon of "greenhushing," where brands deliberately choose to say nothing at all about their environmental and social impacts. This tactical silence is often deployed out of fear: companies worry about being exposed for doing too little, accused of greenwashing, or falling afoul of increasingly stringent sustainability regulations introduced by governing bodies worldwide.
However, erasing publicly available sustainability information is a dangerous step backward for the global market. Sandra Capponi, co-founder of Good On You, notes that while full transparency is certainly challenging within industries defined by complex, multi-tiered global supply chains, it remains the absolute baseline expectation for modern commerce. Consistency in data and disclosure is critical if consumers are to make informed, values-aligned purchasing decisions.
By refusing to compromise on its core principle of utilizing exclusively public data, Good On You continues to pressure the fashion and beauty sectors toward comprehensive disclosure. As regulatory frameworks tighten and consumer expectations evolve, the demand for verifiable, accessible transparency is reshaping the future of global retail—leaving no room for brands to hide in the dark.
