How Commons Evaluates and Rates Brands

Commons’ mission is to help you sift through the greenwashing so you can find the most sustainable choices for you. With a collective shift to more intentional spending, we're influencing brands to operate more responsibly.

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Our money is an investment in the world we want. From our morning coffee to new shoes, our purchases have the power to drive a low-carbon economy. In fact, 65% of our everyday purchases influence global emissions (Ivanova et al., 2016). When we spend with intention and curb overconsumption, we power a more sustainable future. 

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And sustainable living doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. Use Commons to see how well-known brands stack up, discover new brands you can trust, and find tips and guidance to live more sustainably.

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Who We Are

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Commons is an app that tens of thousands of people use to save money, earn rewards, and drive the shift to a low-carbon economy. Our team is passionate about building tools to help folks buy less and buy better to curb overconsumption and support more sustainable brands. 

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We’re a small team of carbon experts, data scientists, engineers, writers, and designers who are passionate about making sustainable living more accessible. Our Founder & CEO, Sanchali Pal, started tracking her carbon footprint in an excel spreadsheet over 10 years ago because she couldn’t find any good tools to align her life with the world she wanted to live in. You can read more about us here.

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How We Rate 

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We independently rate brands using our detailed framework of industry-specific criteria:

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• Materials. How is this brand using sustainable materials or ingredients, sourcing, and shipping to reduce its impact?
• Slow consumption. Does this brand encourage conscious consumption and facilitate reuse or long-term use of its products?‍
• Accountability. Is this brand transparent about its sustainability goals and how it’s working toward them?

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Transparency is important to us. Our approach is data-driven and expert-curated. Our team of carbon experts finds publicly available information to evaluate, summarize, and rate each brand’s sustainability.

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We value progress over perfection. That’s why we rate brands on a 1-5 scale based on how well they’re doing at measurably contributing to a more sustainable economy. 

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Our evaluations aren’t static – we welcome both users and brands to ask questions, give feedback, or provide additional information if available. We publish the date each rating was last updated.

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1. Harmful: These brands have a long way to meet the bare minimum of sustainable practices we'd expect from them. Their business and manufacturing practices actively harm ecosystems and employees. 
2. Poor: These are medium to large brands that are dabbling in sustainability efforts, but we expect more from them at their scale. These may also be small brands that lack any reporting or public documentation of their sustainability goals or efforts. 
3. Fair: These brands are meeting the base level amount of sustainable efforts we'd expect from them.
4. Good: These brands are exceeding our base expectations. They're accounting and taking responsibility for their carbon footprint and doing what they can to lower their emissions and waste. 
5. Best: Throughout their supply chain, these brands are accounting and taking responsibility for their impact on the people and planet. They’re also going above and beyond to do more than their fair share. They’re sustainability leaders in their industry. 

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Our impact

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We believe accountability is critical. In the Commons app, our community can actually measure their sustainable spending journey. Users see the carbon footprint of every purchase and earn rewards for making climate-friendly choices. 

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In 2023, 61% of people using Commons reduced their carbon emissions after joining the app.

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The average Common user reduced their annual carbon footprint by 19%. If every American reduced their annual emissions by 19%, we would save over 1 billion tons of CO2e. That’s like taking 80% of cars off the road for a year. Read more about Commons’ Community Impact.

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Our work has been featured in FastCompany, TechCrunch, and Bloomberg, and we’ve been named Apple App of the Day and a TIME100 Most Influential Company.