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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Our criteria focus on the root causes of the climate crisis. Brands that excel in these areas are building more sustainable industries.

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• Materials and ingredients: How is this brand using sustainable materials, ingredients, packaging, and shipping to reduce its impact?
• Slow Consumption: Does this brand encourage circularity and conscious consumption?
• Accountability: Is this brand transparent about how it’s working towards a more sustainable industry?

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We aim to empower people to get what they need by buying less and buying better. When we do need to buy things, we can use our dollars to support brands actively building more sustainable economic systems. Here are some key tenants to our methodology: 

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• Transparency first: Our team of carbon experts use publicly available reports and information to evaluate, summarize, and rate each brand.
• Scaled accountability: Big brands have a larger impact and more resources to invest in  sustainable practices, so we rate them against higher expectations.
• Adaptable framework: As brands evolve, so do our ratings. Each brand rating is date-stamped based on its latest update. We always welcome questions and feedback.

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You can see our full Rating Rubric here.

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• Best: Throughout their supply chains, these brands are taking responsibility for their impact on the people and planet. They're sustainability leaders in their industry, doing more than their fair share.
• Good: These brands are exceeding expectations by actively reducing their carbon footprint and minimizing waste.
• Fair: These brands are meeting the minimum sustainable efforts we'd expect from brands their size.
• Poor: These are medium-to-large brands with fewer sustainability practices than we'd expect at their scale. These may also be small brands that lack public reporting on their sustainability goals or efforts.
• Harmful: These brands are far from meeting the minimum sustainability efforts and reporting that we'd expect from them. Their business and manufacturing practices likely harm ecosystems and employees.

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Our Community 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.