Can sustainable brands really save the planet?
We all know there’s a problem with the planet, and we all want to do something about it. But does switching to shopping from green brands really make a difference? And what are we doing about it at Green Salon? Here’s our take on the power of the green pound — and why we believe our new rating system can speed up the transition to a greener world.
The Green Pound
If you’re spending more of your money on sustainable products for your home and on eco travel, you’re not alone. Sustainable spending has nearly doubled from £23 million to £52 million in the last 10 years. Millions of people in this country and around the world are now spending money on organic food, recycled products and energy-saving devices.
But does the green pound actually make any difference?
Increasingly, yes. Five years ago, being a sustainable brand was the preserve of a tiny handful of brands that made sustainability their USP. Since the pandemic, that number has mushroomed. Even more significantly, there are so many more options for brands to use low-carbon energy and turn waste streams back into products that the impact is beginning to add up.
We asked Carbon Savvy, experts on carbon footprints, for guidance on the average emissions of brands on our Green Salon Directory versus High Street brands. They estimated that, on average, the brands on our Directory had 50% lower emissions than High Street brands. They then worked out that if 50,000 people did 50% of their shopping from brands on the Directory, it would save the equivalent emissions of 150,000 return flights from London to Munich. And if 2 million people did 50% of their shopping on the Directory, that would save the equivalent emissions of 1.5 million of those flights - or the emissions soaked up by growing 33 million trees.
And that’s just one directory.
Why the Green Salon rating system?
As the green economy grows, the lure of the green pound is becoming more tempting to all brands. As a result, many brands are painting themselves as green when, in reality, they are not as sustainable as they claim. Unfortunately, this diverts money from making an impact — and puts it in the pockets of brands that are really just pursuing business-pretty-much-as-usual.
As greenwashing is becoming more sophisticated, we wanted an easy, eye-catching way of giving you, the consumer, a way of sorting the wheat from the chaff.
For the first two years of Green Salon, we looked under the bonnet of brands: interviewing founders, sending sustainability questionnaires and asking lots of questions. This was hugely time-consuming, and we were doing a lot of the leg work for brands themselves. So with UK regulations telling sustainable brands to put their evidence for their eco-claims on their websites, we felt it was time to change our methodology to reflect that.
We now only look at publicly available data to check the eco-credentials of a brand. It’s a lot quicker and allows us to get through many more brands.
Top of class! Star Seed* are an organic, plant-based brand focused on turning the skincare industry regenerative.
What have we found?
Many brands are now putting the data on their impact front and central. Those brands we looked at with an impact report routinely scored well as they had populated their reports with the information, and data, on their sustainability policies we were looking for. Having said that, some impact reports turned out themselves appear to be acts of greenwashing. We’re looking at you, Shein!
Too many brands that claim to be sustainable are still hazy on their websites about exactly how they’re green, with broad statements that sound good but are short on detail. Some brands talk a lot about how to be sustainable with little or no evidence about how it applies to them. We call this green distraction.
As a young start-up ourselves, we understand that budgets and time are tight. Many sustainable brands have emerged in the last few years and are struggling with these constraints. On top of which, by in-housing costs that High Street brands typically dump on the planet, sustainable brands have an even tougher time getting to profitability.
But we believe that if a brand commits to being sustainable, it is critical that it is measuring and communicating its impact from the very start, even if that means auditing itself in the first few years.
How has our methodology changed?
The updated methodology we launched this autumn is an evolution on the original with some significant changes. Most notably, the percentage considered a ‘pass’ has been lowered. This is because we are demanding more from our brands in terms of what they need to be doing to prove their green credentials - and so the overall bar has been set higher.
And in more than doubling the criteria we consider, we’re taking an even more holistic approach to a brand’s sustainability ethos and are interrogating more elements of their business model.
With our increased focus on transparency, it’s also possible for a brand to score on the lower end even if they do have sustainable policies in place. We know that this is the case because of the information those brands have shared with us in the last couple of years — but have not yet shared with the public. Because we’re looking to empower and inform consumers, we believe green brands now need to publish as much information as they can on what they are doing to be green. Without a commitment to transparency, a brand cannot score highly on our new system.
The number of categories in our ratings system have also increased as we’ve gotten more granular with our analysis. We deemed it important to distinguish the best of the best whilst not losing sight of the broad range below it, from improving brands to those with well established sustainable priorities.
How does the scoring work?
A company is analysed against our 70 criteria and the resulting score is weighted. The weighting is aligned with our priorities for what companies should be doing; for example, a company will score higher for aiming for Net Zero than they would for simply offsetting emissions. This system is highly flexible, and over time the weighting can be adjusted as other areas of sustainability become increasingly more important.
We’ve chosen to take a hard stance in our analysis, but softened the score of our rating system by lowering the pass rate. This will enable our methodology to withstand the test of time as brands continually improve their sustainability policies by already asking for the best. As these brands evolve, we can raise the percentages associated with each category in order to accurately reflect what we can expect of brands at the time.
Ideally, before 2030 all our brands will be ‘Top of the Class’ but, right now with too little infrastructure decarbonised, it just isn’t realistic.
Spruce* are On Their Way… They promote low-waste & circularity in their certified vegan products but have not yet measured how much carbon they are creating by making their products.
What is the ‘naughty list’?
The ‘naughty list’ aims to track harmful or falsified company policies discovered during our process, as information arises about brands during their analysis that we hadn’t accounted for. This was a helpful addition to our process that caused Shein’s score (when we analysed high street brands to compare with our own) to drop from 19% to 4%! Our prioritisation of transparency and honesty was immediately validated — this greenwashing filter is needed!
With our new system to track a company’s misrepresentation of their green claims and/or their actively harmful actions in terms of sustainability, brands can now be deducted points, thus making scores a more accurate, holistic view of a brand’s role in sustainability.
The results contextualised
We analysed several high street brands to help contextualise our rating system and show you just how good 50% and up really is.
Sainsburys - 23% - Sainsburys as a company are open about their sustainability policies, and do have some things in place such as sourcing sustainable palm oil, expanding their recycling schemes, and full GHG emissions tracking. However, these policies are limited in the scope that they cover; only a small portion of their materials can be identified as sustainable, and they have few safeguards in place to protect the rights of their suppliers. Further investigation also found issues with Sainsburys’ soft plastic recycling program, with waste being exported to Europe rather than recycled in the UK.
H&M - 31% - H&M are equally open about trying to make more sustainable choices. They measure their emissions, and claim to have 84% recycled or “more sustainably sourced” materials in all of their collections. However, a report by the Changing Markets Foundation found that 96% of H&M’s claims of sustainable materials flouted UK Competition and Markets Authority’s guidelines, and were not actually as ‘sustainable’ as they first appeared. They are also lacking in policies to help protect their suppliers, and currently only 57% of their wool is Responsible Wool Standard compliant (a certification that shows that the farming approach has responsible land management and protects animal welfare), although they are gradually improving this.
Both of the brands produce annual impact reports, but just knowing the facts isn’t enough anymore. We need strong action, with third-party verification backing up claims. To score well on the Green Salon rating system, sustainability must be woven into every action a brand takes.
Shein - 4% - Shein are notorious as the fastest of the fast fashion brands, producing around 35,000 - 100,000 items of clothing a day. They provide annual impact reports which, at a glance, may seem like the brand is making strides towards sustainable business practices; however, as a greenwashing filter, it’s our job to look closer and work out if the claims are what they seem.
So what did we find? Shein’s impact report appears disingenous in quite a few areas. Perhaps the most well-known is their claim to have a supplier code of conduct in place and to regularly audit suppliers. However, numerous reports have detailed labour violations in the factories they use, suggesting their standards are not as stringent as they would have their customers believe.
How the Green Salon rating system helps
Set against the scores from these High Street and online brands, the majority of the brands we feature score over 50% so are already doing well against this benchmark. You can trust that when a brand on the Green Salon Directory scores over 50% they are going significantly above and beyond in their commitment to sustainability, and those over 80% are truly ‘Top of Class’.
We are doing everything that we can to encourage and support those that score below 50% to up their game, and publish all their data on their sustainability policies and practices on their website so that they are easy to find. We’re now launching a brand consultancy to give those brands practical support and expertise to raise their score.
To make it as easy as possible for you, the consumer, to sort the leaders from the laggards, you can filter our Directory by rating, and by price. You can check out how your favourite sustainable brands score here.
As ever, do let us know what you think about the new rating system. What improvements can we make and what is important to you, the sustainably-minded consumer? We believe that only through collaboration and co-creation can we move fast enough as a global society to limit the worst effects of the ecological crisis. So why not join our community and co-create with us?
Want to see how your favourite green brands rank? Check out our newest version of How our directory works.
What sustainable laundry detergent is best for you? Take our NEW quiz here to find out your best path to a greener life.
DISCLAIMER:
It is important to note that we are not a certification body, nor are we auditors, so, like consumers, we rely on companies to tell the truth about their sustainability policies, practices and goals in their publicly available claims.
Affiliate disclaimer: ❀ indicates affiliate links with brands to help fund the Directory so that we can research further sustainable brands. This does not affect the price you pay.