Ethical & Sustainable Certifications
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The sustainability industry is still young and growing every day. In order to ensure our brands align with our goals and standards, we look at many of the following certifications throughout our vetting process to ensure that the brands that we work with are in alignment with our values. You'll be able to read more about our process here.
General Business Certifications:
- Companies commit to balancing profits and purpose
- Holds businesses accountable to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and environment
- Products in 500 categories that meet 27 standards, including Cleaning Products for Household Use, Adhesives for Commercial Use and Restaurants and Food Services.
- Products, services and buildings meeting energy-efficiency standards established by the EPA
SMaRT Consensus Sustainable Product Standards
- Compliance of consensus-based sustainable product standards covering about 80% of the world’s products.
Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) 
- Ensures the use of fiber from certified forests, certified sourcing and post-consumer recycled material.
Consumer Goods Green Business Certifications:
- Certifies 100% animal-testing-free cosmetics and personal care products.
- The entire supply chain must comply.
- The luxury industry-leading certification ensuring brands have a positive impact on nature and society
- Because companies all contribute in different ways, each brand has a bespoke collection of Positive Actions to highlight their unique efforts
- The Natural Standard Certification for Personal Care Products follows a set of guidelines for all cosmetic personal care products regulated and defined by the FDA
- It deems what can be considered “natural” in terms of ingredients, safety, responsibility, and sustainability
- Workers receive fair compensation, safe conditions and environmental protection
Besides Certificates, companies can also become benefit corporations, social enterprises abide by the California Transparency Act or take part in 1% for the planet:
Social Enterprise
- Organizations that address a basic unmet need or solve a social or environmental problem through a market-driven approach
- Not a certificate, instead refers to a business model, interested businesses can join the Social Enterprise Alliance
Benefit Corporation
- a legal incorporation available only in certain states that allows organizations to identify a purpose beyond maximizing shareholder value. Becoming a public benefit corporation “protects mission through capital raises and leadership changes, creates more flexibility when evaluating potential sale and liquidity options, and prepares businesses to lead a mission-driven life post-IPO,” according to benefitcorp.net
- requires many companies manufacturing or selling products in California to disclose their efforts to address the issues of slavery and human trafficking, thus allowing consumers to make more informed choices about the products they buy.
- Businesses can commit to donating 1% of gross sales through a combination of monetary, in-kind and approved promotional support directly to environmental nonprofits
Sustainability Accounting Standards Boards
- SASB has a set of 77 Industry Standards which identify the minimal set of financially material sustainable topics and metrics.
- The Global Organic Textile Standard is the world’s highest certification standard for organic fibers
- Just like many of us look for the “organic” label on our food, GOTS ensures that a supply chain is socially and environmentally responsible from start to finish
- It specifically looks at things such as textiles, manufacturing, processing, packaging, labeling, trading, etc.
- The STANDARD 100 is a worldwide consistent, independent testing and certification system for textile products at every stage of production
- In order to receive the certification, the textile must be free of over 100 substances that are harmful to human health
Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures
- TCFD provides climate-related financial disclosure recommendations to help companies provide better information to support informed capital allocation
Social Accountability Standard (SA8000)
- SA8000 is the world’s social certification program
- Creates framework for any type of organization to conduct fair and decent business for their employees
- The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development works internationally with the goal of shaping policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity, and well-being