Determining a garment’s sustainability is not that easy as scanning a label. If you have fallen victim to clothes’ labels, then consider downloading Good on You, the digital database that rates brands based on their sustainable approach.
Not long ago, I finally came into one of my favourite shops to buy a dress that I have dreamed about for weeks. Encouraged by the woke part of me, I carefully read its label to check details on the material that turned out to be 100% organic cotton. The purchase ended at till before I left with my lovely new sustainable dress. Once home, I scrolled social media and did the most dreadful discovery: the company that produced the dress that I enthusiastically bought mistreats its workers.
Despite reading a label is a very straightforward and fast way to understand a garment’s percentage of greenness, it is not wholly explanatory of a company’s sustainability. A label does not, indeed, come with a lot of other equally relevant information that, all together, reflects a business’s ethical values.
As much as we try to be considerate and identify the least polluted garment, being a woke shopper requires some additional effort. To save us from hours of research, most of which unsubstantial, there is Good on You, an App that rates brands in the light of their attention towards the planet, animals and humans and gives you an overview of a company’s transparency, guiding your fashion choices.
The Australian founder and CEO, Gordon Renouf, first launched the Good on You platform in 2015, aiming at providing consumers with an easy-to-read sustainable guide on the most sales-driven fashion brands in the market. The website obtained an immediate positive response from visitors and developed, in the following years, into a free mobile application that gathers information about brands’ environmental and social impact. Good on You App counts over three million users per year from the whole world and has established as a trustworthy virtual database through the promotion of initiatives like the Workers Rights Consortium and collaborations with activists and resellers. In 2018, Emma Watson first approached Good on You ethos and has, since then, endorsed it as her “benchmark for sustainable fashion.”
How does Good on You work?
More than a thousand brands build the Good on You database that includes popular firms selected by its internal team plus a high number of other smaller companies that have been spotted and indicated by users. The rating system considers the most relevant issues that each business encounters when producing and selling clothes. These evaluations tackle problems to ensure the protection of people, the preservation of the planet and respect for animals. Once the brand has been identified, Good on You sources data from the web by measuring, among others, the company’s transparency, values, scopes, reputation and quality. But it also maps third-party indices like the Fashion Transparency Index, and independent certifications, accreditations and other standard-based systems that guarantee additional information. If you want to know more about Good on You Rating Guides click here.
In the end, the examination’s outcome comes into a five-score grid: We Avoid, Not Good Enough, It’s a Start, Good and Great that translate a brand’s ethicality into an overall rating. Besides, the app gives a brief explanation of how a company approaches problems regarding the three main fields of discussion: Planet, People and Animal. The platform’s rating system accelerates and simplifies the not always linear research into the brand’s supply chain and sustainable practices, allowing you to find and choose from cool and more ethical alternatives.
Some of the good brands for Beauty / Yoga and Sustainable Fashion can be found on Thepostive.co
That said, Good on You is a starting point for more conscious decisions, but not an arrival. Becoming a responsible fashion shopper can be achieved only through your consistent desire and will to know the behind-the-scenes of what you buy and what you wear.