Overview
The resources and waste area evaluates how a brand manages the lifecycle of the products it sells, from initial sourcing and production to the consumer-use phase and end-of-life treatment. It is a critical part of the environmental assessment because the extraction and disposal of resources can drive deforestation, habitat destruction, and ecological damage. High-performing brands prioritise lower impact or certified materials, and embed circular principles, such as reuse, recycling, and repair, into their core business models.
Industry verticals: Fashion, Beauty, Services, Retailer
Applicable for: small and large brands
What is assessed?
Specific assessment questions vary depending on the industry vertical, but the methodology focuses on several common items to determine a brand's performance in this area:
Lower-impact materials and ingredients
The methodology rewards brands for sourcing materials that require fewer pesticides, less water, and reduced energy during production.
In the fashion vertical, materials are tiered by impact. For example, recycled cotton and organic linen are high-scoring, while BCI cotton receives a lower score.
In beauty, "preferred" ingredients include those that are upcycled (derived from waste streams like fruit seeds), organic, or biotechnology-derived (ie grown in labs to minimise land and water use).
The methodology checks how much of a brand’s product range these materials or ingredients cover.
Certifications
Third-party certifications provide external verification that a brand meets specific environmental standards. Relevant certifications include Cradle to Cradle (C2C), GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard), Global Recycled Standard (GRS), and EU Ecolabel.
The methodology checks how much of a brand’s product range these certifications cover.
Circularity and waste management
Circularity assesses a brand’s efforts to move away from the "take-make-waste" model. This includes:
Addressing overproduction: Rewarding limited production runs, made-to-order models, and "long-lasting" design
Extended product life: Whether brands offer repairs, warranties (beyond legal requirements), or resale/rental services
Operational waste: How brands manage production offcuts and unsold inventory
Product design: Whether brands incorporate circularity principles in the design phase, for example training staff in circularity; using zero waste production methods; creating multi-use products; and minimising fibre blends (which are hard to recycle).
Packaging
Packaging assessment varies by whether it is primary (contacts the product), secondary (retail boxes), or tertiary (bulk shipping materials). Questions focus on:
Minimising packaging use: Whether the brand measures and tracks how it reduces overall packaging
Lower impact packaging: Use of recycled, compostable, plastic-free, or FSC certified materials
Biodiversity and deforestation
Biodiversity and deforestation assesses the conservation efforts a brand is taking in its supply chains. This includes:
Robust policy: Whether a brand has a policy covering biodiversity loss and preservation in its supply chain, with clear mechanisms of implementation
Sustainable alternatives: Assessing whether the brand uses materials certified by FSC or another credible scheme to ensure no deforestation takes place in its supply chain
Assessments in industry verticals
Beauty
Beauty assessments heavily weight the proportion of organic, upcycled, or biotechnology-driven ingredients across the entire range. We also focus significantly on ingredient transparency and fragrance disclosure. Brands may be legally required to list ingredients on physical packaging in many regions, but the methodology evaluates online disclosure.
Fragrance disclosure: Brands are rewarded more for disclosing individual fragrance constituents rather than labeling them collectively as "fragrance" or "parfum”, as these often hide complex chemical combinations
Ingredient transparency: Brands should supplement INCI disclosures with additional information that clarifies ingredient origin, impact, and processing
Fashion
Fashion assessments heavily weight the proportion of recycled or certified materials across the entire range. Additionally, brands using synthetic materials like polyester are assessed on their efforts to minimise microfibre shedding through manufacturing solutions (eg ultrasound cutting), or by supplying wash bags to consumers.
Services
The general services vertical introduces a distinction between core and non-core questions to account for the diversity of business types. Core criteria applies to all brands, whilst non-core criteria depends on the type of service the brand is offering. This includes:
Core: All services are assessed on their environmental procurement policy for equipment and furnishings (such as desks, computers, office supplies)
Non-core: Specific "trigger" questions apply to certain businesses. For instance, a gym or cinema selling food will be asked about food waste and packaging, while a car wash or hairdresser will be assessed on water management and hazardous chemicals
Retailer
The retailer vertical questionnaire distinguishes between business operations questions to account for the diversity of business types. The business types are:
Fashion
Beauty
Food and beverage
Electronics
Homewares
Other consumer goods
All retailers are assessed on their own operations and their policies that determine the third-party brands they carry. The methodology assesses all retailers on:
Buying policies: Retailers score higher if they make purposeful efforts to source more sustainable products such as those through certifications and lower-impact materials
Conditional assessments
For some questions, the scoring weighting varies depending on the type of products a brand sells
Brands that sell products with a higher proportion of materials that shed microplastics are weighted higher in the microfibre section
Brands that sell products with a higher proportion of materials linked to deforestation are weighted higher in the deforestation section
Disclosure and data sources
Good On You primarily relies on a brand’s public website and formal sustainability, CSR, or ESG reports. For resource use, we also reference:
Data verification: Analysts cross-reference a brand’s that state it uses lower-impact materials or certifications against the relevant database, such as GOTS.
Relevance for different brands
The assessment criteria for resources and waste vary significantly depending on a brand’s size.
Small brands
Assessment scope: The assessment focuses more on the presence of initiatives, rather than exhaustive reporting data. Small brands are expected to report on areas within their resources such as material use, packaging, and circularity. They are not expected to report on areas such as deforestation and biodiversity as they are unlikely to have sufficient leverage over their suppliers.
Large brands
Deforestation commitment: Large brands are subject to additional scrutiny regarding deforestation and biodiversity. We check for specific commitments such as CanopyStyle targets for forest-derived materials
Fast business penalties: Large brands are subject to score reductions if they operate a "fast" business model, identified by frequent releases of trend-led styles and constant large-scale discounting
Best practice and common pitfalls
Best practice principles
Ingredient lists (beauty): Brands are expected to provide complete ingredient lists online using the International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredient (INCI) system. High-performing brands disclose the aggregate weight or volume of ingredients at the brand level rather than just listing names.
Quantified material proportions: For fashion and retailers, businesses should disclose the percentage of lower-impact materials used across their entire range.
Full lifecycle circularity: The highest scores are awarded when circular principles are implemented at every step of the life cycle, including design, material choice, and end-of-life programs
Verified durability: Brands should not only claim durability but demonstrate how it is achieved through material selection or specific manufacturing techniques.
Common pitfalls and greenwashing
Seasonal "timelessness": Brands often claim to produce "seasonless" or "timeless" products while simultaneously releasing seasonal collections (eg pre-fall 2025), which contradicts the value of reducing production and waste.
Denominators in calculations: A recurring error is calculating certified material percentages based on the entire range rather than the specific material type. For example, the percentage of leather that is Leather Working Group certified should be based on total leather products, not the total number of SKUs a brand offers regardless of what they are made from.