Sustainable Brand Benchmark Methodology
One of the biggest challenges in the sustainability industry is the need for more normalized data on sustainable procurement. Today, there are more standards that define sustainability than most consumers and companies can understand. At CommonShare we are launching the world’s most comprehensive system for the comparative evaluation of companies on their commitments to sustainable production and consumption.
CommonShare’s Sustainable Brand Benchmark® allows companies, consumers, governments, and investors to easily benchmark sustainable procurement performance across each industry. The data powering on the benchmark is continually updated through a combination of human research, machine learning algorithms, LLM driven AI, brand survey response, and real time management of company data within CommonShare’s platform.
The first version of the Sustainable Brand Benchmark® launched in April 2023. New industry categories will be rolled out throughout 2023 and 2024 with the goal of 10 industry benchmarks covering over 100k+ entities. We believe this will provide a meaningful contribution towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Responsible Production and Consumption).
Data from members of CommonShare is used to rebalance the benchmark quarterly with data submissions required by May 31st, August 31st, November 30th, and February 28th of each year. Non-members have the opportunity to include their data on November 30th of each year.
Companies in the top half of the distribution for their industry are eligible for CommonShare’s Sustainable Brand Accreditation®.
Obtaining a grade for each Company
We specifically look at 5 dimensions: Credibility, Relevance, Commitment, Traceability, and Accessibility. Each Company obtains a grade between 1 to 5 for every dimension, 5 being the highest (best) grade, and 1 being the lowest. We then calculate the average from the total of all the dimensions to obtain the final grade.
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Relevance is determined by the sales of a company. We research to identify the holding company or parent company of all brands rated, rather than focusing on individual brands. Sales at the parent company level are normalized and then broken down into quintiles. With this methodology, we are ultimately biased towards larger companies with the philosophy that it is harder to turn an aircraft carrier than maneuver a jet ski. This bias is offset by our commitment rating which specifically evaluates the percentage of products with more sustainable raw materials/ingredients. The work of creating interfaces that then allow businesses and consumers to evaluate companies is significant as consumers understand brands while businesses/investors are more interested in management practices. For more information on how we do this, please set up a demo.
Variables used:
CommonShare members can manage facilities at the brand and HoldCo level and develop aliases to ensure search works properly across all brands.