If you choose to buy something scored by us through the links on our site, our work analyzing, verifying, and personalizing the information which led to that score and your purchase is sometimes (but not always) supported through an affiliate commission, which means we get paid a small percentage of the purchase price of the product.
No matter how big or small, no brand can influence their score through money. It’s in our best interest to recommend the best products and keep our partners accountable. It is absolutely not pay to play. Getting scored on our site is free, and the process of calculating the score is entirely independent from our own financial needs as a business. Simply put, the more sustainable your products, the better your score. Period. Full stop.
United by Zero was founded on the principle that we should have better information about the products we buy. Buying more stuff isn't always the most sustainable option, but people will buy things, and we want to help them buy better things. Money has power. Using it wisely requires good information.
Our team of scientists have exhaustively researched which information is necessary to capture the sustainability of a product. We’ve adapted that research into our methodology for collecting information from brands, ingesting and analyzing corroborating documentation, and translating that data into a scoring system that’s easy for consumers to understand. The only thing we love more than science is our scientists, and we encourage you to learn more about both here.
Sustainability, and what constitutes a sustainable product, is constantly evolving as standards improve, as technology unlocks new means of materials sourcing, design, production, distribution and disposal or renewal of products. To continuously adapt according to the most current and pertinent information available, our scoring system will forever be a work in progress, evolving to reflect the best manifestation of what it means to be sustainable.
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Lex K.
Founder, United by Zero