Our Product Rating System
Caring for the Land, Sea, Air, People & Animals
The Ateliers Verts ethos is to encourage people and companies to minimise their human footprint #MinimiseOurHumanFootprint and to reflect the United Nations 17 Sustainability Development Goals.
So we have devised The Ateliers Verts Product Rating system to give you a clear indication as to how “eco-friendly” the products being sold on our platforms are.
Ateliers Verts Product Rating
Each product is evaluated by Ateliers Verts on:
- The Materials used in Fabrication.
- The Production Processes, including the treatment of its workforce.
- The product Distribution & Packaging
- The parent company’s Support of Good Causes
- The overall Ethos of the company and its recognised status.
A Scale of 1-10 is applied to each of the 5 points and added together. The resulting total is represented:
We then total the scores:
= 1-10 points (Has one eco feature & responsibility statement)
= 11-20 points (Above & clean manufacturing)
= 21-30 points (Above & clean distribution)
= 31-40 points (Above & support good causes)
= 41-50 points (Above & a good ethos which is monitored)
You may well ask- why we would have a product on our site with a low rating? Well, we carefully curate our products and believe that companies taking one-step in the right direction should be encouraged so that they eventually become 5 AV Star companies.
Conversely a company may say they are eco-friendly because they are producing an eco-product when actually the company is mostly a polluter– so the rating will reflect that too and we hope to turn them around.
No Information
If we are not able to get information from the company we rank them at a zero for that criteria until they can demonstrate otherwise.
Transparency
Companies are able to view their rating so that we can maintain transparency and be kept informed of their eco process improvements.
Simplified Example of a fictitious T-shirt manufacturer:
- The Materials used in Fabrication - Organic cotton fabric with Elastane 8/10 (to get 10/10 they could use another natural fibre or a recycled fibre like Econyl® mindful that the materials minimise environmental impact)
- The Production Processes including the treatment of its workforce - the company is FairTrade registered and uses renewable energy to power the factory 8/10 (to get 10/10 it could be carbon neutral and 100% pollution free, like hand weaving)
- The product Distribution & Packaging – all the packing is recyclable and they buy carbon credits to offset the distribution pollution. 8/10. (to get 10/10 they could only deliver locally and use recycled packaging)
- The parent company’s Support of Good Causes - they donate 1% of turnover and plant 1 tree for every t-shirt sold (9/10 to get 10/10 they could be non-profit to maximise donations – but 9/10 is good!)
- The overall Ethos of the company and its recognised status - The company is only selling eco products, is certified Organic, Cruelty-free and is a B-Corporation member 10/10 (i.e. a company founded on eco and sustainable principles)
Total : 43/50 = 5