Ratings history

Since 2004, Shop Ethical has focused on guiding consumers toward informed, values-driven decisions. Our ratings system has been central to that goal, adapting over time as our assessment database grew. From its modest start to our latest update in 2025, here’s how we’ve refined our approach to highlight the good, the bad, and all the shades in between.

After a few false starts, in 2008 we settled on a 4 tier system using ticks and crosses for our first book, The Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping.

Any praise gave a tick, and any criticism gave a cross, plus a handful of companies were given a boycott call — simple, but limited, relying on just a handful of sources.

In 2010 we introduced "light ticks" and "light crosses". This allowed us to differentiate between companies with one lesser praise (light tick) and companies with more significant praises (tick), and similarly with criticisms, adding a bit more nuance to our still-basic framework.

In 2016 we introduced a new ratings system. Ticks and crosses were out, and colour-coded letter grades (ABCDF) were in. This enabled us to differentiate between companies that had lots of praises, but some criticisms (C), and companies with more criticism than praise (D or F).

In 2019 we made some more subtle adjustments, such as giving a C to companies with no praises, no criticisms, but at least one neutral (such as a middle rating on a benchmark or scorecard). We also limited the potential rating to a B for companies with any minor criticisms.

All of these changes were done to overcome limitations in our ratings system and methodology, and to more accurately reflect our ever-growing assessment database.

Now in 2025 we are introducing our most sophisticated ratings system yet, introducing eight new tiers: A+, A-, B+, B-, C+, C-, D+, and D-