This article summarises all cases where your brand’s product range and material usage increase or remove the baseline weighting of an issue while calculating the theme score.

The following issues have dynamic weighting based on your brand's answers to certain product range and material usage questions: 

  • Large Brands Only:
    • Microplastics
    • Deforestation   
  • All Brands:
    • Leather Tanning
    • Solvent Use

The proportion of your use of synthetic materials impacts the baseline weight of the Microplastics issue as follows:

Question in Microplastics Issue: What proportion of your products use any oil-based synthetics (polyester, nylon, etc)?

  • A significant proportion of our products use synthetics
    • Choose if synthetics are typically present in 40% or more of your products.
    • Choosing this answer will increase the weighting of the Microplastics issue.
  • Some of our products use synthetics
    • Choose if synthetics are typically present in less than 40% of your products.
  •  We do not use any synthetics
    • Choosing this answer will give you a 0% on the Microplastics issue, but it will not negatively affect your overall score.

The proportion of your use of forest-derived materials impacts the baseline weight of the Deforestation issue as follows:   

Question in Deforestation Issue: What proportion of your products use materials derived from forests (leather, rubber, metal, precious stones, and cellulosic fibres)?

  • We use materials derived from forests and they are dominant materials in our production
    • Choosing this answer will increase the weighting of the Deforestation issue
  • We use materials derived from forests but they are NOT dominant materials in our production
  • We do not use materials derived from forests
    • Choosing this answer will give you a 0% on the Deforestation issue, but it will not negatively affect your overall score.

The proportion of leather in your product range impacts the baseline weight of the Leather Tanning issue as follows:

Question in Hazardous Chemicals: Do you sell items that include leather?

  • We use leather and it's a dominant material in our production
    • Choosing this answer will increase the weighting of the Leather Tanning issue
  • We use leather but it's not a dominant material in our production
  • We don't use leather
    • You will receive 0% on Leather Tanning, but it will not negatively affect your overall score.

The proportion of shoes in your product range impacts the baseline weight of the Solvent Use issue as follows:

Question in Hazardous Chemicals: Do you sell shoes?

  • We sell shoes and shoes is a dominant category
    • Choosing this answer will increase the weighting of the Solvent Use issue.
  • We sell shoes but it's not a dominant category
  • We don't sell shoes
    • You will receive 0% on Solvent Use, but it will not negatively affect your overall score.