The Clarity Index
Most things can be verified.
Most brands hope you won't look.
The Clarity Index is Ezmey's proprietary ESG scoring framework. It evaluates the gap between what a brand claims publicly and what the evidence actually supports. Every brand on this marketplace has been through it.
Five Dimensions
We don't ask brands if they're good.
We ask whether what they say can be verified.
Dimension 01
Environmental Claims
Material sourcing, carbon and emissions, waste reduction, water and chemical usage. Evaluated against certification databases, published emissions data, offset registries, and packaging disclosures.
Dimension 02
Social & Labor Practices
Fair trade, living wage, worker safety, artisan and community impact. Evaluated against Fair Trade certification, wage data, safety accord membership, and named artisan documentation.
Dimension 03
Governance & Transparency
Supply chain disclosure, corporate structure, reporting accountability, stakeholder engagement. Evaluated against published supplier lists, B Corp certification, GRI framework adoption, and grievance mechanisms.
Dimension 04
Certification & Third-Party Verification
Active certifications, currency, scope, and audit history. Every certification claimed by a brand is verified directly against the issuing authority's public database. Expired certifications are not counted as positive evidence.
Dimension 05 — The Distinctive Contribution
Claim-Evidence Alignment
This dimension doesn't evaluate what a brand does — it measures the distance between what a brand says and what can be independently verified. Specificity, verifiability, evidence ratio, and contradictory evidence are all scored. This is what sets the Clarity Index apart from certification checklists.
Evidence Standards
Not all evidence is equal.
Every source is assigned to a reliability tier before it can influence a score.
Tier 1
Authoritative
Government databases, international regulatory bodies, accredited certification registries. Independently maintained, regularly audited, legally accountable.
GOTS, OEKO-TEX, B Corp Directory, CDP, Fair Trade USA
Tier 2
Verified Third-Party
Recognized NGOs, standards bodies, independent auditing organizations. Independently maintained but not legally binding.
GRI, Fair Wear Foundation, Science Based Targets initiative
Tier 3
Published Self-Report
Company sustainability reports, public disclosures, press releases. Self-reported but publicly committed — the brand is on record.
Brand sustainability reports, product page disclosures, annual reports
Tier 4
Indirect & Investigative
News articles, investigative journalism, regulatory complaints, lawsuit filings. Secondary sources that surface contradictions not visible in Tiers 1–3.
FTC actions, greenwashing lawsuits, investigative journalism
Scoring Logic
A brand that scores well has claims
that hold up under scrutiny.
Two things are measured separately.
Alignment
The degree to which evidence supports what a brand claims. Scored at claim level, aggregated by dimension, reported as a brand-level profile.
Transparency
The degree to which evidence exists at all — regardless of whether it's favorable. A brand with nothing to verify scores low on transparency independent of alignment.
A single verified contradiction — an FTC action, a greenwashing lawsuit, a published investigation — can significantly lower a dimension score regardless of how many claims are otherwise substantiated. Absence of contradiction is not proof of alignment. Presence of contradiction is hard evidence against it.
Methodology
Built on a documented analytical program.
Not an opinion. Not a checklist.
The Clarity Index is built on a multi-repository analytical program with explicit dependency chains, documented invariants, and strict prohibitions on what each analytical stage is permitted to claim. The methodology is publicly documented and reproducible.
View the analytical program on GitHub →Work With The Clarity Index
The standard is available
beyond this marketplace.
We evaluate brands for the Ezmey marketplace. We also work with retailers, procurement teams, and ESG consultancies who need defensible sustainability signals — not self-reported claims.
Work With Us →