The Challenge  

To ensure every brand embodies The FairGround’s ethos, Ginnie sought an experienced third-party sustainability partner to define a clear set of values and develop robust criteria for evaluating brands. These values needed to address the sustainability topics most material to the fashion, beauty and lifestyle sectors, while also resonating strongly with customers.

Ginnie also required ongoing support in formally vetting and onboarding potential brand partners, ensuring accuracy and impartiality, cutting through any greenwash, and giving customers complete confidence in each brand’s sustainability credentials.

The Solution

Drawing on industry research, customer feedback, and Ginnie’s own priorities for buying better, we developed an overarching values framework for The FairGround, centred on three focus areas: Our Planet, Responsibly Made, and Your World, Your People. We then built out subtopics within each focus area, defining a clear methodology and thresholds for evaluating brands.

At the framework’s heart we embedded two uncompromising principles: transparency and accountability. These require every brand to provide credible evidence of its actions and targets, and demonstrate honesty in their own sustainability communications.

We also designed a streamlined onboarding process to make brand evaluation efficient and consistent.

Today, we carefully assess every potential brand partner against the values framework, reviewing all applications and evidence to ensure they meet the minimum requirements. We also continue to review approved brands on an ongoing basis to make sure they are continuously improving and remaining accountable to their commitments.

The Results  

As The FairGround’s third-party assessor, we bring rigour, impartiality, and a critical eye to every stage of the brand onboarding process. This ensures that every brand featured meets The FairGround criteria, protecting and strengthening the integrity of the marketplace, and giving customers confidence that they’re making genuinely responsible purchases - without having to wade through greenwash.

The FairGround values framework also helps to elevate the voices of its brand partners, many of them small businesses, showcasing their commitment to ethical and sustainable practices. Crucially, the framework is designed not only to recognise excellence, but to encourage progress. For brands that fall short of the required standards or expectations around transparency, we provide constructive feedback to help them strengthen their practices and communications. In doing so, The FairGround fosters a culture of continuous improvement and contributes to wider systemic change across the retail sector.

do you want to embed sustainability into the heart of your business?

Get in touch to see how we can support your journey – hello@bable.world.