Welcome to Good Market Info! Click the logo to go to the directory and marketplace
Welcome to Good Market Info! Click the logo to go to the directory and marketplace
This policy is a part of the Good Market Terms of Use. By using the shared Good Market infrastructure and services, you’re agreeing to this policy and the Terms of Use.
The Good Market commons is curated. Full use of the shared resources, including having a public profile in the directory, adding listings to the marketplace, or creating a network, is limited to enterprises that meet the minimum standards, go through the curation process, and are Good Market Approved.
Only enterprises that are currently recognized as Good Market Approved have a profile in the directory.
The curation process was designed to work across economic sectors, income levels, registration types, language barriers, and regional divides. It includes minimum sector standards, a dynamic online application, a consistent review process, and a crowdsourced monitoring system.
The minimum standards and application questions were developed by reviewing more than 200 sustainability certifications, analyzing more than 50, aggregating industry best practices, and translating them into everyday language. They were tested through four years of weekly meetings and offline applications in three languages before the current online system was developed.
Minimum standards are updated by Good Market cocreators. See Governing the Commons for more details.
The online application is dynamic which means new questions appear depending on how previous questions are answered. Because the application form is multi-lingual and dynamic, it cannot be downloaded, sent by email, or filled offline. Some networks provide services to help applicants without internet access.
Applicants are reminded that by answering “Yes” to a question, they are making a claim about their organization, products, services, and operations. If they are Approved, the claims are shared publicly in the People & Planet section of their profile page. If a question does not apply, applicants should answer “No.”
The online application uses an algorithm to calculate points and support the review process, but each application is reviewed by the curation team and checked for internal and external consistency.
An application can be Approved, More Info, or Not Approved. More Info applicants are requested to submit clarifications or additional supporting information. Not Approved applicants are encouraged to improve their social and environmental impact and reapply in the future.
Approved applicants have a profile in the directory. Claims from the application form are included under the People & Planet section of their profile page. If they update their form and click publish, the People & Planet section updates automatically.
If an application is Approved, the claims are public and transparent. If customers, workers, suppliers, or other community members have evidence of a false claim or evidence that an enterprise no longer meets minimum sector standards, they can flag a profile anonymously by clicking the flag icon and submitting their evidence. Flagging starts a review process.
Flagged enterprises are asked to submit additional supporting information. The review process can result in the flagged enterprise improving their communication, updating their claims, taking corrective action, or losing their status as Good Market Approved and being removed from the directory. See Community Rules for more information.
Profile pages are automatically generated based on the data in the online application form. Approved enterprises can update their application form and profile page at any time based on the below guidelines. When a profile page is updated, it triggers an email to the curation team.
Enterprises are approved by a profile name. All products and services promoted under an approved profile name must meet minimum sector standards.
If an enterprise has multiple sub-brands that meet the minimum standards, they can submit separate applications to create separate profile pages for each sub-brand name, or they can submit a single application under a parent brand name and have a single profile page that includes the parent brand and all sub-brands.
The approved name needs to match the logo and the contact links in the application. If a parent company does not meet minimum sector standards but develops a sub-brand that is Good Market Approved, only the sub-brand name, logo, and contact links may be promoted through the profile page.
Enterprises can use a personal name as their approved name if they offer products and services under that name (e.g. authors, coaches, trainers, consultants).
The approved profile name should be the common name of the enterprise and should not include certifications, legal registrations, or acronyms that indicate legal registrations (e.g. Inc, Pvt Ltd, Gte Ltd, LLC, GmbH, CIC, PBC, etc). These acronyms can be added to the company name which appears on the profile page under the People and Planet section.
If an enterprise wants to change their approved name, they should contact the curation team by help chat or email first. The team will help update the URL and the profile paragraph.
Enterprises should only choose a sector if they directly offer products and services in that sector. For example, if an enterprise sells food products, uses packaging purchased from a supplier, uses solar energy for their own operations, and donates to a partner organization to plant trees, they should only select the Food and Beverage sector because their team does not offer packaging, solar energy, or forestry services to others. They can include information about their practices, suppliers, and service providers in other parts of the application form.
Most traders that sell products from other enterprises (e.g. retail shops, multi-vendor online stores) are approved as service providers under the Trade sector. This means they meet the minimum standard for Trade. It does not mean that all of the products they promote from other enterprises are Good Market Approved.
If an enterprise starts offering products and services in new sectors with different minimum standards, they should contact the curation team by help chat or email for support to update their form.
Profile photos need to be actual photos that illustrate an enterprise’s story, their work, and their social and environmental responsibility. Photos of people and places are recommended because they help build trust and connection.
Product photos with no background and computer graphic images (including images with text, images with borders, collages, composite images, screenshots, and illustrations) are not permitted as profile photos but can be used in the community marketplace.
The main photo will appear in the directory as a square cropped thumbnail. Photos that look good in a square format are recommended. Photos of meat and photos of plastic packaging should not be used as main photos.
If an enterprise provides digital services and does not have direct photos of their work, they might include photos of their location, their founder, their team, a computer or phone using their software, or a relevant stock photo that illustrates their story.
Enterprises are responsible for ensuring they have all necessary rights to use the photos that appear on their profiles.
Contact links are not required. If an enterprise adds phone numbers, an email address, a website address, or social media account addresses to the application form, the contact links will appear on their profile page. The email address that is used to submit an online application is not publicly visible.
Contact links should match the approved name. Links to personal social media accounts should not be used.
The curation team verifies that all contact links are working when the profile is first published. Enterprises are responsible for updating their links if needed.
Profile paragraphs are generated by the team in order to provide a consistent and neutral tone across the site and optimize for search and translation. The paragraphs are based on the information in the initial application and online.
If an enterprise wants to remove or update a point in their profile paragraph, they can contact the curation team by help chat or email.
Good Market Approved enterprises that work with a network of other enterprises are eligible to have a network page with a directory of their own members.
An enterprise that appears in a network directory meets the minimum sector standards for the digital commons AND the standards of that particular network. Some networks have additional criteria and require membership fees, a verification, or a certification.
Networks maintain their own directories. If an enterprise would like to be part of a network directory, they should contact the network directly.