the expansion map

What we’d score, industry by industry.

Greenlens covers cosmetics today. This is the map for what comes next: for each industry we may expand into, which sustainability criteria actually define it. Water use is the story in agriculture; data privacy is the story in banking. One universal checklist would hide that. So, as always, we don’t use one.

Materiality by industry

Darker means the criterion is closer to the sector’s defining disclosure topic. Hover or focus a cell for the reading.

Highly materialRelevantNot a core topic

Table view

Criterion	Clothing	Food & bev	Agriculture	Transport	Banking	Media	Education	Hospitality	Health
Climate & emissions	High	High	High	High	Relevant	Relevant	Relevant	Relevant	Relevant
Water & wastewater	High	High	High	—	—	—	—	Relevant	High
Waste & packaging	Relevant	High	Relevant	—	—	—	Relevant	High	Relevant
Land & biodiversity	Relevant	Relevant	High	Relevant	—	—	—	Relevant	—
Labor & human rights	High	Relevant	High	Relevant	Relevant	—	—	High	Relevant
Worker health & safety	Relevant	Relevant	High	High	—	—	—	Relevant	Relevant
Product quality & safety	Relevant	High	High	Relevant	—	—	—	Relevant	High
Privacy & data security	Relevant	—	—	Relevant	High	High	High	Relevant	High
Supply-chain oversight	High	High	Relevant	Relevant	—	—	Relevant	Relevant	Relevant
Ethics & transparency	Relevant	Relevant	Relevant	Relevant	High	High	Relevant	Relevant	High

Adapted and simplified from SASB’s materiality map and the GRI topic standards. Illustrative: it condenses those standards, it does not reproduce them.

Where the data would come from

Same rule as every rating on this site: it matters who writes an opinion, so the author travels with it.

Self-reported by companies

GRI report database

The Global Reporting Initiative’s archive of corporate sustainability reports, the largest open collection of disclosures. Written by the companies themselves, which is exactly why it can never stand alone here.

Independent standards body

SASB standards

Defines which sustainability issues are financially material for each of ~77 industries. It’s the rubric behind the matrix above: what to measure changes sector by sector.

Regulatory baseline

Exchange listing rules

The NYSE requires listed companies to adopt and disclose a code of business conduct and ethics, a guaranteed floor of disclosure for public companies, before any voluntary reporting.

Where this framework falls short

Most reporting is voluntary. A company can simply not report, or report only what flatters it. Coverage will be patchy and self-selected.
Industry-specific standards are young. A single standard that fits every industry is impossible, and the per-industry ones aren’t yet widely adopted, which is why mandatory reporting keeps stalling.
Company-level isn’t product-level. These sources describe the company behind a product, not the product itself. In Greenlens they’d feed the environmental and labor pillars at the brand level, sitting next to product-level safety ratings but never blended into them.

Our stance is the same one the disagreements page takes: patchy, conflicting coverage is a finding to show you, not a gap to paper over. “This company reports nothing” is itself information.