You may have noticed that you won't find evaluations or ratings for specific products on our site. (You won't find affiliate links or paid marketing on our site either). There's a number of reasons why we choose to look at how an entire organization performs on ingredient safety, sustainability, and accountability issues:

Product formulas and material lists change frequently

One of the biggest problems with reviewing or rating specific types of products (e.g. sunscreen, carpet, shampoo, frying pans, etc.) is that the ingredients and materials used in those products are constantly changing. This is particularly true for certain product categories like personal care, baby, and furniture. Companies often make these changes when they update the product, introduce a new version, change suppliers or where they manufacture, even when they change their packaging. So any given product review, rating or recommendation can become outdated or inaccurate quickly. However, company policies and practices used across an organization and across multiple product categories tend to change much more slowly.

Easier choices that require less research

In our experience, it's easier for us to find a company that aligns with our values and routinely purchase their products rather than trying to find specific products. We're constantly buying different types of products to meet our needs and it cuts down on the amount of time and mental burden when we can say to ourselves: "This product is made by a company I trust" instead of having to constantly check and see if a particular product is okay.

Where the action happens

We think it's more important to understand how the entire business operates rather than how they choose to make and market specific brands or types of products. Many of the issues that matter to our families and our future need to be addressed at an organizational level rather than with a limited number of products or even by a specific brand owned by a company. Meaningful progress on issues requires more than a few tweaks to how they are made or the way they are marketed to us.

Providing a unique solution for families

Finally, we believe Hilde provides a unique solution for families who want to align their values with the companies they invite into their homes. One way we do that is by linking our company ratings with complimentary strategies that are designed to better protect our families and our future like advocacy and corporate activism. There are lots of sites and apps out there who provide product level recommendations. We didn't think your family needed another one of those.

You can submit your question and we’ll do our best to respond to it as quickly as possible. We may even feature it in one of our Ask Hilde blog posts!