For starters, building this site has been self-funded. It includes not only our financial resources, but the investment of hundreds of hours developing the methodologies, tools, and creating the content that populates the platform. To date we haven’t taken on any outside investors. If we decide to do so in the future it will be a very intentional decision that helps us meet the needs of your families in bigger and better ways.

We took this risk and dedicated resources to Hilde because we care deeply about our children and future generations. We’ve spent our entire careers in the field of sustainability (including before that term was commonly used) and we know it’s time for corporate sustainability programs to push to the next chapter. The current rate of change isn’t moving fast enough on issues like ingredient safety, sustainability, or corporate accountability in order to truly protect our future. We believe we can help accelerate things in meaningful ways. You can learn more about the people behind Hilde here.

As experienced sustainability professionals, we’ve worked inside companies and in a consulting capacity for brands across a bunch of different industries. These experiences are helpful because it means we often have a deeper and more nuanced perspective on where there are challenges and opportunities that are specific to companies in those industries, their operations, and supply chains.

Both of the founders of Hilde have run independent consulting businesses for years. These businesses were established over 7 years prior to our founding Hilde. Our consulting businesses provide services across a range of industries, including those that are evaluated and rated on this site. In select cases the founders may be asked or decide to work with companies as ingredient safety and sustainability advisors through our consulting businesses, but not formally as Hilde. We only choose to work with companies that demonstrate a tangible commitment to ethical business and share our values.

We know that advising companies directly is one of the fastest and most effective ways that we can directly impact the marketplace. Because we don’t have outside investors, nor are our families independently wealthy, these engagements also allow us to continue to invest our time and resources in Hilde.

In cases where our founders may decide to provide technical guidance to a company on ingredient safety and sustainability programs, and we include information about that company or their products on our site, you’ll know about it. Companies that we may advise, and have been or will be rated on our site receive no special consideration. That is an explicit part of any advisory engagement that we may enter with a company. We will disclose any advisory relationships clearly on our website.

We don’t offer a “pay to play” model. If a company wants to be evaluated on our site, they still need to do the hard work, and must create, implement, and fulfill the rigorous criteria outlined in our evaluation methodology. No exceptions. This is also something that sets us apart from other sites. We don’t charge companies to be evaluated, even though it takes considerable time to rate them.

In fact, you may even see companies in the market you think should be recommended by us, but are not because we don’t think (based on our experience and what we know about the company and its efforts) their marketing position is backed up by the work inside the company needed to meet our high standards.

Other ways we may make money at Hilde now or in the future:

• Donations from individuals like you who appreciate our content
• Subscriptions to exclusive member-only content or resources
• Speaking or presenting at conferences, including on behalf of Hilde

You can learn more about our purpose & values here.