Dr. Bronner's sustainability score: 53/100
Leading practice starts at 60. The highest score on SINK is 71.
Dr. Bronner's manufactures concentrated liquid soaps and personal care products, founded in 1948 and headquartered in Vista, California. The family-owned company is a California benefit corporation, emphasizing fair trade, organic ingredients, and environmental stewardship across its supply chain of smallholder farmers.
Founded 1948Head office Vista, California, USStaff ~347Revenue ~$209MWebsite ↗
Dr. Bronner's demonstrates genuine climate leadership through renewable energy adoption, regenerative supply chain work, and transparent reporting—but lacks SBTi-validated targets and detailed Scope 3 disclosure. Operational emissions are minimal; the real gap is quantified supply chain accountability and third-party verification of carbon sequestration claims.
Dr. Bronner's scores 53/100 (Making progress) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Scores are free. Nobody can pay to change a score, speed it up or hide it. Last verified May 2026.
That places Dr. Bronner's joint 86th of 1,023 companies scored, and 1st of 57 in FMCG / Consumer Goods.
What is Dr. Bronner's doing well, and where does it fall short?
Strongest on Controversies & Red Flags and Nature & Biodiversity Impact (9/10, 8/10). Weakest on Targets & Commitments and Carbon Footprint: Supply Chain (4/10, 5/10).
Where Dr. Bronner's lost points
For each question that lost points, the evidence our public rubric looks for that we didn't find.
What would raise this score
- Its climate targetsMake its targets science-based, or commit to the Science Based Targets initiative.
- Emissions from its supply chainMeasure most of its supply-chain (Scope 3) emissions.
- Whether its emissions are fallingShow a year-on-year fall in its total emissions.
Every question that lost points
- Emissions from its own operations6/10Its own emissions aren't independently verified or tracked over several years.
- Emissions from its supply chain5/10Most of its supply-chain (Scope 3) emissions aren't measured.
- Whether its emissions are falling5/10No evidence of a year-on-year fall in its total emissions.
- How clean its energy is7/10Less than 90% of its energy shown to be renewable.
- Its effect on nature8/10No measurable net gain for nature.
- How it uses materials and handles waste7/10No verified figures for reuse and recycling across the business.
- Its effect on water5/10No measured water footprint with reduction targets.
- Its climate targets4/10Its targets aren't science-based or committed to the Science Based Targets initiative.
- How openly it reports7/10No annual impact report, or no pay linked to climate targets.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Anyone can send us new evidence, free. How to send it.
How is Dr. Bronner's's SINK score calculated?
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × ScaleHas Dr. Bronner's's score changed?
Dr. Bronner's's score has been reviewed 5 times and currently stands where it started, at 53.
- 53 → 537 November 2026
Correction, 7 November 2026: headquarters corrected to Vista, California, from the company's own page. Score unchanged.
- 53 → 537 November 2026
Correction, 7 November 2026: emissions total corrected to the company's own 66,381 tonnes for 2023, from its All-One Report; description corrected, as it ended its B Corp certification in 2025. Score unchanged.
- 53 → 537 November 2026
Correction, 7 November 2026: relabelled a third-party emissions figure as an estimate. Score unchanged.
- 53 → 537 November 2026
Correction, 7 November 2026: question 2: credited the figure to The Commons, which gives it as a total footprint rather than Scope 3. Score unchanged.
- Scored 534 April 2026
Initial score at platform launch
What evidence is Dr. Bronner's's score based on?
19 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
44% of them were published by Dr. Bronner's itself; the rest come from independent sources.
Scored on 4 April 2026 under an earlier version of our method. We're re-checking it under the current method.
10 of 18 sources are independent of the company.
If you believe a source has been misread or a newer version exists, submit a challenge.
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How does Dr. Bronner's compare with other fmcg / consumer goods companies?
Dr. Bronner's is the highest-scoring fmcg / consumer goods company we've rated.
Among the 57 major fmcg / consumer goods brands we've scored, Dr. Bronner's sits 1st of 57.
Who comes next in FMCG / Consumer Goods?
Dr. Bronner's leads its sector. These are the next 3 down.
L'Occitane's total footprint has risen 35% since FY2020 to 452,000 tCO2e, though it fell 5% in the last year, and its value-chain targets are intensity-based.
See the breakdown →Weleda has strong biodiversity credentials and a clean controversies record, but emissions data is largely undisclosed.
See the breakdown →Silentnight's footprint was about 71,000 tCO2e, almost all of it the materials it buys; that supply-chain figure dates from 2022/23 and has not been updated.
See the breakdown →Which companies moved this week, and why.
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