Hero Product

The most sustainable or healthy products in the UK supermarket. Some are both! Building a basket of Hero Products will help reduce your environmental impact.

A purple badge is awarded to products which meet the criteria to be a hero. The hero badge provides a single indicator to identify the most sustainable or healthy products in the supermarket. We use a combination of our badges, and certain filters, to define hero products with the objective being that a basket of hero products will help to materially reduce overall environmental impact as well as being healthier than the average UK shopping basket. The criteria for different supermarket aisles are set out below. However, in common across all categories is that hero products cannot have a very high carbon footprint or contain palm oil which is not sustainable. Food and drink: Products must be awarded at least four points. A point is awarded if the product has any of the following badges: organic; low carbon footprint; responsibly sourced; better packaging; healthier option; free from additives; animal welfare and plant based (outside fruit and vegetables). A point can also be awarded if a product is a “super green” (a healthy product that is awarded only greens for sugar, salt, fat and saturated fat based on the traffic light labelling system) and a point is taken off if a product gets an amber or red traffic light on both salt and sugar. Furthermore if a product can be awarded a badge for being fair trade, sustainably fished, having no additives (drinks only) or animal welfare then this also becomes a necessary condition. Finally certain categories cannot be hero products because there are direct substitutes available with lower environmental impact which are available at the same or lower costs. Examples include: still water and coffee capsules. Skin and Haircare products: Products must be awarded at least three “points”. A point is awarded if the product has any of the following badges: greener cosmetics; better packaging; no chemicals of concern; no animal testing. Household Cleaning: Products must be awarded at least three “points”. A point is awarded if the product has any of the following badges: kinder cleaning; better packaging; no animal testing.