Seeing through labels is a superpower.

Scan a product

Tap to find your next gem

Type a name

Pick a photo

Explore

NEW

A VS B

Eco Battles

Call the winner — then see the receipts.

Compare mode

Side-by-side for up to 3 products

How we score

Five signals, and where each one came from

Rules of thumb

How to read GreenSpecs in 30 seconds

Cert translator

What each label actually requires

My scans

Compare products

Add up to 3 products — see which wins, and why.

How we score

5 signals · each 0 to 20 · added to a total out of 100.
Read from the label, plus what we know of the brand and category. Then the limits, stated below.

1

Claims and Disclosure

Worth up to 20 pts

Are claims specific and verifiable? "80% recycled content, third-party verified" beats "eco-friendly" every time. Vague language is cheap. Published data is valuable.

2

Certifications

Worth up to 20 pts

B Corp. USDA Organic. Fair Trade. EPA Safer Choice. These have real audit requirements. A leaf logo the company designed themselves does not count.

3

Packaging Lifecycle

Worth up to 20 pts

Not just "is it recyclable" — the full picture. Refillable with a deposit scores highest, glass or not. Concentrates, bulk and a light bag sit next. Single-use glass is recyclable but heavy to make and ship, so it lands mid-table, not at the top.

4

Ingredient Impact

Worth up to 20 pts

What is actually in it, and how was it made? For food: fewer recognizable ingredients, less processing, organic on high-risk crops. One organic ingredient plus 15 additives does not score well here.

5

Supply Chain

Worth up to 20 pts

Where was it made and how did it get here? Clean ingredients shipped globally with no offset cap this signal. Short chains, published Scope 3 data, and verified supplier standards score highest.

The limits, stated

A camera reads a label. It cannot see a supply chain, a farm or a factory. The supply chain signal comes from what we know of the brand and category, and the result says so.

When a label says nothing on a signal, that signal scores low, not neutral. That is a reading of how much the brand discloses on the pack, not of the product's impact. The result names what the label does not say.

A few ingredients cap the total whatever the rest says: phosphates, NTA, nonylphenol ethoxylates, chemical sunscreen filters like oxybenzone. Well-known products are held against reference scores so the same product reads the same each time.

The Material Score is separate. It reads only the physical package in the photo. No claim on the label moves it, and a missing ingredient list is a data gap there, not a penalty.

Every result carries a confidence: high, medium or low, and it drops as a scan ages past six months. A 74 at high confidence and a 74 at low confidence are not the same 74.

YKO, our sister site, reads the record behind the package with a different six-area rubric. The two numbers answer different questions and are never converted into each other. The map between them is public.

A model does the reading, and that costs energy and water. We own the cost rather than leaving it off the page: AI & Impact.

This screen plus the Greenspecs Facts panel, its source tiers and every field definition, written out in one place: greenspecs.app/method.

The scope breakdown

"Scope" is the industry word for how far out you look when counting a company's emissions — from their own building, to the power they buy, to every farm and factory that touched the product before it reached you.

S1

Scope 1 — Direct ops

Their factories, their trucks, their direct burn.

S2

Scope 2 — Purchased energy

The electricity and heat they buy to run operations.

S3

Scope 3 — Everything upstream

The farms, ingredients, suppliers, shipping. Usually 70-90% of the real footprint — and almost never on the label. This is where the story lives.

Why It Matters

One scan helps you understand a product. Many scans create pressure.

GreenSpecs is not about catching one bad label. It is about sending a signal.

When you scan a product, you are showing that people are paying attention to what companies claim, what they prove, and what they still need to improve.

One scan helps you understand a product. Many scans create pressure. Brands see what customers are questioning. Better companies get credit for real work. Vague claims stop being good enough.

That is how markets move: from slogans to proof, from proof to better practice, and from better practice to products that do less harm.

GreenSpecs helps people see through labels — and helps companies know that we do.

Rules of Thumb

How to read GreenSpecs in 30 seconds.

01

Specific beats vague

A named certification with an auditor behind it scores higher than the brand's own words. A high grade means the label gave us more to check, not that every claim was checked by a third party.

02

Scope 3 is the real footprint

70–90% of a product's emissions come from ingredients, farming, and transport — not the factory. If Scope 3 isn't disclosed, the company is showing you the easy part.

03

"Natural" and "sustainable" mean nothing

These words have no legal definition and no enforcement. Look for named certifications — Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, B Corp — with a third-party auditor attached.

04

Social silence is a red flag

If the Social phrase says nothing was disclosed, that is not neutral — it means the brand has not chosen to be accountable about who makes this or what they are paid.

05

The Standout line is rare on purpose

Most products get no Standout. When you see one, it means something specific and named was found — not just a marketing line GreenSpecs agreed with.

06

Compare before you buy

Use the Compare button to scan two products side by side. The contrast sentence shows you exactly what is different — not just two scores sitting next to each other.

Ask Sustainability

AI searches the web to answer your questions — real facts, no greenwashing.

Popular questions

Glass vs plastic?

Organic food?

Paper vs plastic bags?

Carbon neutral?

Electric cars?

Bamboo?

Greenwashing?

Real certifications?

Carbon footprint?

Local food?

Eco Battles

Call the winner. Then see the receipts.

VS

The deck

Privacy

What we store, why, and how to delete it.

What every scan sends

The product name, brand, and claim text on the label; the score and full breakdown we generate; the price if you type one in; and your device's location, so we can see where and how well a product actually sells. Not signed in? All of this is tied to an anonymous device ID, not to you.

If you sign in with Google

We store an opaque ID tied to your Google account — never your name, email, or photo. Your scan history syncs across devices under that ID alone.

If you sign in with an emailed link

We store your email address so we can send the link and know it is you next time. We don't sell it, share it, or use it for anything beyond signing you in.

Why we collect location and price

Individual scans feed YKO.Earth's sustainability intelligence — the same data platform that publishes the brand scores you see in this app. Location and price help identify where and how products are actually sold, at a market level. We're not building a profile of you; we're building a picture of what's on shelves.

No ads. No trackers. No data sale.

We don't use advertising networks or tracking cookies, and we don't sell scan data to anyone. We count page views with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which sets no cookies. Google Sign-In is used for authentication only.

On this device

Your last 24 scans are cached on your device only, so re-scanning something you just looked at is instant. This cache never leaves your phone and clears automatically as it fills.

Delete all my data

Deletes your account if you have one, your scan history, your location and prices, and everything on this phone, straight away. Tap twice to confirm. Signing out is different: it keeps your account and your scans.

The full policy

Every service we use and how long we keep things: greenspecs.app/privacy.

About & Trust

Transparency on the shelf, and in this app. People power, in plain language.

Who we are

GreenSpecs is built by a small independent team. We are not a certifier, and we are not greenwashing police. We read what a label claims, score how much of it is specific and backed up, and hand you the analysis — based on available data, in plain English, with the gaps called out.

What your scan actually does

One scan informs you. Thousands move the supply chain. Every scan adds a real data point about what shoppers question at the shelf — which claims, which brands, which stores. That aggregate signal feeds YKO.Earth, the sustainability intelligence platform behind this app, and it is what makes brands take notice. Vague claims stop being good enough when enough people check them.

Our data promise

We score products, not people. A scan sends the product, the claim, the score we generate, your location, and a price if you type one — so the market picture is real. Scans are anonymous by default. No ads, no trackers, and scan data is never sold to third parties.

Your scans stay yours

Sign in and your history follows you across devices — free, and deletable any time. Stay anonymous and your history lives on this phone only. Either way, re-scanning something you just checked is instant.

The AI, and what it costs

A model reads every label, and that uses energy and water. We publish what it does, what a scan costs us, and our estimate of what a scan costs the planet, with the arithmetic shown: AI & Impact.

The legal bits

The full detail of what we store and how to delete it lives on the Privacy page. Questions and deletion requests: hello@greenspecs.app. Deletions are done within 48 hours.

AI & Impact

A model reads every label. That costs energy and water. Here is the cost, in full, and what we do about it.

What the AI does here

Three calls, at most. A small fast model names the product so the result screen is not a spinner, on photo scans only. The main model reads the label and works out the five signals, thinking before it answers. A third call fills the Greenspecs Facts panel, alongside the second rather than after it. A typed scan is two calls, a photo scan is three. Nothing calls a model on a timer, in the background, or to draw a screen you did not ask for.

What is not AI

The letter-grade bands are in code. So is the confidence step-down once a scan passes six months. Category averages and percentiles are precomputed once a week, never per scan and never by the model. Certification claims are checked against the issuer's own register, and B Corp by a person. The model is not allowed to mark a number verified: that gets downgraded to estimated before it is stored.

What it costs

Reading the live figures.

What we do to keep it down

A typed scan of something already scanned calls no model at all; the answer is reused. The fast naming call uses the smallest model, with no rubric. Comparisons are precomputed weekly by one scheduled job. The two heavy calls run in parallel, so the app does not retry out of impatience. Your last 24 scans are cached on this phone. A hard daily ceiling stops model calls past it, which caps the energy as well as the bill. Photos are read and dropped, never stored.

What we will not claim

Not carbon negative, not climate positive, not paid for by itself. One purchase you skip almost certainly outweighs the scan that prompted it, but we cannot watch a purchase that did not happen, so we will not put a number on it. The energy estimate is a range built from Google's own published median, which is self-reported and not peer-reviewed. We buy no offsets; we would rather cut the calls than buy a certificate.

When it gets one wrong

It reads a label in a photograph, in whatever light the aisle has, and the parts of a product that matter most are usually not printed on the pack. That is why every result carries a confidence and names what the label does not say. Rate any result, or email hello@greenspecs.app. A person reads every report, and a product can be queued for a re-score.

The long version

The arithmetic, the sources and the live totals: greenspecs.app/ai. The full written methodology: greenspecs.app/method.

Cert Guide

What each certification actually requires — ranked by rigor.

Gold — Farm or company audited

Independent inspector visited

USDA Organic

Government

Farm inspector visits annually. No synthetic pesticides, no GMOs, soil health requirements. The gold standard for food ingredients.

Scope: Farm practices · Ingredients · Processing

Demeter Biodynamic

Farm

The most rigorous farm cert. Builds on organic — treats the farm as a living ecosystem. Composting, biodiversity, animal integration required.

Scope: Whole farm ecosystem · Soil · Animal welfare

Regenerative Organic Certified

Farm

Built on top of USDA Organic. Adds soil carbon sequestration, animal welfare, and farmer economic resilience. The newest and most comprehensive.

Scope: Organic + soil carbon + farmer welfare

B Corp Certified

Company

The whole company is audited — workers, community, environment, governance. Not just one product or one claim. Renewed every 3 years.

Scope: Entire company · Workers · Community

Fair Trade USA

Farm

Audits that farmers receive fair wages and safe conditions. Means the premium you pay reaches the people who grew it.

Scope: Farmer wages · Working conditions · Community

Silver — Real testing, specific scope

Verified but narrower

Non-GMO Verified

Testing

Third-party testing confirms no GMO ingredients. Does not cover pesticides, farming practices, or soil health. A start, not the whole story.

Scope: GMO absence only

Rainforest Alliance

Farm

Farm-level audit covering environment and worker welfare. Variable rigor — some farms meet higher standards than others. Better than nothing, not as strong as organic.

Scope: Environment + worker welfare (variable)

EPA Safer Choice

Ingredients

EPA reviews every ingredient for safety to people and aquatic life. The real standard for cleaning products. Better than marketing claims on cleaning.

Scope: Cleaning + personal care ingredients

Certified Humane

Farm

Animal welfare standards for farms raising livestock and poultry. Third-party audited. More meaningful than "cage-free" or "free-range" labels.

Scope: Animal welfare on farm

FSC Certified

Forest

Wood and paper products from responsibly managed forests. Third-party audited. The real standard for paper, packaging, and wood products.

Scope: Paper · Wood · Packaging

Bronze — Some value, limited scope

Worth noting, not the whole picture

Made with Organic Ingredients

Partial

At least 70% organic ingredients, but not fully certified. Better than conventional but the remaining 30% is uncertified. Ask what the rest is.

Scope: Partial — 70%+ organic only

NSF Certified

Testing

Tests that ingredients match the label. Covers safety and identity — not farming practices or environmental impact.

Scope: Ingredient safety + label accuracy

Marketing — No standard, unverified

Anyone can print these

These terms have no legal standard and require no third-party audit. Any brand can put them on any product.

Natural

Eco-Friendly

Green

Sustainable

Clean

Non-Toxic

Planet-Friendly

Better for Earth

If this is the only claim — ask what it actually means. Probably nothing.

The grade, beside the buy button.