Individuals and institutions keep SINK's methodology public, free, and independent. Members fund the work. Institutions license data and access advisory services.
Make a single contribution whenever you can.
£8 a month — join the people who fund SINK. Members keep every score free for everyone else.
All scores stay free for everyone. That's the whole point.
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Commercial ESG ratings are commissioned by the companies they rate — the conflict of interest is built into the model. SINK works differently: companies can engage us to submit private evidence (energy data, certifications, supplier audits), but the scoring rubric stays the same. No company gets a better score just because they paid.
A typical commercial ESG rating costs £30,000+ a year and comes with a non-disclosure clause. We publish ours openly. The work to maintain it — researching new sectors, validating sources, reviewing challenges — has to be paid for somehow.
A sustainability score paywalled behind enterprise contracts can't shape public discourse. It can't be cited by journalists, used by NGOs, or referenced by consumers. Free at the point of use only works if the work itself is funded.
In development:
Members get access first when these ship.
Two things: tools that make SINK more useful to you, and the satisfaction of funding work that stays free for everyone else.
On the tools side: watchlists, score-change alerts, personal compare views, early access to the Sunday Rundown. These are in development right now — members get them first when they ship.
On the bigger picture: SINK rates 500+ companies on the same 10 questions, with public methodology and verifiable sources. The scores stay free for journalists, NGOs, students, and consumers — anyone who needs to verify a sustainability claim. Members fund the research, methodology, and editorial standards that keep every assessment honest.
You're not buying access to data. You're keeping a public good public.
Because a sustainability rating only matters if it can shape decisions — and that means journalists need to cite it, NGOs need to reference it, consumers need to find it. Lock scores behind a paywall and you have a fund-management tool, not a public good.
Commercial ESG ratings cost £30,000+ a year for institutional access. Their methodologies are private. Their data is licensed. They're useful for portfolio managers and not much else.
SINK is the opposite bet. Public methodology. Free scores. Open to challenge. Member-funded tools (watchlists, alerts, compare views) make the platform more useful — but the underlying ratings stay free because that's what makes them count.
Research and infrastructure, mostly.
Scoring a single company takes hours — reading sustainability reports, checking third-party investigations, cross-referencing claims. Multiplied across 500+ companies, plus methodology development, database hosting, and editorial review.
Members keep the lights on for the public side: the database, the open methodology, the scores everyone can verify. Institutions licensing data for portfolio analysis or research fund the deeper sector work. Companies submitting evidence fund the human review of that evidence.
Three funding streams, one rule: payment never changes how a company is scored. The methodology is public, the rubric is fixed, and the formula is the same whether you're a free reader or a paying member.
Asset managers, journalists, NGOs, procurement teams, ESG consultants, pension funds.
Whether you need licensed access to SINK data, custom industry research, methodology consulting, or briefings on specific companies — we work with institutions who need rigorous, independent sustainability analysis.
A 30-minute call is the fastest way to scope what you need.
Book a call →In development:
Institutional licensing includes ongoing access as the platform grows.
“We'd rather be corrected than wrong. That's what independence costs — and why members make it possible.”
One email, every Sunday. Score changes, new research, the stories behind the numbers. Free.
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