This document contains the definitions of the key terms and data types used as part of
Euromonitor International’s Sustainability system, data, and reports. Please find the list
of key terms and accompanying definitions below:
| Key terms | Definition |
| Attribute Group | These are the attribute groups specifically pertaining to sustainability that all individual sustainability attributes are grouped to. For example, “Diets” is an attribute group and consists of multiple individual attributes such as Vegan and Vegetarian. There are a total of seven sustainability attribute groups: Animal Welfare; Diets; Planet Friendly; No Artificial Ingredients; Safer/No Chemical Ingredients; Sustainable Packaging; and Sustainable Sourcing. Please note that attribute groups are not mutually exclusive, and a single product can belong to one attribute group or multiple attribute groups depending on the specific sustainability attributes/claims it has. |
| Attribute | These are the individual sustainability attributes/claims that are found for individual products. For example, within “Diets”, “Vegan”, “Vegetarian”, and “Plant Based” are all separate and distinct attributes for that one group. As with attribute groups, attributes are not mutually exclusive, and a product can have just one or several sustainability attributes. Often the words “Attribute” and “Claim” are used interchangeably. |
| Brands | This refers to the name of a product or group of products (also known as SKUs) that is publicly distinguishable from other products, and which can be easily communicated or marketed as a discrete entity. |
| Company | This refers to the legal entity - corporate or otherwise - that is the ultimate owner of a specific SKU and specific brand. Company names are standardised wherever possible with the same database of Latest Global Brand Owners (GBOLs) that also supports Euromonitor International’s Passport market intelligence database. When a year-on-year change in ownership for a specific brand occurs, all company names (current and past) are overwritten using the Latest Global Brand Owner (GBOL) name. |
| Country | This refers to the 25 countries currently part of the Sustainability product’s coverage – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, the UK, and the US. |
| Industry | This refers to the eleven industries currently part of the Sustainability product’s coverage: Beauty and Personal Care; Consumer Health; Cooking Ingredients and Meals; Dairy and Milk Alternatives; Home Care; Hot Drinks; Pet Care; Snacks; Soft Drinks; Staple Foods; and Tissue and Hygiene. |
| Market Size | The estimated total retail value sales in USD million for sustainable products for each individual attribute, attribute group, country and category. Please note the market size retail value sales estimates for individual attributes or individual attribute groups should not be summed up between different attributes/attribute groups because a single SKU that has more than one sustainability attribute has contributed to the retail sales estimates for all its sustainability attributes. For example, if a product is both Organic and Fairtrade it will contribute individually to an estimated Organic retail value size, and Fairtrade retail value size for a given country/category. The two retail value sizes (Organic and Fairtrade) should not be summed up, as this would be double counting the sales for this particular SKU across two different Sustainable market sizes. The same logic applies to summing up the estimated retail value sales by attribute groups. “Sustainability” sales is an estimate of product value sales with at least one sustainability attribute. Any products that have multiple claims have been deduplicated on the backend to arrive at this top-level “Sustainability” estimate. |
| Median SKU Price | Within the overall price range, the median price refers to the SKU price lying at the midpoint of the price range distribution for the selected country, category, company, brand and/or attribute for a specific year. |
| Price Premium | This is the calculated percentage difference between the median price for SKUs with sustainability attributes and the median price for all the SKUs (with and without sustainability attributes) for the overall product category. |
| Period | The Sustainability Claims Tracker dashboard covers five years: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The data represents annual data aggregates over the entire calendar year (1 January to 31 December). |
| Product Availability | SKU count (also known as the number of products) with sustainability attributes per brand. |
| Ratings | Product ratings left on e-commerce websites provide insight into shoppers' overall satisfaction with an individual SKU. Ratings are typically provided on a 1-5 “star” scale, with 5 being the highest satisfaction rate and 1 the lowest. Average star ratings reflect the average ratings for all the SKUs for a given product category, brand and/or attribute in a specific calendar year. |
| Share of Digital Shelf | This is the calculated percentage share of SKUs with sustainability attributes relative to the total number of SKUs for the overall product category. |
| Shopper Satisfaction | Reflects the average star rating for products with sustainability attributes (from a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest satisfaction rate) per product category or per brand. |
| Sustainability | There is no universally agreed definition or benchmark for sustainability. Companies, governments, organisations, and academic institutions define, approach and measure sustainability in their own ways. However, there is a general consensus that Sustainability can be assessed through the lenses of Environmental, Social and Governance metrics, company and brand communication and strategies, product portfolios and attributes/ claims used, progress towards companies' Sustainable Development Goals, consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards sustainability and their consumption patterns of sustainable products. |
| Sustainable Product | Euromonitor's team of sustainability experts has identified more than 70 different sustainable product attributes/ claims across the themes of animal welfare, diets, planet friendly, no artificial ingredients, safer/no chemical ingredients, sustainable packaging, and sustainable sourcing. We consider a product/ SKU to be sustainable if our machine learning models detect at least one product attribute or claim in that SKU’s product description that matches one or more of our sustainable attributes/ claims. |
| Sustainability Claims Tracker |
The Sustainability Claims Tracker is one of several data-driven products within Euromonitor’s Sustainability system. It shows levels of sustainability adoption across countries, product categories, and brands. It helps our clients identify the most attractive sustainability product claims to inform product innovation, positioning, and pricing strategies. |
| Sustainability Quarterly Opportunity Tracker |
The Sustainability Quarterly Opportunity Tracker is one of several data-driven products within our Sustainability system. It shows the shelf of digital shelf of products with different sustainability claims from quarter to quarter and compares the price positioning for each claim. It helps clients measure change in the prevalence of sustainable products and their associated pricing strategies. |
| SKU | SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit and refers to the individual products Euromonitor captures from each retailer website that it tracks |