The Community & Economic Impact Score™ is the first independent 0–100 rating of how local, sustainable, and transparent a business actually is — verified, not self-reported. The higher the score, the more your dollar stays home and does good.
Every verified business earns a single, comparable score. No jargon, no guessing — just a clear signal you can trust before you spend.
Exceptional on every front. A model of local sourcing, real sustainability, and radical transparency. The gold standard.
Clearly committed and doing the work — well past the baseline, with verified impact across the board.
A genuinely good local choice that's investing in its community, with room to keep climbing.
On the path and improving — taking real first steps toward a more local, responsible operation.
At the start of the journey. Verified and honest about where they are — which is itself worth something.
Higher score = more of your dollar stays local, more sustainably, with more honesty about where it goes.
The CEIS™ Score isn't a vibe — it's a weighted measurement built from verified evidence across the three things that decide whether your money strengthens your community.
The biggest factor — because it's the biggest lever. Measures how much of the business actually stays local: supply chain, workforce, ownership, and banking. The more your dollar recirculates nearby, the higher this climbs.
How responsibly the business operates: waste reduction, energy and water efficiency, and ethically-sourced or certified products. Verified actions, not slogans.
How openly the business operates: fair, living wages, community giving, and a willingness to show where each dollar of revenue actually goes. Honesty, rewarded.
There are credit scores for borrowers and star ratings for service. There has never been a single, independent number for a business's community impact. Until now.
Anyone can call themselves "local" or "green." A CEIS™ Score is earned against documented evidence — invoices, payroll locations, certifications, public records — so the badge actually means something.
Most labels measure one thing (organic, or fair-trade, or "shop local"). CEIS™ is the first to combine locality, sustainability, and transparency into a single, comparable score.
As a Public Benefit Corporation funded by subscribers — not advertisers — the score can't be bought. That independence is what makes it trustworthy, and it's never been done this way before.
The CEIS™ engine converts verified evidence into points across weighted sub-factors, then sums the three pillars into your 0–100 score. Here's the methodology in plain terms.
Each pillar breaks into measured sub-factors — e.g. Locality counts local supply chain (up to 12 pts), local workforce (10), local ownership (10), and local banking & services (8). Bigger levers carry more weight.
Every answer is graded by how it's proven. Verified documents (invoices, payroll, certifications, public records) score higher than self-attestation — so the algorithm rewards businesses that can show it, not just say it.
A restaurant and a hardware store are scored against standards that fit how each actually serves its community, so the number is fair across very different kinds of business.
Pillar points are summed and capped at their maximums, producing a single 0–100 score and its tier — from "Beginning" to "Community Champion." Re-verified over time as a business grows.
Open the app, find businesses near you, and see exactly what each number means — and where your dollar goes.