What the HIP Score Is — And What It Is Not
The HIP Score is a single number from 0 to 10 that summarises how a product performs across seven dimensions of long-term material resilience. It is the headline figure on every Resourcehip rating page.
The HIP Score is not:
- a carbon-footprint estimate
- a measure of in-use energy efficiency
- a generalised "is this good for the environment" verdict
- a comparison between brands or models within a category
What it is:
- a measure of how the product is built (materials, repairability)
- a measure of how it is sourced (supply-chain risk and audit verification)
- a measure of how it is recovered at end of life (recyclability, take-back, regenerative inputs)
- a fixed, reproducible rubric — the same product, scored twice, gets the same score
The reference page at /methodology is the authoritative document. This article is the plain-English version.
The Seven Dimensions
Each dimension is scored independently from 0 to 10 against a published rubric. Six are weighted positive; one (the Regenerative Index) is normalised. The weights are not arbitrary — they reflect where the long-tail environmental cost of a consumer product actually sits.
Material Scarcity Index (MSI) — weight 20%
How dependent is the product on materials that are scarce, geopolitically concentrated, or on the EU Critical Raw Materials list? A device built from recycled stainless steel and abundant minerals scores high. A device built around lithium, cobalt, neodymium, and rare earths from single-country supply scores low.
This is the biggest single weight in the score. The reason: scarcity decisions made at design time are essentially permanent. You can change recycling rates over time; you cannot un-bond a glued lithium battery into the housing.
Supply Chain Risk (SCR) — weight 18%
Where do the materials come from, who audits the suppliers, and is the supply diversified? Cobalt from the DRC with no due-diligence framework scores low. Diversified sourcing across audited suppliers in the EU, Australia, and Japan scores high. Verified third-party audits (RBA, OECD due-diligence) move this dimension significantly.
Recyclability and Circularity (RC) — weight 18%
What proportion of the product, by weight, can practically enter recycling streams at end of life? Glued, sealed, mixed-material devices score low. Screw-fastened, single-material, take-back-supported devices score high. Theoretical recyclability does not count — there has to be a real recovery path.
Repairability (R) — weight 13%
Can a non-specialist repair the device with reasonable cost and effort? iFixit scores, screw-fastened construction, public service manuals, and a stocked spare-parts programme all push this dimension up. Glue, tamper-evident seals, and missing spare parts push it down.
Social and Environmental Impact (SEI) — weight 8%
Are the manufacturing facilities audited for labour and environmental practice? RBA audits, ISO 14001 certifications, modern-slavery statements, and ILO compliance all contribute. Manufacturing in a higher-risk jurisdiction is not, by itself, a penalty — the absence of audit evidence is. Scores above 5 on this dimension require third-party audit evidence; self-reported claims cannot exceed 5.
Product Longevity (PL) — weight 8%
How long is the product designed to last? Warranty length, IP rating, modular design, and stated software-support windows (where applicable) all feed in. A 2-year warranty + 4-year design life is a baseline score; a 5-year warranty + 12-year design life moves the dimension into the upper bands.
Regenerative Index (RI) — weight 15%, scale −10 to +10
This is the only dimension where negative scores are valid. The RI measures whether a product depletes the systems it draws from (negative), neither depletes nor restores (around zero), or actively restores them (positive). The five canonical tiers are:
- Depleting (−10 to −5) — virgin extraction, no recycled content, no take-back, no regenerative inputs.
- Extractive (−5 to −1) — partial recycled content, possible take-back, but still net-extractive.
- Renewable (0 to +3) — substantial recycled content with verified take-back; closing the loop.
- Restorative (+3 to +6) — closed-loop material recovery + regenerative agricultural or biological inputs.
- Regenerative (+6 to +10) — third-party-certified ecosystem restoration evidence.
The RI is normalised to 0–10 before weighting, so a Depleting score of −7 contributes 1.5 to the weighted total; a Restorative score of +4 contributes 7.0. We have a dedicated explainer on the RI specifically.
How the Final Score is Calculated
The HIP Score is the weighted sum:
HIP Score = (MSI × 0.20) + (SCR × 0.18) + (RC × 0.18) + (R × 0.13) + (SEI × 0.08) + (PL × 0.08) + (RI_normalised × 0.15)
Rounded to one decimal place. That is it. There is no judge's bonus, no editorial adjustment, no rounding-up to keep the manufacturer happy. The same input numbers always produce the same output.
What Different Scores Mean
A HIP Score sits inside a category and should be read against the category baseline:
- Below 3.0 — a typical mass-market product in a structurally compromised category. Most consumer-electronics categories have generic baselines in this range.
- 3.0 to 6.0 — material resilience is partial; some dimensions strong, others poor. No HIP Mark.
- 6.0 to 7.5 — earns the Standard HIP Mark. The product is materially honest, designed for repair, and has a credible end-of-life path.
- 7.5 to 9.0 — earns the Silver HIP Mark. Substantial recycled content, audited sourcing, and a long product life.
- 9.0 and above, with RI ≥ +6 — earns the Gold HIP Mark. Closed-loop material recovery and certified regenerative inputs.
The Gold threshold deliberately requires both a high HIP Score and a Regenerative Index in the Regenerative band. A product can be a Silver-grade engineering achievement without being regenerative; Gold is reserved for the combination.
Generic vs Verified Ratings
Every product rating is one of two types:
- Generic ratings are produced from public data only and apply conservative assumptions wherever data is missing. They rate a product category, not a specific named product. Generic ratings sit at the category baseline.
- Verified ratings use evidence submitted by the manufacturer through the submission form. Submitted data replaces conservative defaults. Verified ratings can climb up to the category ceiling.
The gap between baseline and ceiling is the headroom in a category — the space within which a manufacturer with credible evidence can demonstrate that they outperform the assumed-mass-market default. We have a dedicated explainer on why this gap exists and what it represents.
Why the HIP Score Is Built This Way
A sustainability rating that is easy to game is worse than no rating at all. Three design decisions specifically protect against gaming:
- Conservative defaults. Missing data lowers the score, never raises it. There is no incentive to be vague.
- Audit-evidence floors. SEI scores above 5 require third-party audit evidence. A manufacturer cannot self-report into the upper band.
- Methodology transparency. The full rubric is published. Anyone can see exactly which inputs would move which score.
The trade-off is that the HIP Score will never be a marketing-friendly badge that every product can earn with effort. It is meant to be a hard, methodology-driven number that means something specific. That is its credibility.
Where to Go From Here
- The methodology reference page for the full rubric, weights, and worked examples.
- The Regenerative Index explainer for the most distinctive dimension of the seven.
- The generic-vs-verified explainer for the headroom story.
- The ratings catalogue for every category we have rated.
If you are a manufacturer interested in submitting evidence to lift a category-default rating into a verified rating, see /submit.
Methodology and edits by Chris Bowness; assistive AI used for drafting.