What makes a good business? As a company that focuses on connecting good people with good businesses, this is something we ask ourselves every day. Defining what we mean by a “good” business in the first place is challenging, and then measuring their “goodness” can be equally challenging. So working in collaboration with the Sustainable Development Commission of the City of Portland and Multnomah County, we developed a criteria framework and a product-by-product matrix to help us and to be transparent to our readers.

We start with the premise that good businesses do business in a connected way. They treat their employees and suppliers well, they minimize their environmental impact, and they support the community that supports them. We look for ways to measure these qualities, and then we add in a dose of humility and good judgment.