HUMAN GRADE
Human Grade Digital · Certified badge: an open hand inside two teal rings

HUMAN GRADE

Digital Sustainability that preserves human values

October 2026

The test: after an hour with the product, is your life fuller or emptier?

Read the charter Sign the charter
Built to the standard Accordion Meadow: the positive place to find love

Preamble

Digital sustainability, for the soul

Most talk of sustainable technology is about energy. This charter is about the people who use the product: their attention, trust, relationships and sense of self.

A digital product is sustainable when people leave it more whole than they arrived. It sends them back into real life with something worth having, such as a plan, a person or a place. It does not keep them inside with a feed built to hold their attention.

Human Grade is the standard for that kind of product. Accordion and Meadow are built to it, and other products are welcome to join.

What Human Grade means

What organic did for food, Human Grade does for digital life.

Organic foodHuman Grade digital
No pesticidesNo algorithms deciding what you see
Farm to tablePeople to people: only those you actually know
Know your sourceKnow your connections: every link has a person behind it
Nourishes over timeLeaves you more connected, not more depleted
You pay the farmerYou pay a subscription, so you are the customer, not the crop

The standard

The five principles

A Human Grade product meets all five principles.

No algorithms. People choose people. No machine decides who you see.

  1. 1

    No feeds or engagement-ranking systems.

    What you see is what you found, or what someone you know sent you. Nothing is ranked to keep you scrolling.

  2. 2

    Your data is private.

    It is never sold or shared with outside advertisers. Any built-in AI works only on your own material and what was shared with you.

  3. 3

    No advertising.

    Members are the customers, not the product. Revenue comes from the people who use it.

  4. 4

    Giving back.

    A percentage of revenue goes to charity, written into the business model from the start.

  5. 5

    Accountability.

    Every signatory publishes a short report each year on real-world outcomes.

Measuring what matters

Count what happens in real life, not time spent on the screen

Human Grade products report on outcomes people can feel.

Instead ofHuman Grade measures
Time in appTime from opening the app to acting in real life
Daily active usersReal-world outcomes: dates held, places visited, recipes cooked, projects delivered
Followers and reachDepth of trust: folders shared between people who know each other, Friends who vouch
Engagement rateReturn by choice: people come back because it was useful, not because they were nudged
Ad revenue per userSubscriber retention and the charitable share given

These numbers tell the story for members, partners, press and investors alike. Each signatory publishes them once a year.

Signatories

Built to the standard

Two products live the charter today. Here is how each one meets it.

Accordion

Accordion

Trust yourself.

A simple, quiet way to organize and share your digital life with people you actually know.

Accordion launch post: It's not a social network. Accordion launch post: Don't lose something interesting you've found online. Accordion launch post: See something interesting? Accordion launch post: Found something online worth keeping? Accordion launch post: A simple quiet way to organize and share your digital life.

Accordion launch posts: the voice of a Human Grade brand, calm and plain-spoken, with nothing to scroll.

How it lives the charter

  • No feed and no algorithm: you keep what you find
  • Connect only by invite code: message, email, QR
  • No one can see how many people share a folder
  • Leon, the built-in AI, works only inside your folders
  • 10% of gross goes to charity

Real-life use

TravelRestaurantsRecipesBooksMusicWineInterior designEducatorsTravel guidesLandscape architectsHome organizers

Folders hold photos, links, files and notes together, shared view-only or as collaborators. Every folder is meant to be used in real life.

Meadow: the positive place to find love

Meadow

Date with dignity

A curated, invitation-based private dating community. Friends make the introductions, and dates happen in real places.

The connection flow

1. Friends vouchEach dater has two Friends, whose videos pitch them.
2. Reach outAn interested dater sends a live in-app video to one Friend.
3. Friend screensThe Friend has 3 days to reply and holds a video call.
4. IntroductionIf it goes well, the Friend sets up a call between the daters.

How it lives the charter

  • Human vouching replaces matching algorithms
  • Invitation only, with no public profiles
  • One polite preset decline ends it, with no chasing
  • Membership at $39/month and no advertising

Real-life use

Dates happen at partner restaurants, hosted by local City Stewards. The app's job is done when two people are sitting across a table from each other.

Side by side

PrincipleAccordionMeadow
You chooseNo algorithms. "Trust yourself."Daters choose whom to reach out to; nothing is ranked
Real trustNo searchable user base; invite codes onlyTwo Friends vouch for each dater
Off the screenFolders for trips, restaurants, recipes, projectsDates at partner restaurants, hosted by City Stewards
PrivacyLeon, a closed AI, sees only your foldersInvitation only; no public profiles
Has an endFolders are collections, not feeds3-day reply window; one polite decline ends it
Honest money$29/year subscription$39/month membership
Karma10% of gross to charityCharitable share in development

The charter pledge

Any product can sign

Signing means committing in public to the Human Grade standard and reporting each year against the real-life measures.

No algorithms. People choose people. No machine decides who you see.

  1. 1
    No feeds or engagement-ranking systems.
  2. 2
    Your data is private. It is never sold or shared with outside advertisers.
  3. 3
    No advertising. Members are the customers, not the product.
  4. 4
    Giving back. A percentage of revenue goes to charity.
  5. 5
    Accountability. A short report on real-world outcomes is published every year.

Apply to sign

Tell us about your product. We'll be in touch about the review and your first outcomes report.

Human Grade Digital · Certified badge

The badge

The Human Grade Digital badge

Signatory apps display the badge on their app store pages, websites and onboarding screens, so people can tell at a glance that the product meets all five principles. The badge is renewed each year with the real-world outcomes report.

SLOW

SLOW is a mailed mini magazine, published as a co-op by Human Grade signatories. Each member product pays a fee per page. It reaches people who have chosen to step back from attention-driven technology and who trust print, and it gives the movement a presence in their homes.

"The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts."

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Technology should serve life, not take its place. Human Grade asks every product to earn the attention it gets, and to give it back with something real in hand.