03 · The ladder
Readiness pathway
A ladder from documentation habits to what buyers and frameworks ask for. Every rung is optional, and the rung below stays useful after you leave it.
Rung 1, step-up documentation habits
The free rung, and the one that does most of the work. Composition to the percentage, where each component was made, who made it, and the documents you already keep. Nothing here costs money, and every gap the platform finds carries a rung-one action that costs nothing, or says plainly that it has none.
Rung 2, export packs and structured buyer answers
The same record, arranged as the answer a sourcing office asks for: composition, certificate copies with their type and validity, a field-coverage summary, a supply chain summary at the levels your makers consented to, and the passport address as text.
Rung 3, framework preparation, one framework at a time
An assessment against a framework's published criteria at sub-requirement level, filtered by your own scoping profile, producing a gap list and a plan. Each criteria set carries a visible version pin and the date it was checked, because a stale criteria set sold as readiness is the failure that ends a product like this.
The module ladder, and what stands on it today
The pathway is built for eight frameworks, and all eight render inside the product rather than being trimmed to the ones that work. Two of them have criteria sets that are written, sourced and dated, and a brand can read them today: Export Readiness, drawn from the EU ecodesign regulation, and B Corp readiness, drawn from the B Lab standards. Neither is open as a service yet, and each row says why in its own words instead of showing a locked box. The other six have no criteria set written, and their rows say that too, because a framework listed as coming is a date somebody has to hold.
No module invents a percentage of its own
Per-criterion status feeds the single readiness score. Two competing percentages is how a readiness tool loses its credibility, and a criterion ruled not relevant leaves the denominator with its reason recorded, and is never rendered as a zero.
Mula is not the certifier and is not affiliated with any framework body. Mula does not assess, does not certify, and cannot predict an audit outcome. Mula is not affiliated with, endorsed by, accredited by, or certified by B Lab.
The gaps are the useful part.
A gap list tells you what a buyer will ask before the buyer asks. Closing it is where the difficulty is, and that is what the fourth door is for.