THESIS for Retailers
Retailers drive THESIS use and are key to engaging and supporting suppliers to make products that are better for people and the planet. THESIS is designed to work with your suppliers on a journey towards transparency. We believe in engagement over penalization and understand that true sustainability impact takes collaboration and working with your suppliers to drive new conversations.
THESIS is a tool, rooted in science, designed to light a path for suppliers to mitigate the sustainability impact of their products and move towards a future where all products are sustainable.
THESIS 2024 opens September 2024
How is THESIS designed?
- THESIS was originally created by TSC starting in 2009 and launched as The Sustainability Index in 2014 and then as THESIS in 2019
- THESIS is designed to collect global data from suppliers to help you identify areas of potential risk
- THESIS collects product category level data and covers 90% of the global supply chain
- Our KPI’s increase supply chain transparency upstream throughout your supply chain
- Questions within THESIS collect different tiers of data depending on the hotspot identified within a product category
- This includes data at product level, company level and within the supply chain
How do retailers use THESIS?
THESIS helps retailers drive sustainability through global supply chains and reduce risk through improved transparency and visibility.
Understand
- Understand the sustainability maturity of a supplier
- Measure transparency within the supply chain
- Pinpoint social and environmental hotspots to direct future efforts
Engage
- Engage suppliers in multiple THESIS campaigns to see year over year improvement
- Compare supplier performance to sustainability goals
- Collaborate with sourcing teams to integrate sustainability in supplier selection
Act
- Make a plan with year over year data collected in THESIS
- Build THESIS hotspots into supplier scorecards and procurement decisions
Use cases include:
- Driving conversations across suppliers who may be new to sustainability
- Understanding visibility – can suppliers answer these questions at all? If they can’t, it signals a lack of visibility into their supply chain
- Getting a baseline of supplier performance across different social and environmental hotspots
- Comparing supplier performance to priority sustainability goals within a company to influence business decisions
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Using THESIS for GHG and Scope Three measuring and reporting
- Making a plan with year over year data
How is THESIS deployed to suppliers?
- THESIS can be accessed by suppliers throughout the whole of a THESIS license year, which runs September-August of each respective calendar year
- While suppliers can access THESIS assessments and scorecards throughout the year, THESIS is designed to be pushed to suppliers via customized campaigns
- The THESIS campaign season runs from September to November. This is the time period where all retailers ask their suppliers to submit THESIS assessments
TSC Member Benefits for THESIS
- Dedicated THESIS campaign support from TSC including supplier follow-up (a Sphera Supply Chain Sustainability service for non-TSC members)
- THESIS Evolution
- Co-design THESIS as it evolves with other retailers and suppliers in 2023 and beyond
- Retailer pre-competitive convenings
- Quarterly retailer working group
- THESIS Analytics and Campaign Support
- Common analytics including THESIS Start and Wrap Up
- Eight deep dives into Custom Analytics for THESIS 2023
- Supplier ID matching and follow-up
- Private brands mapping onto THESIS product categories
- YOY Analysis with added data
- Supplier view
- Support for Executive Leadership briefing and updating
Additional links
Get started with THESIS today.
