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
A note from TSC Director, Retail: Amy Scoville-Weaver
Dear THESIS retailers,
We are thrilled to announce that in 2023, all THESIS retailers will ask their suppliers to answer THESIS within the same timeframe. This will help reduce supplier confusion and ensure more comprehensive THESIS analytics. Some highlights for the upcoming year:
- TSC has enhanced THESIS Start as an expanded company-level assessment with an increased focus on climate to help you understand how your suppliers are tackling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
- TSC has developed a verification KPI on GHG intensity data, implemented at the product category level.
This content was developed based on research and through an extensive stakeholder engagement process. These changes have been made to support retailers in understanding Scope Three and also to support standardizing data collection across suppliers. TSC members and stakeholders provided verbal and written feedback during member engagement sessions.
We are currently evolving THESIS even more and want you to be a part of it! If you are interested in helping shape THESIS for future years, please consider joining TSC as a member! Thank you for your commitment to sustainability and we look forward to an even better THESIS 2023 campaign season!
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 August-July 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 December. 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 SupplyShift 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