The key challenge addressed is exploring the opportunities for strengthening the demand signals for retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers that motivates:
Retailers, procurement (goods not for resale), and suppliers who are using our THESIS system to create more transparent consumer goods supply chains.
Over 2,000 suppliers have used THESIS to assess their global supply chains and share data with their buyers.
Buyers have included 19 different retailers in the US, UK, Chile Netherlands, and Australia across the years, with 14 currently active retailers.
TSC members (100+) and partners include CPGs, NGOs, Universities, Retailers, Companies, SMEs, Consultants, Certification Program Owners, civil society organizations, and governmental agencies each bringing valuable perspectives and expertise.
| Case Study Acronym: | THESIS |
| Long Title of the Case Study: | THESIS, or The Sustainability Insight System developed by TSC, a Global Sustainability Performance Assessment System and Decision Making Tool for Consumer Packaged Goods |
| Case Study Main Contact: | WUR |
| Countries involved and main place of the Case Study: | Global |
| Part of the Food System addressed: | Cradle to Grave of ingredient and finished goods:
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This case study focuses on The Sustainability Insight System (THESIS), a science-based solution developed by The Sustainability Consortium (TSC). TSC’s theory of change is that the buyer-supplier relationship can create sustainable consumer goods. Retailers are the main drivers of this change and send their demand signal to their suppliers through the use of THESIS, which provides standardized Key performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor manufacturers and suppliers. THESIS helps retailers differentiate their manufacturers and suppliers in terms of sustainability and ensures their supply chain partners are aligned with their sustainability goals. These KPIs can be used to benchmark supplier performance and promote collaboration stakeholders. Although thousands of suppliers have been sharing data via THESIS for years, there is often a lack of positive incentives for them to take reporting seriously or to improve their performance. Similarly, some retailers face a lack of incentives and capacity to follow up on suppliers’ reporting.
The goal of this case study is to support the future acceleration and evolution of THESIS by strengthening the demand signals for retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers who are using THESIS to assess sustainability issues within their consumer product supply chains.
The case study aims to achieve the following objectives:
To achieve these objectives, the case study will explore the efficacy of the following mechanisms:
By implementing these mechanisms, the case study aims to improve sustainability performance in the consumer product supply chain, while also providing recognition and rewards to leading manufacturers and suppliers.
DATA FLOW
The figure below gives an overview of data flow between the major stakeholders in THESIS.
Self-assessment
On request
Data (KPIs)
Data collection
TSC’s theory of change is that the power of the buyer-supplier relationship can create more sustainable consumer goods. Currently, retailers play a critical role as the main drivers of this change, and the adoption of THESIS can facilitate and accelerate this transformation. The primary objective of this case study is to investigate how THESIS can enhance demand signals for buyers and suppliers and explore new theories of change which include supplier focused value, independent of retailers. This objective is driven by two key motivations:
THESIS promotes transparency, traceability, and performance by providing standardized KPIs that enable suppliers and buyers to communicate and track sustainability performance over time. With these KPIs, suppliers and buyers can gain valuable insights into the sustainability of the products they sell or purchase. Additionally, THESIS provides access to external tools such as certifications, standards, and other resources that can help improve sustainability performance.
Suppliers may face challenges in collecting and sharing sustainability data for their products, including the lack of necessary systems or tools, leading to low motivation and high administrative burden. Calculating product category data can be complex due to multiple factors such as SKUs, ingredients, production sites, tiers of suppliers, and global supply chains, as well as the need to combine primary and secondary data from various external calculation tools and standards to calculate a single indicator. Thousands of suppliers have been reporting via THESIS for several years now, but there are too few positive incentives to take reporting seriously or to improve the scores. Even if the data exists, buyers may not incentivize their suppliers to share their sustainability performance data due to low commitments or no sustainability goals. Consequently, there is little motivation for suppliers to gather, analyse, and share sustainability data with their buyers.
Despite sustainability discussions taking place in the buying room, TSC’s previous research has shown that the lack of data system connectivity in food supply chains presents a major obstacle to collecting and reporting sustainability information.
TSC does not currently conduct audits on assessment results. Buyers are seeking verifiable data to support product claims.
The following outcomes are expected:
Contact: Koen Boone
email:
Contact: Emil Georgiev
email:
THESIS includes over 400 Performance Assessments including 130+ consumer goods categories covering over 90% of all consumer products produced around the world. (e.g., food, electronics, home and personal care products). Food categories covered by THESIS: 45 food product categories including Seafood, Livestock, Dairy, Alcoholic and Non-alcoholic Beverages, Nuts, Soy, Cocoa, Coffee, Tea, Sugar, Fresh and Processed Produce, Grains and Grain-based Foods, Vegetable Oils, Vitamins and Supplements, Pet Food, and Processed Foods such as Ice Cream, Chocolate, Convenience Meal, Non-dairy Products.
THESIS addresses social and environmental hotspots in the following parts of the food supply chains:
– Raw material extraction and processing for food application
– Agriculture/aquaculture/fishery and livestock production and suppliers
– Food processing/manufacturing and suppliers – from ingredients production and processing to final products manufacturing and assembly
– Logistics from storage and transportation of ingredients to storage and transportation of ready-to-market products
– Waste management – social and environmental hotspots from landfill, composting, incineration to packaging, recycling and reuse/refurbishment – Circularity aspects
– THESIS has regenerative agriculture on-farm KPIs as well food loss and waste KPIs at food processing, manufacturing and distribution stage.
TSC, members and partners are involved daily in multiple projects that are leading innovations in the sustainability industry. Some of these projects are led by TSC and others by TSC members. Here is a selection of some of TSC more active projects and initiatives.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
