THESIS 2023 Enhancements

THESIS Enhancements for 2023 focused on completion of THESIS Evolution Phase 1, including:

• Expanded THESIS start
• GHG Verification Question
• THESIS Benchmark

THESIS Evolution

These enhancements will be available to THESIS users in 2023 THESIS campaigns.

THESIS evolution consists of two phases:

Phase 1: taking place in spring 2023, focuses on evolving THESIS start to a company level assessment. THESIS start is the existing set of voluntary questions introduced when first logging into THESIS. The enhancements to THESIS start intend to add valuable context about a supplier company when interpreting product category performance.

This year, TSC has evolved THESIS start into a company-level assessment with an issue-focused evaluation on climate. Additionally, TSC has developed a verification KPI on GHG intensity data, implemented at the product category level.

These enhancements will be available to THESIS users in 2023 THESIS campaigns.

Phase 2: starting in fall 2023, will focus on simplifying and streamlining product category KPIs across all sectors.

Expanded THESIS start

THESIS start enhancements aims to improve supplier engagement, by collecting accessible data on company structure, governance, sustainability strategy, and due diligence. This will offer retailers high-level information on supplier commitments to sustainable practices and provide context for interpreting product category performance.

Additionally, THESIS start will serve as a launching pad for users who are earlier in their sustainability journey.

The objective to these enhancements is to provide a better understanding of a supplier company, including its organizational structure, strategy and policies around sustainability issues at large. This expanded set of questions will provide buyers with valuable company-level context to interpret product category performance.

A few main points to highlight: 

• These enhancements expand the scope of content for THESIS. THESIS start captures company level data where as all our other assessments capture product category information. 
• We are exploring the addition of verification into THESIS. 
• These sets of questions will be asked across all THESIS users regardless of what they produce, building a larger body of data for enhanced insights and analytics. 
• THESIS start will not be scored for 2023.

There are two main sections to THESIS start:

• Company Demographics & Planning
  • Demographics – industry, size, sustainability workforce
  • Planning – do you have a sustainability strategy, do you report to external stakeholders, whether you engage your suppliers on sustainability issues, and any due diligence processes
• Issue-focused Evaluation on Climate: This is in direct response to requests from both our Member’s and THESIS users. Designed to help inform decision making and meet market demands

GHG Verification Question

Question added to GHG Intensity KPIs asking suppliers whether the data provided is verified by a third party.

THESIS Benchmark

Evaluates THESIS Assessments with a simple benchmark output that can be uses to support decision making within a category. THESIS Benchmark increases value of THESIS for all users as it helps automate smarter sourcing and vendor management and supports buyer insights for supplier collaboration and capacity building.