About THESIS licenses

As a supplier, THESIS is a tool that enables you to address survey fatigue by directly responding to multiple retailers on a single platform while enhancing your own awareness of your supply chain and impacts. THESIS licenses are purchased annually, and allow you to share one year’s data with your retail buyers.

A single license purchase annually includes access to all THESIS assessments, unlimited platform users, sharing with all THESIS retailers, and all THESIS on Sphera Supply Chain Sustainability platform features.

THESIS licenses are purchased annually after the release of the new license version, launching September 9th this year, and cover sharing of data with your retailer buyers until the new THESIS is released the following August. Cost for license purchase is $799 USD annually and are purchased at the enterprise level

THESIS License summary:

Cost: $799 USD annually
Who: Purchased at enterprise level. What products are within scope for THESIS?
The single license fee includes, at no additional costs:
- All THESIS on Sphera Supply Chain Sustainability platform features: Access to complete and share all assessments; unlimited sharing with all THESIS retailers; unlimited platform users.
- Insights to inform your decision making tailored to your performance to help you improve year over year, including:
  - Assessment Scorecards for all your assessments. Learn more here. Including:
    - Scores: Overall assessment level and KPI-level scores and performance
    - Peer ranking: Overall assessment and KPI-level peer rankings.
    - Action Recommendations: General and KPI-level Action Recommendations
  - Published Analytics: allows you to visualize your THESIS results with diagrams so you can easily see the areas that need improvement and focus your attention where it counts. Published Analytics are based on all THESIS data so you can gauge your performance against the industry standard.
  - Improvement Opportunities: Found within your KPI PDFs and the KPI excel on your assessment cover page, improvement opportunities are practices that improve a product’s environmental and/or social performance relevant to one or more hotspot, additional issue, and/or stakeholder concern.
- Support and resources for each step in the process, including our THESIS Support Center.
- All platform resources:
  - Sustainability Snapshots: Overviews of the issues and opportunities for each assessment. These are ideal for internal communication when collecting data, as well as communicating results to external audiences
  - Downloadable KPI Documents: Versions of the assessments in PDF and interactive Microsoft Excel formats
  - KPI Guidance: KPI Guidance for your assessments includes helpful background information and information the most relevant certification, standards, and tools
  - KPI Calculation Tools: offline calculators and response assistance tools for 12 common KPIs. Find them here.

THESIS License FAQ's:

How do I purchase a THESIS license
Why are THESIS licenses purchased annually?
Who at my company should purchase our THESIS license?
Should my subsidiaries have separate licenses?
THESIS License Refund Policy

How do I purchase a THESIS license

THESIS Licenses are purchases on the THESIS on Sphera Supply Chain Sustainability platform.

To purchase or renew your THESIS license you will:

Step 1: Go to THESIS on Sphera Supply Chain Sustainability landing page. Create a new account OR log into your existing account.

IMPORTANT: If you are a returning user, do not create a new company account. Contact us to resolve any issues at help@sustainabilityconsortium.org and/or to confirm if your organization has an existing account.

Step 2: Select assessments for the products you sell OR review last year's assessments to make changes as needed. Reference the assessment description to understand what products are included in the scope for each assessment.

You can use the "THESIS Assessment Selection Tool", available for download from our website, to confirm what products are covered by THESIS and to identify the right assessment(s) for the products you sell.

Step 3: Match your assessments to your retailer buyers

IMPORTANT: Ensure you select all the retailer buyers you sell to on THESIS.

Step 4: Enter your payment information to purchase your license.

Step 5: Go to your Dashboard and click on an assessment to open it. Complete your Assessments: THESIS Start, Product Category Assessments, THESIS Wrap-Up, etc.

IMPORTANT: If you can only view your previous assessments on your Dashboard, you must click “THESIS” on the left-side menu, then select “Renew” to get started.

Why are THESIS licenses purchased annually?

THESIS is developed and managed by The Sustainability Consortium, a global university-based organization. TSC has spent over 10 years developing and refining THESIS and participating in THESIS requires an annual license fee.

Proceeds from THESIS license fees go towards the the maintenance and improvement of THESIS on Sphera Supply Chain Sustainability and allow us to continue offering and continuously improve THESIS as a science-based, independent sustainability management tool. Each year, new features are added to improve your experience and enhance the value of your THESIS license.

Learn more about the value of THESIS for Suppliers on our website.

Who at my company should purchase our THESIS license?

It is recommended that an employee central to your operations (e.g., corporate social responsibility, compliance, supply chain management) or one that has visibility across all your retail customers (e.g., Director of Sales or Procurement) purchase your THESIS license. The purchasing user will be able to easily onboard colleagues throughout the organization to help with THESIS responses. There is no limit to the number of users that a company profile can have.

Should my subsidiaries have separate licenses?

It is up to the company. We have instances in which subsidiaries have separate licenses as well as cases where they report under one big umbrella. If an organization has already been engaged in THESIS under multiple separate licenses, we recommend they continue to do so as this will better leverage their past efforts and yield better YOY analysis. However, if data management is easier under one license that is acceptable. Another consideration is the preference of your retail customers as they may have a preference and we recommend contacting them to ask.

If new to THESIS, we recommend THESIS accounts be created at the company/enterprise level.

You can create as many THESIS company profiles as necessary to complete product assessments at the level of granularity your customers expect. An active THESIS license is required for each THESIS company profile. THESIS Licenses include unlimited users per license. Suppliers can add any number of colleagues to their profile, to allow multiple users to work on responding to assessments at the same time and view results.

**If you are a Walmart or Sam’s Club supplier, your assigned Reference ID can be used on multiple THESIS company profiles to verify your relationship with Walmart or Sam’s Club. Each THESIS company profile will need to have a unique account owner – one person cannot manage more than one company profile.

THESIS License Refund Policy

Refunds are available on a case-by-case basis, under special circumstances.

Please contact TSC Help Desk at help@sustainabilityconsortium.org.