Phase 1: Getting started with THESIS

TSC offers resources and support for each phase in the THESIS process. The THESIS process can be broken down into 3 phases to drive success. Phase 1 lays out getting started with THESIS including. Read on for more information.

Phase 1 is broken down into 3 parts, Understand THESIS, Understand your current state, and Get started on THESIS.

Proactive preparation is an essential step to ensuring your organization gets the most value from it's THESIS assessment process.

Things you can do now to support your success:

Understand THESIS, including what THESIS is and THESIS scope.
Understand your organizations currents state to inform your THESIS planning.
Create your plan and timeline to ensure you have enough time.
Getting started on THESIS platform
Review resources to support your THESIS process
Read on to Phase 2: Data collection and response calculation to learn more about collection your data and responding to KPIs.

How to prepare for THESIS webinar:

1. Understand THESIS

THESIS or The Sustainability Insight System, is a set of performance assessments that are made up of sets of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) assess transparency and performance on the most pressing sustainability issues for consumer goods companies.

Completing a KPI can involve going up the supply chain to collect data from multiple sites and multiple organizations, even those not under the operational control or ownership of the final manufacturer. 57% of THESIS KPIs require upstream data collection.

THESIS Assessments are:

Product category based: covering a category of related products
Global production: covering global production of that product category, including all regions and retail buyers
Activity-based scope: each KPI addresses a specific impact or issue that occurs during a set of activities in a product category’s supply chain.
Final Manufacturer Perspective: THESIS KPIs are designed to be answered from the perspective of a final manufacturer of a consumer goods product.
Includes Producer Brands and Private Label: Assessments include product data for both producer brands (also referred to as “national” brands) as well as for retailer private label products.

Learn more about THESIS assessments

Find further guidance and resources on our TSC website:

Understand THESIS

2. Understand your current state

Understanding your organization’s current state will help your company’s supply chain relationships, as well as help identify any gaps in data. Use this time to identify resources and internal knowledge available and document your approach for next year.

If you are new to THESIS:

If you are a returning user:

List your products: Create a list of all your products, including which retail buyer they are sold to
Identify contacts: Create comprehensive facility and supplier lists, including contract manufacturing and all facilities not owned and those not under your operational control. Identify current contacts for all facilities and suppliers.
Identify assessments: Use TSC’s Assessment Selection Tool to identify the correct assessment for all of your products. Review the THESIS Product Finder to understand the relevant sustainability issues for each product category.
Plan how to access your data: Identify which teams or partners have access to the data you’ll need
Plan your timeline: Identify a clear timeline for each step. Get started as soon as possible to ensure you have the time you need.
Plug into existing processes: Identify existing data collection processes you can utilize as well as any resources and internal knowledge available.

Learn about previous years: How has your organization historically managed the THESIS assessment process? Who previously managed it?
Identify change needed: Are there any adjustments that you’ll need to make based on changes in your products, retailer buyers, previous learnings, etc.?
Plan how to access data: How have you previously collected data? Which teams have access to the data you’ll need?
Address gaps: What data collection gaps, pain points and bottlenecks did you face?
Understand changes needed: What assessments were submitted previously? What were the results? What actions did you implement to improve?

Find further guidance on our TSC website:

Understand your current state

3. Getting started on THESIS platform

THESIS assessment process on THESIS platform

Access the THESIS platform, hosted by Sphera

Step-by-step walk throughs on accessing THESIS platform, completing the onboarding and purchasing a THESIS license:

THESIS licenses are purchased annually, granting you the ability to share a full year’s data with your retail buyers.

Product Category assessments are self-select: Once on the THESIS platform, you will automatically see the THESIS Start and THESIS wrap-up assessments. During the assessment selection hierarchy, you self-select and add assessments based on the products you sell. You can also add assessments from your dashboard after THESIS license purchase. To inform which assessments to complete, read the assessment cover page to understand what products are within that assessment’s scope. You can also use the “Assessment Selection Tool”.

Find further guidance on our TSC website:

Get started on THESIS

4. Resources to support your THESIS process

Phase 2 walks you through data collection and response calculation for completing KPIs. Visit our THESIS Support site for helpful information.

Reach out with questions to the TSC Help Desk at: help@sustainabilityconsortium.org