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The Sustainability Consortium’s sole purpose is to enable all parts of the consumer goods sector to integrate sustainable practices throughout business strategy so that we all can have more sustainable products. You can be a TSC advocate simply by sharing our story!

Share TSC10 – Celebrating 10 Years

One in a Million

An organization so unique and so necessary, that, 10 years later, the impact of TSC is already changing the way the sustainability industry thinks and functions.

Hear About TSC’s Impact

The Sustainability Consortium began with a bang – a one million dollar check in seed funding from Walmart, two universities coming together to combine forces, and the overwhelming call from an industry demanding clarification for the definition of sustainability.

In 2009, consumers were paying attention, some for the first time, to where their products and food were coming from, what brands where producing them, and what those brands were saying. “Greenwashing” became a term to describe the confusion and chaos of messaging to consumers of what was sustainable.

Walmart, the University of Arkansas, and Arizona State University made history that year, creating an organization so unique and so necessary, that, 10 years later, the impact of TSC is already changing the way the sustainability industry thinks and functions.

Core Work

TSC offers tools and services to help companies address product sustainability in their supply chains. At our core are ways for companies to measure and improve on sustainability progress, together, with other like and unlike collaborators in the industry. This ecosystem of companies and retailers, combined with concerned non-profits and industry services, creates a unique place to set goals and meet them.

Sustainability Measurement and Reporting System

Implementation Services for Suppliers and Retailers

Collaboration and Leadership Opportunities

Membership

Future thinking: IT solutions and ecosystem

Our Story

The creation and evolution of TSC began in the mid-2000s with the rise of the importance of sustainability in business and increased transparency in supply chains. As a response to growing consumer demand for sustainable products coupled with confusing “green” labels, TSC’s founders brought two university partners together to tackle the monumental task of creating a product category level measurement and reporting system. Like a supply chain, TSC’s story has major markers along our timeline where we saw major successes and some paths where we needed to refocus. All along the way, our members and partners have helped and supported us.

TSC was uniquely created to, and today is the only organization that can, tackle these issues:

  • Proliferation of eco-labels and increase in green-washing
  • Confusion about what is a sustainable product
  • No set standards for suppliers to measure product sustainability throughout the lifecycle
  • Lack of data and transparency
  • Unrealized potential in efficiency and economic value of sustainability
  • Lack of harmonized approach between measurement systems
  • Need for scientifically grounded and transparent data and methodologies

This timeline displays the seminal moments in TSC’s history. Thank you for celebrating with us!

  • 2007

    Seed money awarded from Walmart to the University of Arkansas


    Johnson, University of Arkansas professor and TSC founder, talks about the Applied Sustainability Center, which was TSC in its early form before 2009.

  • 2009

    University of Arkansas and Arizona State University sign MOU to create TSC


    The MOU signing between ASU and University of Arkansas was in some ways a landmark for both organizations because even though these were big state universities, they had never engaged with something like this before.

  • 2010

    TSC develops first product category life cycle assessments

    Carole Mars Defines LCA

    What is a life cycle assessment? TSC’s Carole Mars breaks down the definition of an LCA.

    Related Stories

    The Sustainability Consortium Members Vote to Adopt the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Standard

    The Sustainability Consortium Completes Enhanced Open Input-Output Open IO Project

  • 2011

    TSC launches European hub with partnership with Wageningen University

    Click to enlarge photos.


    Related Stories

    TSC Advances Position in Europe Through Partnership with Wageningen UR

    Grand Opening of TSC’s European Office in the Netherlands

    Princess Maxima to Open European Branch of World Wide Sustainability Consortium

  • 2012

    The Sustainability Consortium Ranks on Scientific American Top 10 World Changing Ideas for 2012


    The Sustainability Consortium has been recognized as a superior sustainability measurement and reporting system due to its comprehensive nature and cross-sector approach.

    2012 World Changing Ideas

    “Innovations Radical Enough to Alter Our Lives”
    View Story

  • 2013

    TSC creates first key performance indicator and completes batch 1 of the Category Sustainability Profile


    Goldstein discusses the early days of TSC planning in the food beverage and agriculture sector. Early work on flipcharts led us to the system TSC currently uses today.

    Related Stories

    How a Walmart Brainchild is Helping 80 Companies Reduce Their Environmental Impacts

  • 2014

    Launch of first Sustainability Index, primarily used by Walmart and Sam’s Club

    Laura Phillips Talks Sustainability Index

    Walmart’s Phillips uses the Sustainability Index to measure Walmart suppliers and help them tackle sustainability issues one at a time.

    Related Stories

    TSC Tools Go Live: Walmart Integrates TSC’s Knowledge Products to Guide Supply Chain Engagement

    Walmart Global Sustainability Mile Stone Meeting September 2012

  • 2015

    TSC signs MOU to jointly promote Green Supply Chain Development in China

    Euan Murray Signs MOU in China

    Murray, TSC CEO, traveled to China in 2015 to sign an MOU to promote green supply chain development. It is important for TSC to be in China to help our global mission of creating more sustainable consumer products.

    Click to enlarge photos.


    Related Stories

    The Sustainability Consortium Signs Memorandum of Understanding to Jointly Promote Green Supply Chain Development in China

  • 2016

    TSC helps with launch of Amazon Fresh in the U.K.

    TSC member, Amazon, uses TSC implementation services to launch their Amazon Fresh program in the U.K.

    TSC launches first Impact Report, Greening the Global Supply Chain

    The report – “Greening Global Supply Chains: From Blind Spots To Hotspots To Action” – showcases a consistent, science-based measurement and reporting system that can serve as an important barometer for the entire consumer goods industry globally.

    Click to enlarge images.


    Related Stories

    TSC Releases Landmark Report To Drive More Sustainable Consumer Products— “Greening Global Supply Chains: From Blind Spots to Hotspots to Action”
    PDF: TSC Impact Report 2016

  • 2017

    The Sustainability Consortium Publicly Releases Coffee Product Sustainability Toolkit as a Commitment to the Sustainable Coffee Challenge

    “By allowing everyone access to our metrics and research around more sustainable coffee, we can engage even more stakeholders to implement change across coffee supply chains and drive improvement across the entire product lifecycle,” states TSC Chief Executive, Euan Murray. He continues, “Although TSC’s science-based metrics, database, and research remain exclusively available to TSC members and partners, we wanted to publicly state our commitment to the Sustainable Coffee Challenge by sharing our research around coffee to a wider audience.”

    TSC’s Coffee Product Sustainability Toolkit

    Click to enlarge photos.


    Related Stories

    The Sustainability Consortium Publicly Releases Coffee Product Sustainability Toolkit as a Commitment to the Sustainable Coffee Challenge

  • 2018

    Publication of deforestation drivers in Science

    TSC Research Published in Science

    In 2018, TSC staff published a paper in Science called Classifying Drivers in Global Forest Loss. This paper studied the causes of forest loss worldwide and was written along with WRI and the University of Maryland.

    Stories

    New global study reveals the ‘staggering’ loss of forests caused by industrial agriculture

    Global Forest Loss – Who’s in the driver seat?

    Expansion of IT system with other measurement and reporting platforms

    TSC is expanding our measurement and reporting system to become a connector of sustainability measurement efforts and to provide a place for companies to take and measure results at any time during the year.

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Our Pioneers

The heartbeat of TSC is our people – From staff to members to founders to partners, TSC people are a mix of heart, smarts, and soul. In an industry that changes daily, the people that founded TSC and work at TSC live and breathe sustainability in and out of the work place. TSC staff are innovative, creative, open, collaborative, and come from a wide-array of backgrounds. Together we are a family working towards a single goal: a more sustainable planet.

Learn more from our Pioneers.

  • What are you most excited about for the future of sustainable goods?

    There are existing incentives for better industrial systems, we just lack the visibility to understand the cost of our decisions. I am currently focused on working with high quality brands to get more use out of the things we’ve already made through buy back and resale programs such as Patagonia’s Worn Wear.

    Read More
     

    Andy Ruben, Yerdle Recommerce

  • What was the most important thing TSC did for the Home & Personal Care sector in those years?

    TSC strategically designed and provided a platform where leaders from companies in competitive fields, NGOs, universities and government agencies can discuss and debate on hot topics based not only on science but also on common sense and public interests.

    Read More
     

    Mengtao Pete He, New Ventures Dev.

  • How do you feel TSC has evolved over the past few years?

    TSC has always had impressive technical expertise, and an incredible system of gathering stakeholder input, but what it has accomplished in the past few years is to move from a focus on making the best metrics to a focus on impact.

    Read More
     

    Sheila Bonini, WWF

PreviousNext

Carole Mars

Helped launch our electrons sector and runs our general merchandise sector today along with our partnership with the Responsible Battery Coalition

Euan Murray

TSC CEO on launch of our first impact report, Greening the Global Supply Chain in 2016

The History of The Sustainability Consortium

Hear from our staff, founders and members about TSC’s early years.

TSC’s Impact with Retailers

TSC works with retailers that include Amazon, Kroger, Walmart, M&S, Sprouts, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid and Target.
More Videos

Our Impact

At TSC, we know the challenges of creating more sustainable goods are unprecedented, but so are the opportunities. Helping to create real improvements for companies to create more sustainable products drives us, and drives us to create a more sustainable planet for everyone.

TSC’s members, retailers and partners make up a universe that creates change for over $200 billion worth of consumer goods on a yearly basis. The changes and recommendations we all work on together create a sustainable impact around the world, sometimes faster than policy and certainly faster than any one company can do alone. We are a true consortium – it takes all of us to stem the tide of climate change.

As a result of TSC’s collective efforts over the last 10 years, companies are building visibility into their supply chains, they are redesigning their products, and they are demanding better practices on the ground to protect our planet, the pieces of our planet along the supply chain, and the people on the ground making the products we love.

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200 Billion in Retail Sales
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In 2017, a total of 1,683 suppliers reported to The Sustainability Index. In 2016, these suppliers represented over $200 billion in annual sales to Walmart or Sam’s Club. The market signal of The Index though is bigger than this $200 billion – as manufacturers make improvements in their product and supply chain sustainability, it benefits all the retailers (and consumers) they sell to, not just Walmart or Sam’s Club. Check out our Impact Report to learn more.

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1

TSC has developed a comprehensive database of product sustainability science covering more than 100 product categories across 8 sectors. In our research we unveiled more than 90% of the impacts in consumer product supply chains. We have found that most of the environmental and social “hotspots” exist upstream or downstream from the brand manufacturer and retailer. We are working with more than 100 companies to address these issues across the consumer goods industry.

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To achieve our mission, we developed a measurement and reporting system to assess the sustainability of products found in consumer goods retail outlets. By using published science as a foundation, TSC established consensus amongst the diverse stakeholders on hotspots. TSC stakeholders and staff then worked together to develop key performance indicators (KPIs) so that retailers can ask their suppliers to measure and report their performance and progress on the relevant hotspots. More than 2000 users worldwide use TSC’s system to address product sustainability in their supply chains.

What actions are companies taking to improve?

We asked suppliers who had participated in training provided by TSC if they had done anything in the past year to increase their KPI scores. From the 63 respondents, 88% of the suppliers indicated they had taken specific action(s) to increase their survey score, a strong confirmation of our theory of change.

Percentage shown is of those who took any action.
Sample size = 63

Check out our Impact Report to learn more.

Improvement is possible. You can help.

We work with companies and organizations around the world to eliminate sustainability issues caused by the products we rely on. Adopting a project through a meaningful donation is a great way to show your support of TSC’s action toward solving real-world challenges.

What to Do with those Grocery Bags: Flexible Film Recycling

Food Waste and Hunger

Battery and Electronics Recycling

Responsible Pesticide Management

Helping Cities with Waste Diversion Metrics

Circular Economy: Creating the Circular Supply Chain

Fund a Project

Donate to TSC

Give to TSC and you’ll become part of a network that is invested in a world where every consumer product is a sustainable one.

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