Participating Organizations

The group of leading organizations has made significant progress, culminating in the piloting of a draft assessment tool in late 2017. The approach developed through this work aims to provide greater alignment across existing product sustainability measurement approaches and policies. It builds on current practices, beginning with existing science-based sustainability metrics.

TSC has led the technical work and will now take on coordination, development, and implementation of the assessment tool. This will allow TSC to ensure alignment with their existing product sustainability assessment, measurement, and reporting tools that currently cover over $200 billion in retail sales. This continued push toward more aligned assessment tools is an important step towards putting more sustainable products on retailers’ shelves.

The assessment tool includes a set of key performance indicators (KPIs), along with a proposed method of scoring products against these indicators. A range of sustainability attributes and activities, from basic practice to aspirational leadership, are reflected within the KPIs. Retailers and other companies may voluntarily use this tool to independently and individually evaluate product sustainability, with scores intended to remain confidential between retailer and supplier. Resulting product assessment may be used to facilitate supplier-retailer conversations, drive improvements in supply chains, and independently evaluate and incentivize better, more sustainable products.

As this evaluation tool continues to be tested and as the sustainability landscape evolves, the KPIs and product scores will be updated and improved over time through industry and stakeholder input. Forum for the Future has played a key leadership role in driving the work to this point and will remain engaged in the process going forward.