Major upgrade of transparency platform to map sustainability risks and opportunities in supply chains
Soy supply chains in Brazil and Paraguay have been mapped at an unprecedented scale in a new version of the pioneering Trase platform, which lays bare the deforestation and other risks associated with the production of these commodities, as well as opportunities for sustainable investment. The new release of the platform will be unveiled on the sidelines of the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 General Assembly on 20 March in Brasilia.
Trase is a project led by Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the Global Canopy Programme (GCP). It draws on vast sets of largely untapped production, trade and customs data, making these supply chains more transparent. The powerful sustainability platform enables companies, financial institutions, governments and others to better understand and address the social and environmental impacts linked to their supply chains.
“We see Trase as the start of a data-driven revolution in supply chain transparency” said Javier Godar, a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute and one of the platform’s founders. “By revealing links between supply chain actors and producer regions for the entire exported crop, it can help catalyse improvements across the board: in production practices, procurement and investment policies and the governance of supply chains by both producer and consumer governments.”
Four months after Trase was first released at the Climate Summit in Marrakech in November 2017, today’s launch in Brazil marks a major upgrade to the platform. Improvements include a significantly enhanced supply chain map for exported Brazilian soy, linking soy producing municipalities to consumers globally with greater accuracy; a first complete supply chain map of Paraguayan soy; and all new data for the trade of beef from export facilities in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. All data on the platform is also now downloadable, enabling anyone to use it to address sustainability issues in an innovative way.
“The more information that is available and accessible, the better the relationship can be between humans and nature” said André Guimaraes, the Executive Director of IPAM. “Soy is one of Brazil´s most important agricultural crops. Trase can play a central role in informing companies and consumers about the implications of their purchase decisions, helping share responsibility for the sustainable production across the entire supply-chain.”
Sarah Lake, Head of the Supply Chain programme at Global Canopy Programme, said: “For companies trying to live up to their sustainability commitments, opaque supply chains are a real obstacle. Today’s major release brings us a step closer to mapping all the major supply chains driving deforestation. The platform will expand further in the future, to include other major commodities including Brazilian timber and Indonesian oil palm. Over the next five years Trase aims to cover over 70% of total production in major forest risk commodities.”
To see the beta Trase platform in action visit www.trase.earth
What’s new today on Trase?
Today’s major Trase release includes both brand new features and upgrades in data and methods. Here are some highlights:
Soy – improved methods, more countries
- A major upgrade to our supply chain map for Brazilian soy, linking soy-producing municipalities to consumers globally with greater accuracy and for multiple years. We will start with data for covering the last few years and will keep going back in time in the following months;
- Introducing the first complete supply chain map for Paraguayan soy, linking soy producing departments to consumers globally via international traders;
- New data on the national exports of soy from Argentina, linking export facilities to consumers globally via international traders.
Beef – introducing a new commodity to Trase
- National-level beef exports from Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, linking export facilities in each country of production to consumers globally via international traders.
A new data portal, probably the most highly requested feature since our launch last year
- Covering both supply chain data and social and environmental indicators for different sourcing regions;
- Powerful filtering options – by producing country, commodity, company, country, year, and indicator;
- Facility to download the entire Trase dataset.
Interface improvements across the board
- Factsheets on production regions and trading companies are more detailed;
- Improved interactivity between the supply chain Sankey diagram and maps;
- New tutorial screencasts;
- An easier to navigate website, allowing multiple entry points to the Trase platform alongside blog postings and media coverage on the applications of Trase
About SEI
The Stockholm Environment Institute is an international non-profit research organization that has worked with environment and development issues from local to global policy levels for a quarter of a century. SEI works to shift policy and practice towards sustainability.
About the Global Canopy Programme (GCP)
The Global Canopy Programme is a tropical forest think tank working to demonstrate the scientific, political and business case for safeguarding forests as natural capital that underpins water, food, energy, health and climate security for all. Our vision is a world where rainforest destruction has ended. Our mission is to accelerate the transition to a deforestation free economy. To find out more about our work visit www.globalcanopy.org
About Transparency for Sustainable Economies (Trase)
Trase is a powerful new sustainability platform that enables governments, companies, investors and others to better understand and address the environmental and social impacts linked to their supply chains.
Its pioneering approach draws on vast sets of production, trade and customs data, for the first time laying bare the flows of globally-traded commodities – such as palm oil, soya, beef and timber – at scale.
Trase is a direct response to the ambitious commitments made by leaders across sectors to achieve deforestation-free supply chains by 2020 – and the urgent need this creates for a breakthrough in assessing and monitoring sustainability performance.
Trase is a partnership between the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Global Canopy Programme. We work closely with Vizzuality, the European Forest Institute and many other partners. Trase was made possible through the generous support of The European Union, The Nature Conservancy, The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, The Swedish Research Council FORMAS and The UK Department for International Development.
www.trase.earth