TSP Content Governance

Objective 

The purpose of The Sustainability Project (TSP) is to promote sustainability best practices across entire supply chains.

The objective of this Content Governance is to set forth clear steps, timing, roles and responsibilities for ensuring a rigorous and transparent process by which content is developed, reviewed and vetted.

TSP is committed to Open Content. The best practices coming out of the Content Governance process are available under a Creative Common License. You are free to copy, use and distribute what you read of the public portion of this website as long as you comply with the terms of the CC BY-SA license.

Content scope & review timing 

The Content Governance governs all content that is made publicly available on the TSP website. This includes:

  • Existing best practice content
  • New best practices content developed for an industry segment that is not represented on TSP.

Content Committees are formed regularly to review and update all best practices content that is made publicly available on the TSP website.

Current Content Update Schedule

2018 - 2020 Contributors/Sponsors

Corporations and organizations that provided information, time and/or funding for the development of the content of this website so far include:

  • ABB
  • Altec
  • ARB
  • AR Consulting
  • Base Energy Company
  • California Green Business Program
  • Center for Environmental Health
  • Deloitte
  • Eaton
  • Environmental Resources Management
  • EPA, SmartWay
  • Electric Utility Industry Sustainable Supply Chain Alliance (EUISSCA)
  • Garcia & Associates
  • General Electric
  • Golder Associates
  • Green Consultants
  • Okonite
  • Pacific Gas and Electric Company
  • Quanta
  • Siemens
  • Southwire
  • Syblon Reid
  • The Green Electronics Council
  • The Nielson Group
  • Turner Construction
  • UPS
  • And many passionate individuals

Roles and responsibilities 

Roles and responsibilities with respect to the Content Governance process are set forth below.

Content Curator 

The role of the Content Curator is to insure Content Committees are put forth and the review process is implemented according to the process described herein.

Responsibilities of TSP Content Curators are as follows:

  • Convene or establish Content Committees for each content tile and industry segment being reviewed.
  • Schedule Content Committee meetings and record resolutions taken at such meetings.
  • Manage, schedule and budget for content development.

Content Committee 

The purpose of each Content Committee is to review and vet best practices content being developed or updated for the specific content tile or industry segment to which it is assigned.

Responsibilities of committee members are as follows:

  • Identify missing best practices, as well as no longer applicable best practices, for a specific content tile or industry segment to which the committee is assigned in accordance with the process described in this document.
  • Review new or revised content developed for a specific content tile or industry segment to which the committee is assigned in accordance with the process described in this document.
  • Vote and sign-off on best practices that will be available on TSP until the next update cycle.

Content Editor 

The purpose of the Content Editor is to direct and oversee the development of new, or revision of existing, best practice content as identified by the Content Committees.

Responsibilities of the Content Editor is as follow:

  • Write up best practice guidance.
  • Review qualitative and quantitative value of implementing a best practice.
  • Help Content Committees, as an expert in the field, identify missing and no longer applicable best practices.

Update process 

The following process is triggered with respect to existing publicly available best practices content on TSP every three years (see Current Content Update Schedule).

Forming Content Committees 

1. Content Curator reaches out to organizations with a TSP profile, that took an assessment in the past year and achieved one of the highest scores, for volunteers to participate in a Content Committee. Content Curator also reaches out to third-party environmental sustainability experts, and posts a general public notice on the TSP website, asking for volunteers.

2. Content Curator records the names of volunteers in each Content Committee. There are no limit on the number of members in a Content Committee but organizations with a TSP profile must represent at least eighty percent of the members on a Content Committee. If volunteers outside organizations with a TSP profile would represent more than twenty percent of the members, Content Curator selects outside volunteers who qualify by the time at which they replied to the call, earlier being first.

3. Content Curator verifies that each volunteer qualifies to participate in a Content Committee using the following criteria:

  • Volunteer job description and main activity at work is to engage in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) planning and compliance.
  • There are no other person from the same organization already on the Content Committee.

Content Committee Kick-off Meeting 

4. Content Curator calls a meeting of Content Committees. The agenda of an initial Content Committee kick-off meeting is to identity the amount of changes required in the best practices under a specific content tile or industry segment. Prior to the meeting, Content Curator passes on best practices content for review.

5. Content Committee members review material to provide their individual feedback and recommendations regarding:

  • Gaps they identify at best practice heading level relative to their own organization’s practices, or practices they are generally aware of for their industry segment.
  • Gaps in best practice guidance write-ups.

Content development phase 

6. Content Curator consolidates feedback from all Content Committees to develop a content development schedule, potential content development partners and appropriate funding sources.

7. Content Curator communicates as necessary to maintain a fair and transparent process with the Content Committees about content development schedule and Content Editors chosen to write up the best practices guidance. Content Editors are selected based on the close alignment of their content expertise with that required for a specific content tile.

Content Committee Sign-off Meeting 

8. At the end of the content development phase, Content Curator calls a meeting of Content Committees.

9. Each Content Committee member reviews, comments on, and signs-off on updates. If there are disagreements on best practices to be included or left out, a vote is called on each specific contentious best practices. Majority rules. If the vote is split fifty-fifty, Content Curator has a deciding vote, otherwise Content Curator is not a voting member. Content Curator records the vote.

10. Content Curator records comments, sign-offs and votes from the Content Committee for the current update cycle, then insures content tiles are updated accordingly on the public TSP website.