The Sustainable Sourcing Platform will eventually exist as a freestanding interactive web platform. Currently, individual pieces are under development, some of which are available for users to explore. The following tools are all prototypes and feedback on them is welcome. Please e-mail questions and comments to: sustainablesourcing@ucdavis.edu.
Sustainable Sourcing Platform tools include:
Sustainable Sourcing Wiki Platform
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The Sustainable Sourcing Platform hosts the wealth of data our team has been collecting and manages the network of relationships among this data via semantic web linkages—which means that this information is readily accessible across the web. It has been designed as a wiki using Semantic MediaWiki and enables us to easily add new components to the platform as they are developed. As we build out its capacity further, we will open up the wiki to the broader research community to enable seamless linkages to data,models, and tools from a broad network of reputable sources as sustainability science and knowledge advances. The tools outlined below all reside, or will eventually be nested, within the Sustainable Sourcing Platform. |
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Process to define and measure sustainability |
Our group has developed a sustainability decision process we call the “Checklist Generator”. An important part of this process focuses on the identification of relevant sustainability issues coupled with building the minimum set of indicators that can adequately inform across all the relevant issues for a given question or need. Currently, the issue and indicator selection process is managed via our prototype stand-alone optimization tool, which is built on R-software using the network of 44 integrated issues, 320 component issues, and 2000+ indicators that are managed in the Sustainable Sourcing Wiki. Eventually, the tool will be web-based and pull data directly from the wiki. |
Corporate Communications Database
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The Sustainable Sourcing Platform includes a database of food manufacturing corporation communications on sustainable sourcing – a tool to quickly and easily find categorized information about how corporations are publicly communicating their values, goals, progress, and partnerships related to sustainability issues. The database features:
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Linkage Visualization |
A prototype that allows for exploration of links between indicators and issues. Users can determine which issues are of interest, visualize linkages to other issues, and identify relevant indicators. |