Trase is at the forefront of a data-driven revolution in supply chain sustainability, drawing on vast sets of production, trade and customs data, for the first time laying bare the flows of globally traded commodities at scales that are directly relevant to decision-making. Its pioneering approach to data analysis and visualization provides full coverage of the export routes and buyers responsible for all production and trade, and the associated sustainability risks, of a given commodity.
The supply chain mapping at the core of Trase balances scale and data resolution. It builds on an enhanced form of material flow analysis called Spatially Explicit Information on Production to Consumption Systems (SEI-PCS) originally developed by Godar et al. 2015. Three capabilities of the Trase approach together set it apart from other approaches to supply chain mapping:
It systematically links individual supply chain actors to specific, subnational production regions, and the sustainability risks and investment opportunities associated with those regions;
It identifies the individual companies that export, ship and import a given traded commodity; and
It covers all of the exports of a given commodity from a given country of production.