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How Does Trase Map Supply Chains?
How Does Trase Map Supply Chains?

Mark Titley

How does Trase calculate deforestation exposure?

André Vasconselos

How does Trase choose commodities and countries to cover?

Jolene Tan

A satellite image of a ship at a dock

The supply chain mapping at the core of Trase balances scale and data resolution

It uses an enhanced form of material flow analysis called Spatially Explicit Information on Production to Consumption Systems (SEI-PCS).

An abstract image of a network

Trase's approach offers different capabilities

  • Systematically link individual supply chain actors to specific, subnational production regions, and the sustainability risks and investment opportunities associated with those regions.
  • Identify the individual companies that export, ship and import a given traded commodity.
  • Cover all of the exports of a given commodity from a given country of production.

How reliable is Trase data?

The Trase approach uses data from dozens of different sources including official government data on production, tax, and shipping, as well as data on supply chain logistics freely disclosed by industry associations and on the websites of commodity trading companies. Our aim is to produce the most accurate supply chain maps possible using publicly available or purchasable data. Trase is dedicated to clearly communicating the limitations of the data within our methodologies and in the tool itself. We encourage users to visit our terms of use and review our methods documentation to fully understand the strength of Trase data and the limitations to its use and to contact us directly via info@trase.earth with any questions or feedback.

How does Trase calculate deforestation exposure?

Commodity deforestation exposure is a measure of the extent to which supply chain actors (companies, countries, investors) are exposed to commodity deforestation due to their sourcing patterns. This is expressed in terms of an area of deforestation (hectares) that a supply chain actor is exposed to. This is calculated by allocating the commodity deforestation estimated at the jurisdictional level (see above) to supply chains, in proportion to the volumes of commodity traded from that jurisdiction by a particular actor. For all commodities where we have calculated this metric, the name of the commodity replaces the word ‘commodity’. For example, commodity deforestation exposure becomes soy deforestation exposure or cattle deforestation exposure as appropriate.

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