Ethical Sourcing

Ethical sourcing is a sustainable and responsible approach to supply chain management and sourcing.

Thornton Tomasetti is committed to sustainable and ethical sourcing of building materials and office supplies for our 50+ locations. Our typical role on a project team is as consultant or sub-contractor, and therefore we may not always have direct impact on sourcing decisions. This policy relates to areas where we do have impact, such as in the specification of materials, such as concrete, steel, wood, glass and supporting components.

In keeping with our environmental policy – to promote and apply creative means to reduce carbon in our projects, and committing to achieve carbon-neutral business operations – we aim to apply our embodied carbon specifications when sourcing these materials so that our projects use materials or adjustments to materials that are less carbon intensive than typical choices. Another area of impact is in the selection of healthy materials; we aim to avoid the use of toxic materials on the Living Building Challenge (LBC) “Red List.”

We will not specify products that we know to be from businesses that use child labor, forced or compulsory labor, or that employ discrimination, repressive work conditions, inequitable working hours or remuneration, or unsafe and unhealthy work environments.

Our contracting process takes into consideration opportunities to improve social equity outcomes through the use of small businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged people or businesses that have demonstrated a clear mission to promote social equity. These businesses include certified Minority-Owned Businesses, Women-Owned Businesses, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses, certified B Corps, JUST labelled Businesses or Worker Cooperative Businesses.

Following our sustainable office guidelines, we seek office supplies with high recycled content and low toxicity. At least 40 percent of our major office supply purchases comply with sustainability standards established by third-party programs including Energy Star, Fair Trade and Cradle to Cradle.