4. September 2007 by admin.

Green Procurement in Asia | Establish
Green Procurement in Asia
Supply Chain Management with Environmental Criteria
Environmentally responsible or ‘green’ procurement is the selection of products and services that minimize environmental impacts. It requires a company or organization to carry out an assessment of the environmental consequences of a product at all the various stages of its lifecycle. This means considering the costs of securing raw materials, and manufacturing, transporting, storing, handling, using and disposing of the product. (bsdglobal.com)

Companies sourcing in Asia are increasing their green procurement efforts. Green procurement activities can include:

* Focus on the environmental compliance status and practices of supplier operations.
* Joint development of new materials, processes or other solutions to environmental issues.

The methods companies use to work with their suppliers can include:

* Requiring suppliers to implement, and possibly certify, environmental management systems.
* Educating suppliers about materials use, pollution prevention, design for disassembly or other issues and tools of interest to the customer company.
* Enlisting suppliers’ help in developing new materials, parts or processes to address environmental concerns.
* Auditing suppliers’ compliance status. (Source: Green Business Network 2001)

Below are two examples of companies implementing green sourcing practices in Asia.

Fujitsu’s Green Life 21 – Making Everything Green Concept

Fujitsu’s “Green Life 21 – Making Everything Green” is the key theme for their environmental efforts in every business area, including procurement of parts and materials. “In December 2003, Fujitsu established a center known as the EMC (Ecology Management Center) in Taiwan and Hong Kong (China) specializing in RoHS compliance and using the Fujitsu Green Procurement Direction as a reference. The main role of the EMC is to ensure that suppliers’ operations promote environmental protection and procured parts are free from harmful substances and chemicals stipulated in the Fujitsu Green Procurement Direction.” (Source:http://www.fujitsu.com/)

Konica Minolta Business Technologies Implementing Green Partner Program Covering RoHS Requirements

Konica Minolta Business Technologies selects suppliers on the basis of quality, cost and delivery time, plus environment standards. Paying particular attention to the environmental aspect of procurement activities, in fiscal 2006 the company decided to launch a Green Partner program, which honors suppliers promoting Green Procurement in conformance with RoHS and other environmental regulations. They have developed a survey format, manuals and reference materials in Chinese for their Chinese suppliers and successfully initiated full-scale operations in April 2005. Operation of a verification system began in July 2005. (Source: http://konicaminolta.com/)

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4. September 2007 by admin.

Scoop: Eco-systems die while Government Fiddles.
Eco-systems die while Government Fiddles.

Press Release: Green Party
Ancient eco-systems of Pacific and SE Asia die while Govt. fiddles

New government rules aimed at helping to slow widespread devastation of ancient “paradise forests” in South East Asia and the Pacific only go part way, says Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman.

He says the Green Party welcomes the Government’s new “sustainable procurement guidelines” just released but is disappointed they will still allow government departments to purchase tropical timber products from a source that the procurement policy itself defines as unsustainable.

“The new sustainable procurement policy is welcome and makes progress in many areas,” Dr Norman says.

“However, it is absurd that the government guide to sustainable procurement endorses the Malaysian Timber Certification Council MTCC scheme as meeting all the `legal sourcing and sustainably managed requirements p.12 when the table on the very next page reveals that the MTCC scheme certifies timber that is not sustainable and only legal under certain conditions. See the pdf of the document here.

“The Government’s own report says MTCC certified timber is not sustainable and not always legal, so why does MTCC certified timber get the tick of approval for sustainable procurement?”

Dr Norman says it is important to get these government guidelines right because they may be used as a guideline for all New Zealanders trying to avoid purchases of tropical timbers such as kwila. New Zealands trade in kwila often entails human rights abuses and destruction of rare eco-systems and unique wildlife in West Papua and Papua New Guinea, where Malaysian loggers are prominent.

“The Norwegian Government banned the use of all tropical timber in their sustainable procurement policy released just two months ago because of the difficulties in ascertaining whether any tropical timber is legal and sustainable. Yet here is the New Zealand Government not only allowing the use of questionable tropical timber but actually endorsing one of the guaranteed unsustainable sources of tropical timber, MTCC certified timber.

“Malaysian logging companies have a long record of illegal and unsustainable clearing of rainforests throughout Asia and the Pacific. Many reports, including from the World Bank, have linked the Malaysian logging company Rimbunan Hijau to illegal and unsustainable logging and the human rights abuses of those indigenous people who dared to stand up against Rimbunan, including in PNG and West Papua where most of our kwila is thought to come from.

“For the New Zealand Government to endorse the sustainability of the Malaysian logging is an affront to all those people who have fought Malaysia’s rapacious loggers. The sustainable procurement policy should ban the use of all tropical timber in government projects until we have some idea that the timber is genuinely sustainable and legal, just as the Norwegian Government has done.”

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