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.
Fujitsus Green Life 21 Making Everything Green Concept
Fujitsus 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/)