Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
in the program. Once the leading company
decided to take part in the program, man-
agement commitment from SME suppliers
followed.
3.
Learning by doing as implementation
method:
Capacity building in eco-efficiency
and cleaner production concepts and tools
formed the core method and bases for the
design and implementation of improvement
projects. In ten meetings, a group of about
10-15 general and operation managers of
suppliers of the same supply chain learned
about the application of eco-efficiency and
cleaner production tools. Throughout the
capacity building process, they designed
their own project, shared knowledge and
exchanged experiences with their counter
parts. The “in-house” appropriation of the
projects and the group process motivated
the actual implementation of improvement
projects.
Industries, Bombardier, Collins & Aikman, and
Donnelly, involving altogether 79 suppliers.
The participating anchor companies assumed
a number of commitments: (CEC, 2005) (i) select
and invite at least 10 providers from their supply
chain, (ii) provide logistics (meeting room and
drinks), during the development of the program
(ten meetings), (iii) assign a representative to
oversee the activities of the program (workshop
meetings, communications) and (iv) follow up on
the evaluation of the results and the implementa-
tion of the designed eco-efficiency projects.
Service providers were hired to develop the
capacity building in the various supply chains and
to develop the related material. Figure 4 shows
the organization of the Mexican Green Supply
Chain Program.
In all, 146 SMEs from different industrial
sectors participated in the program. About one
fourth belonged to the packaging industry (carton
boxes, plastic bags, plastic containers, foam, pal-
lets), 17% to the printing sector (manuals, promo-
tion material, labels, etiquettes), 27% represented
raw material supplies (chemicals, yeast, fruit,
species, fragrances, metal parts), 23% services
(transport, water treatment, cleaning, re-manu-
facturing, maintenance) and 7% general supplies
(fuels, office material, cleaning material, uni-
forms). Over 50% of the suppliers directly influ-
ence the green logistic operations of the partici-
pating supply chains improving transport systems,
packaging systems, recycling and take-back of
waste between others.
The total costs of the operations program were
approximately US $350,000. These costs included
payments to service providers and the logistics
costs of the capacity building and promotion
events. The CEC provided financing for the pay-
ment of service providers; the leading companies
of the supply chain provided the logistics of the
capacity building process of their own supply
chain. Investments related to implementation of
the improvement projects came from the individual
enterprises.
An internet platform provided access to accu-
mulated knowledge generated during the program
and to facilitated collaborative learning based on
the different supply chains participating in the
program.
Organization of the Program
The CEC coordinated the overall management of
the program in alliance with the Mexican chapter
of the Global Environmental Initiative (GEMI)
and the Secretary of Sustainable Development
of the Queretaro State (SEDESU). The first two
phases of the program, which took place in 2005
and 2006, included participation by six leading
multinational companies (Bristol Myers Squibb,
Colgate-Palmolive, Clarion Industries, SIKA,
Janssen-Cilag, and Jumex) and 65 SMEs from
their supply chains in Mexico. In September 2007
a third group of multinationals and local supply
chains entered the program, among them Nestlé,
Grupo Modelo, Henkel, La Corona, Guardian
