Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The Greening of Suppliers
to implement recycling initiatives, for example.
The second type is product-based green supply,
which attempts to manage the by-products of
supplied inputs such as packaging. The third
type is advanced green supply, which includes
more proactive approaches such as using a set of
environmental criteria in risk sharing, evaluation
of buyer performance and joint development of
cleaning technology or programs with suppliers.
Based on this study, the first and the third type
of green supply focus on close collaboration with
suppliers.
Greening the supply chain is a relatively new
concept to many companies in South East Asia.
In general, these companies achieve this through
partnerships and mentoring systems (Rao, 2002).
Rao (2002) identified that many large and medium
sized companies in Taiwan have coordinated
transactions between upstream suppliers and
downstream buyers to implement environmental
management practices in order to improve envi-
ronmental performance. Rao (2002) also discussed
how some large companies have established their
environmental standards within their suppliers. For
example, Ford Motor Company not only requires
their suppliers to obtain a third-party certifica-
tion for their environmental management system
(EMS), but also organises technical seminars and
training for their suppliers in order to help them
to establish their own environmental manage-
ment systems and improve their environmental
performance (Rao, 2002). Table 2 indicates the
importance of the supplier and green supply chain
from key studies on the topic.
In order to achieve green supply chain effec-
tively and successfully, Rao (2002) suggested that
organisations need to develop a long-term strate-
gic relationship with their suppliers. There are
other researchers such as Hamner (2006) who
showed that many buyers can solve environmen-
tal problems and improve environmental perfor-
mance by educating their suppliers about envi-
ronmental issues and working closely with
suppliers to implement environmental manage-
The greening of suppliers is an important aspect
in an external environmental supply chain system.
Walton et al. (1998) considered that this is the
process of integration into environmental manage-
ment systems. They suggested that environmental
issues are becoming part of strategic planning in
organisations because of tightened environmental
regulations and increasing concern about envi-
ronmental issues from customers. As a result,
long-term strategic advantage can be developed
by working closely with suppliers (Rajagopal and
Bernard, 2006). A partnership working and ap-
praisal system is required to achieve this objective
(Sroufe, 2006). It involves a significant change in
attitudes by the companies who want to establish
closer supplier relationships. Companies may
need to provide guidance, advice and assistance,
and even share their knowledge and skills about
environmental management with their suppliers.
More importantly, working closely with sup-
pliers in early product design and development
stages contributes substantial benefits to com-
petitive advantage in the global market. B&Q,
for example, has refined and tightened its green
supply policy with a new mission statement and a
new supplier assessment system, namely, QUality-
Ethics-SafeTy (QUEST) (Green et al., 1998). The
new system rates suppliers as A, B, C, D or E,
based on ten environmental principles. Any sup-
pliers who cannot pass the minimum requirements
according to the new system (i.e. those with poor
environmental performance) will not be able to
produce any products for B&Q until the problems
have been resolved. This QUEST system not only
helps B&Q offer products with a guaranteed level
of quality, but also reduces their environmental
impact through collaboration with suppliers.
Bowen et al. (2001) derived three main types
of green supply. The first type includes greening
the supply process that represents adaptations to
suppliers' management activities, and collabora-
