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Nikkei Ecology, Jul. 2002 |
Green procurement is promoted under a partnership for both environmental conservation and management constitution reinforcement. Reported by a Chinese supplier. |
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The staff of Wah Yip Pallet Mfg., a pallet supplier, and the green procurement staff of Ricoh Asia Industry (RAI), a manufacturing plant of the Ricoh Group
The pallet plant of Wah Yip is located in Tungkun, Kwangtung, RAI's neighborhood.
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Movement to put priority on purchase of products with less environmental impact has accelerated in the European, American and Japanese markets. Ricoh, a company that is shipping copiers, printers and other products to the world markets, started in full swing the green procurement in China in August 2001 to enhance international competitiveness of its products. It called for EMS construction by March 2003 to major suppliers in Shenzhen and Shanghai, two sites with a high production ratio.
While RAI (Ricoh Asia Industry) has long been rendering support for improvements of operation and quality to suppliers, it has added an environmental viewpoint at the start of green procurement. Based on successful examples of suppliers in Japan, it has enlightened suppliers on the review of business with the viewpoint of environmental conservation and on connection of awareness enlightenment with management constitution reinforcement.
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As of May 2002, in Shenzhen, 24 companies out of 96 main suppliers have acquired ISO 14001 certification and 2 companies have acquired the Ricoh Group's green procurement guideline certification.
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| Through active environmental conservation activities, Wah Yip has also realized management constitution reinforcement. |
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Wah Yip which is located in a city about 40 minutes away from RAI, employs 250 people. It produces wooden pallets indispensable for transportation/storage of Ricoh products. Partnership with Wah Yip had started before green procurement was inaugurated. In April 2000, in compliance with RAI's request for environmental impact reduction and cost reduction, responded by developing a pallet made of recovered plywood. Wah Yip regarded environmental conservation as an important management task so it established in October 2001 an environmental policy consisting of 5 items including compliance with laws, employees' safety and health, maximum waste recycling, pollution prevention and continuous improvement. It has developed aggressive activities, such as not only review of environmental aspects, but also checking of drains/effluents, environmental education for employees, improvement of work environment and building a warehouse for the management of chemical substances like adhesive agents. In March 2002, it acquired both the Ricoh Group's green procurement guideline certification and ISO 14001 certification.
Ricoh Group's green procurement guideline "Chinese version"
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Currently, the necessity of ISO 14001 certification acquisition for business purposes is increasingly acknowledged in the industry of Shenzhen. Wah Yip is taking new orders for a pallet that uses recovered materials from other companies that respect environmental conservation. Nowadays, production of pallets of recovered plywood or recovered materials has reached 10,000 units per month sharing 60% of total production. The fact that Wah Yip early strived for environmental conservation is connected to its stronger managerial constitution.
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| Through green procurement, "environmental business management" is practiced in China, too. |
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The Ricoh Group regards promotion of "environmental business management" that simultaneously realizes environmental conservation and profit creation as an important business task. As RAI's main business is to assemble copiers and printers, partnership with suppliers of parts positioned in the upstream of production is indispensable for the practice of environmental business management. Also, Ricoh recognizes that support for suppliers is one of the important social responsibilities of a business entity. Through practicing higher quality environmental business management in China, where large scale economic development is expected, we would contribute to global environmental conservation. |
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