ASEAN businesses urged to green the supply chain
Business and industry leaders in Southeast Asia can help raise the public’s environmental consciousness by incorporating sustainable practices from the purchase of supplies down to the manufacturing and marketing of their products.
The call for “greening the supply chain” was made at the 3rd ASEAN Plus Three Leadership Programme on Sustainable Production and Consumption held recently at the Bayview Park Hotel in Manila. The forum was held in line with declaration of the United Nations of 2005-2014 as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.
Rodrigo Fuentes, executive director of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, highlighted the role of the business sector in adopting measures that would use and produce goods and services with less environmental impact.
“Businesses should practice sustainable production and consumption through their own initiative and not as mere compliance to government regulations,” he said.
Fuentes said such initiatives are needed especially in developing countries like the Philippines, where raw materials for consumer products, whether for domestic or export purposes, are extracted from available natural resources.
Dr. Raman Letchumanan, Environment Division head of the ASEAN Secretariat, said that “developing countries are in a position to reduce their carbon footprint by being more sustainable in using their rich biodiversity while they are on the path to economic growth.”
He stressed the need to put in place market mechanisms that would “compel businesses to put their own initiatives to educate consumers.”
In the Philippines, such mechanisms include certifications from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), green or eco-labeling, and recognition of local industries who demonstrate environmental initiatives.
Ironically, however, it was observed that products from companies with such mechanisms in place were more expensive compared with other (more) mass-produced or commercial products, prompting Prof. Govindan Parayil, director of the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies, to suggest that the public must be acquainted with responsibilities that are usually attached to the supply and production processes.
On behalf of the local business sector, Nestle Philippines’ Jesus Reyes, who chairs the Environment Committee of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, welcomed the challenge to make the entire business process sustainable from pre-production to marketing, and cited current initiatives in greening the local supply chain.
“Many industries are already implementing environmental policies to cut operating costs, like tapping available and viable energy sources such as solar and biomass in the manufacturing process, as well as encouraging water stewardship through water conservation or rainwater harvesting,” he said.
Moreover, Fuentes said that environmental practices in business operations mean an investment that would redound to long-term benefits for the investors, the community, the local government and the economy in general.*
