Green Supply Chain Management: How to Find a Balance Between Environmental Protection and Cost? Green supply chain management, also known as environmentally conscious supply chain management, is a supply chain management model that comprehensively considers environmental issues, aiming to achieve the coordinated development of the economy and the environment. How to find a balance between environmental protection and cost is an important problem that enterprises need to solve, and it is also an inevitable requirement for the sustainable development of enterprises.
1. Set reasonable green procurement standards
Setting reasonable green procurement standards is an important part of the implementation of green supply chain management. These standards are designed to ensure that companies prioritize environmentally friendly, resource-saving products and services in the procurement process, thus finding a balance between environmental protection and cost. Here are some suggestions for setting sound green procurement standards:
1. Clarify the objectives and principles of green procurement
(1) Environmental protection: Ensure that the products and services purchased have a minimum impact on the environment during production, use and disposal.
(2) Resource conservation: Priority is given to products and services with high energy efficiency, low energy consumption and recyclable to reduce resource waste.
(3) Health and safety: ensure that the products and services purchased are harmless to human health and meet relevant safety standards.
2. Formulate specific green procurement standards
(1) Product standards:
(1.1) Environmentally friendly materials: products are required to use recyclable, renewable, and low-pollution materials.
(1.2) Energy efficiency labeling: Priority is given to products that have passed the energy efficiency labeling certification, such as electrical equipment with high energy efficiency levels.
(1.3) Green packaging: encourage the use of degradable and easily recyclable packaging materials to reduce packaging waste.
(2) Service standards:
(2.1) Green logistics: Suppliers are required to adopt low-carbon emission transportation methods, such as railways and waterways, to reduce carbon emissions in the transportation process.
(2.2) Green recycling: Provide recycling services after product disposal to ensure that waste is properly disposed of.
(3) Supplier standards:
(3.1) Environmental protection qualification: choose suppliers with environmental protection qualifications, such as enterprises that have passed ISO 14001 environmental management system certification.
(3.2) Environmental performance: Evaluate the environmental performance of suppliers, including environmental protection measures in their production processes, waste disposal, etc.
(3.3) Social responsibility: consider the social responsibility performance of suppliers, such as whether they comply with labor laws and regulations, whether they participate in public welfare activities, etc.
3. Implementation and supervision
(1) Establish a green procurement management system: formulate green procurement management rules and regulations, and clarify management requirements and processes.
(2) Training of procurement personnel: Strengthen the environmental awareness training of procurement personnel to improve their understanding and implementation ability of green procurement standards.
(3) Supervision and evaluation: Regularly supervise and evaluate the implementation of green procurement to ensure that procurement activities meet green procurement standards.
4. Continuous improvement and innovation
(1) Collect feedback: Collect feedback from suppliers, internal employees and customers to understand the implementation effect of green procurement standards.
(2) Optimize standards: Continuously optimize green procurement standards according to feedback and market changes to ensure their adaptability and effectiveness.
(3) Promote innovation: Encourage suppliers and internal teams to innovate in product design, production processes, etc., to better meet the requirements of green procurement standards.
2. Optimize the supply chain structure
1. Find and verify green suppliers: Enterprises need to invest a lot of time and money to find and verify suppliers that meet green standards and establish a stable green supply chain.
2. Establish long-term cooperative relations: establish long-term cooperative relations with suppliers, and jointly reduce the cost of green procurement by sharing environmental protection concepts and technological innovation.
3. Implement supplier environmental audit: Conduct environmental audit on suppliers, including secondary or even tertiary suppliers, to ensure that their production processes and product environmental performance meet the standards.
3. Introduce advanced technology and management system
1. Introduce a new procurement management system: Enterprises can introduce an advanced procurement management system to realize the digitization and intelligence of the procurement process, improve procurement efficiency, and reduce unnecessary cost waste.
2. Whole life cycle cost management: comprehensively consider the cost of the whole process of material procurement, use, maintenance and disposal, and choose the green solution with the best cost performance.
3. Application of environmental protection technology: adopt advanced environmental protection technology to reduce the impact of emission substances on the ecological environment, reduce environmental protection costs, and enhance the market competitiveness of enterprises.
Fourth, innovative procurement model
1. Centralized procurement and joint procurement: use scale effect to reduce the purchase price of green materials.
2. New procurement methods: explore new procurement methods such as leasing and sharing to reduce resource consumption and reduce one-time input costs for enterprises.
5. Strengthen staff training and awareness-raising
1. Environmental awareness training: Strengthen the environmental awareness and professional skills training of project procurement management personnel, and improve their understanding and implementation ability of green procurement.
2. Internal incentive mechanism: Establish an internal incentive mechanism to encourage employees to put forward innovative suggestions for green procurement and jointly promote the green transformation of enterprises.
6. Environmental cost calculation and control
1. Calculation of direct environmental costs: Calculate the direct environmental costs of enterprises according to the quantity, quality, concentration and other parameters of production and discharge of environmental pollutants.
2. Consideration of indirect environmental costs: through the cumulative cost calculation method and other methods, the indirect environmental costs are reasonably reflected, such as the costs that must be borne by consumers, employees, governments and other environmental bearers.
3. Environmental management system: establish an effective environmental protection management system, such as environmental accounting, prepare environmental income and expenditure accounting subjects, and ensure reasonable input and recording of environmental costs.
7. Continuous improvement and innovation
1. Process transformation: through the process transformation in the production process, reduce resource consumption and operating costs, such as Ricoh company through the transformation of the process of drying plastic particles, to achieve the recycling of hot air and reduce heat loss.
2. Waste recycling: Promote the recycling of waste, reduce the cost of waste disposal, and protect the environment at the same time.
To sum up, green supply chain management to find a balance between environmental protection and cost requires enterprises to start from many aspects, including setting reasonable green procurement standards, optimizing the supply chain structure, introducing advanced technology and management systems, innovating procurement models, strengthening employee training and awareness-raising, environmental cost calculation and control, and continuous improvement and innovation. Through the implementation of these measures, companies can maintain or even enhance their competitiveness while achieving their environmental goals.