The Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (the Bay Area Development) enjoys the prospective to become the center of the world’s green supply chain, with green growth as its priority, Central Banking informed.
The green financial chain has penetrated every aspect of our lives. The closing down of a key supplier to Shanghai-based car parts supplier Schaeffler for a breach of environmental standards affected 49 suppliers and the production of 3 million vehicles at a cost of around RMB300 billion. Schaeffler is only one link in producing steel, but its failure impacted on the whole industry chain.
In addition to age-old factors affecting the buyer-seller relationship – low price, good quality and rapid goods delivery – environmental protection is now another important standard in supply-chain management. Upstream and downstream companies are all required to improve efficiency, and save energy, water, resources and electricity, as well as to protect the environment and adopt a low-carbon policy.
The green supply chain was first suggested by researchers at the University of Michigan, and the concept has gained in popularity in China since 2011. Introduced as a concept of global environmental protection, the green supply chain was mentioned for the first time in the final resolution of the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit by the Chinese government. Chinese officials initiated the construction of a green supply-chain network in the Asia-Pacific region to promote industry connectivity and green growth. The 2017 APEC summit in Vietnam praised China’s recent green supply-chain initiatives.Green supply chains and networks have been operational in China since 2011, when pilot projects were launched in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta. Currently, the best area in the country for green supply chain is in the Bay Area Development, especially Dongguan, which is the first and only green supply-chain pilot municipality recognised by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. In 2016, the Dongguan municipal government, together with the then-Ministry of Environmental Protection and the National Development and Reform Commission, co-ordinated data concerning polluting emissions, energy saving and low-carbon emissions to form the Dongguan Index, a standard by which to assess the manufacturing industry’s environmental standards. The index serves as a specific measure for energy-saving and efficiency-improving, in the form of star ratings.