Practices and Opportunities of Green Supply Chain Management in China

As a part of a project exploring proactive strategies for improving corporate environmental management (CEM) in developing Asia, this paper introduces the practices and opportunities of green supply chain management (GSCM) in China. Yangtze River Delta, where the economy has been relatively developed, was selected as our study area. We conducted the study by two steps. At the first phase, a questionnaire survey to the companies was carried out in order to monitor the overall level of GSCM practices there. The determinant factors of GSCM practices were identified by econometric analyses of the data collected from 165 valid respondents. As the second step, three representative companies were picked up as focal manufacturers for case studies in more details. Their current activities and future opportunities of GSCM were individually identified. The corresponding cost and benefit of GSCM practices was analyzed descriptively or quantitatively.
Our survey confirms that Chinese companies are still at a preliminary stage of GSCM practices. Their environmental efforts in cooperation with external members of supply chain are marginal. The regulative requirements, demands of domestic clients and the practices of competitors are external factors significantly and positively associated with a firm GSCM practice level. A firm’s internally environmental management capacity works as a mediator of external pressures in influencing its actual GSCM efforts. The case studies also indicate that the target companies mainly focus on voluntary and internal GSCM activities like cleaner production and energy saving audit. These activities help the companies improve their economic and environmental performances. The case analysis shows that industrial sector characteristics and company’s location on the supply chain greatly affect the level GSCM practices. Two typical patterns of GSCM practices may be summarized from the case studies. One is a relatively mature GSCM relationship which is driven by market strategy and involvement of multi-national companies. Another is a government policy-driven style for the domestic companies.