1. Choose an organization that you are currently working for or you are familiar with. The organization can be a public office or a commercial entity. However, the organization must conduct a substantial amount of activities in Procurement.
Briefly describe the nature of business the organization does. Then, provide a detailed description of their procurement processes, including supplier evaluation processes and supplier selection criteria.
Identify the elements of “Green Procurement” adopted or implemented in the organization. Assess the level of maturity in “Green Procurement” of the company based on the list of green procurement elements you identified.
Finally, assess the risks and benefits from adopting or implementing the “Green Procurement” practices you identified in the organization. Your assessment must be organization specific. It would not be sufficient to provide a general discussion on the risks and benefits of green procurement practice.
2. The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) is a US non-profit organization incorporated in 2011 to develop and disseminate sustainability accounting standards.
SASB provides additional disclosure topics for various industries in the following sectors:
- Consumption I
- Consumption II
- Financials
- Health Care
- Infrastructure
- Renewable Resources & Alternative Energy
- Resource Transformation
- Services
- Technology & Communications
- Transportation
- Non-Renewable Resources
Identify the industry most suitable for the organization you chose in Question 1. Compose a sustainability report for the organization according to the additional disclosure topics by The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).
3. According to an article from the Straits Times (5th June 2017):
“According to the National Environment Agency, Singapore produces 60,000 tonnes of electronic waste per year - which is as heavy as 220 Airbus A380 planes. This makes Singapore the second-largest producer of e-waste in South-east Asia and the Far East, with 19.95kg of e-waste per capita in 2015, according to a United Nations University report released in January.”
In the same article, it was also mentioned that:
“A new recycling programme organised by Singapore Post and telco Singtel aims to make it easier for consumers to recycle their unwanted electronics by mailing them for free using a special envelope, or by placing them in bins at several post offices and telco outlets. The nationwide recycling programme, named ReCYCLE, was launched on Monday (June 5), in conjunction with World Environment Day. Those who want to dispose of their electronic devices - such as smartphones, tablets, routers, cables and chargers - can throw them into recycling bins located in certain Singtel Shops, Singtel Exclusive Retailer outlets or post offices.”
Conduct you own researches on E-waste in Singapore. Based on your research outcomes, evaluate the severity of e-trash in Singapore.
Discuss how e-trash in Singapore should be handled. Your discussion must include which of 3R’s (Recycle, Reuse and Reduce) would be most effective in Singapore. You must justify your answer.
4. Wikipedia defines “Greenwashing” as:
“Greenwashing (a compound word modelled on "whitewash"), or "green sheen", is a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization's products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly. Evidence that an organization is greenwashing often comes from pointing out the spending differences: when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being "green" (that is, operating with consideration for the environment), than is actually spent on environmentally sound practices. Greenwashing efforts can range from changing the name or label of a product to evoke the natural environment on a product that contains harmful chemicals to multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns portraying highly polluting energy companies as eco-friendly. In an academic paper Greenwashing has been defined as "co-creation of an external accusation toward an organization with regard to presenting a misleading green message", indicating that an accusation is necessary to speak of Greenwashing.”
According to greenwashingindex.com:
“It’s greenwashing when a company or organization spends more time and money claiming to be “green” through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact. It’s whitewashing, but with a green brush.”
Collect the examples of Greenwashing in Singapore. Choose one company among the examples of greenwashing you found. Propose a better marketing or communication plan for the company you chose.
Answers
1. The Organization:
Fujitsu is one of the biggest information technology (IT) product and service providers in the global market and is based in Singapore (Fujitsu.com, 2017). The company provides service and solution on the IT problems. In addition, the company also provides application service and managed infrastructure service. The business of the company is based on the technologies which include software, hardware, business solutions, networking and more. Apart from this, the company also provides consulting service to customers from all over the world.
Procurement Process of the Organization:
The procurement process of the organization includes the environmental management system, CO2 emission control and reduction initiatives, chemical substance management system (CMS) for chemical contained products (Fujitsu, 2017). Along with this, the procurement process of the company also includes the supplier evaluation and selection for the effective use of the procurement process within the organization for the sustainability of the same (Fujitsu.com, 2014). The supplier evaluation process of the company is based on the green procurement direction that also determines the selection criteria of the suppliers of the company. In the evaluation process of the suppliers the company ensures the ethical values and the vision of the supplier company in order to serve the purpose of the Firm. The selection criteria of the suppliers include the establishment of the environmental management system (EMS); compliance with regulations for Fujitsu Group specified chemical substances, establishment of the chemical substance management system (CMS), CO2 control and reduction initiatives and the biodiversity preservation initiatives.
Elements of the Green Procurement:
From the eight basic elements of the green procurement, only four can be identified in the implementation of the green procurement in Fujitsu (Amemba et al., 2013). The identified procurement elements are forming a green purchasing team, establishing environmental criteria, taking regularly review policies for updating and the establishing the green procurement policy.
The maturity level of the procumbent refers to the effectiveness of the procurement elements that are identified in the organization. Forming of the green purchasing team determines the purchasing the product that is environment friendly. One of the major aspects of the main business of the organization consist technologies and hardware which is capable of producing harm to the environment. However, the maturity level of the element regarding the formation of the green purchasing. For the establishment of the environmental criteria of the company, the maturity level is high for the same. The company has repeatedly mentioned the establishment of the environmental management system in the green procurement process and the report regarding the same (fujitsu.com, 2014). Moreover, the EMS is on the other hand determines the establishment of the green procurement policy for the organization. The next identified elements refer to the regular survey of the green procurement policies which the company stresses for updating the EMS level.
Risks and Benefits of the Implementation of the Green procurement:
The benefits for the company from the implementation of the green procurement are:
- The cost of the company in terms of the operating its business is reduced by the implementation of the green procurement. The practice of the green procurement will reduce the manufacturing cost of the company.
- The revenue growth of the company is increased by the implementation and the practice of the green procurement by the company.
The risks from the practice of the green procurement by the organizations are:
- The cost of the company in terms of the maintenance of the green procurement equipments is high.
- The suppliers of the hardware and the chemical substances used are not really aware of the green procurement process and therefore it is hard for the company to select suppliers which can fulfill the green procurement criteria.
2. Sustainability report of Fujitsu Company in Singapore is prepared in compliance with disclosure areas mentioned under “Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)”. As per sustainability accounting disclosure topics covered in SASB it is observed that the company belongs to technology and communications sector (Barker, 2014). Certain sustainability accounting standards developed by SASB for technology and communications sector and followed by Fujitsu Company are explained under:
- Group management- This sustainability standard compliance followed by the company is associated with human rights and labor related concerns. Compliance to this sustainability polices makes sure that the company focuses on adoption of human rights due diligence process. This can involve generation and distribution posters concerning areas of human rights, e-learning implementation and development, US human rights non-governmental company and business and human rights based UN guiding principles (Khan, Serafeim & Yoon, 2016).
- Supplier management- This sustainability standard compliance followed by the company is CSR-procurement based.Initiatives of this sustainability policy are focuses on adherence with “Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) that includes utilization of EICC self-assessment techniques.
- Information disclosure- This sustainability standard compliance followed by the company is associated with reporting. This sustainability policy makes sure that Fujitsu Company is focused on generation of CSR reports and its integration based on global frameworks and guidelines.
- Revision of materiality or CSR policy- This sustainability standard compliance followed by the company is associated with priority concerns. This sustainability policy in the company follows three processes. This includes recognition of social concerns related with business from materiality candidates, generation of materiality or draft through including stakeholder’s comments and materiality finalization through CSR board meetings (CSR Activity Targets and Achievements - Fujitsu Singapore, 2017).
Moreover, from the sustainability report analysis of the company it is gathered that the environmental and social activities in the Fujitsu Company are analyzed al through the world. Moreover, the group continuously included certain major funds and external evaluation stock indices those are listed under:
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Figure 1: SRI Related Stock Indices
(Source: Khan, Serafeim & Yoon, 2016)
Sustainability report of Fujitsu Company focuses on benefiting society and consumers. This is done by the company in adherence to SASB guidelines through offering solutions and technologies. These sustainability policies are attaining target of decreasing CO2 emissions by 30 million tons every year by 2020 in Japan. Moreover, the company also focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions all through the world. In maintaining sustainability, the company is observed to take string measures in consideration to all the aspects presented in “business and biodiversity initiative” leadership declaration (Board, 2015). Fujitsu Company focuses on expanding purchase of renewable energy from external sources along with increasing generation capacity. In compliance to SASB guidelines of maintaining suitability, the company leads overall energy efficiency in all its business fields that encompassed hardware products, software services along with electronic devices.
The company complies with SASB standards of fair labor practices. The company addresses the purpose of this sustainability standard that assumes information theology companies must consider in-house manufacturing operations. Based on such disclosure guidelines, the company offers disclosure issues encompassing water and waste management and fair labor practices. Moreover, in compliance with the standards, Fujitsu Company realizes the specificity of metric associated with efforts to monitor, assess and decrease exposure of staff to human health risks. The company has retained this metric based on SASB standards in the form of analysis based disclosure (Battilana & Norris, 2014). Complying with this standard, Fujitsu Company is capable to gather decision based information for the management and its investors in cost-effective manner. Moreover, SASB has also offered the company with further clarification regarding technical protocol concerning retired products which must be included in recycled products percentage.
3. Severity of E-waste in Singapore:
The wastage of the electronic products is called the e-waste. There are many electronic products that are gain the name of the e-trash after the completion of their utilities by the human being. Some of these e-wastes can be reused again and there are some of the electronic products that cannot be reused. The rapid technological advancement of the humanization as well as the society is causing many of the electronic products to lose its use after a small span of use (Perkins et al., 2014). These electronic devices become e-trash. The excessive use of the technological equipments in human life of the people of Singapore has led the country to produce extreme amount of the e-trash (Lepawsky, 2015). The curve of severity of the e-trash in Singapore is not only causing the pollution within the society but also is becoming a threat to the human health. A report on the waste management states that the people of the Singapore are throwing approximately 20kg per capita e-waste in a year and this ratio is threatening to the human health (Independent, 2017). The report also states that the e-waste by the people of Singapore is causing hellish condition to another place of the globe. The e-waste of the Singapore is also causing the climatic change in Thailand because of the release of toxic gas from the same.
Management of E-trash in Singapore:
The e-waste management of the Singapore must be handled with proper care and strict manner. It is not possible to destroy all the e-waste that is produced every year in Singapore. The e-waste management of Singapore thus needs to be strategized. From the 3R of the management of the e-waste, the recycling is the most effective for Singapore (Pacheco-Torgal et al., 2013). The reuse of the products is not possible as the updates and advanced technologies may not support the old technological electric product. The reduction of the e-waste is also not possible as the rapid population growth and the fast life of the people requires technological usage at the highest priority (Sandhu, 2013). Therefore, the recycle is the only way for the management of the e-waste in Singapore. The recycle of the waste electronic product will make new parts from the same which can be utilized in making new electronic products of the same category. Therefore, the government and the various organizations that produce the electronic products must focus on the use of the recyclable materials while manufacturing electronic products. In this way, the use of the e-waste will be reduced.
4. Example of Company Practicing Greenwahing:
There are several companies in Singapore that are ‘greenwashing’ the people. The greenwashing is the practice of marketing of the green procurement that has been implemented or going to be implemented in certain company (Mahoney et al., 2013). The practice of greenwashing has been increased in the companies from all over the world and Singapore is no exception. The greenwashing practice in the companies of Singapore has been alleged reported by the media out of which the Construction Resource Initiative Council and SCS Global Service are the notable ones.
Marketing and Communication Plan:
The marketing plan for the company SCS Global Service is using the greenwashing for their product. The greeenwashing makes the company to expense more on the marketing of the eco friendly product than actualizing the same in the practical life (Lane, 2013). The company must focus on the simple and effective marketing of the people rather than greenwashing people. Indeed, the promotion of the eco friendly product is needed but it is not necessary to display the green initiatives of the company with an added effort. The marketing of the product must be simple yet attractive and must reach the purpose and information of the green initiatives taken by the company. In regards to this, the marketing strategy of the McDonalds is referred to the SCS Global Service. The marketing of the McDonalds is focusing more on the implementation of the green initiatives rather than spending more money and time in promoting the same (Gerhardt, Hazen & Lewis, 2014).
It is recommended to the company to undertake the effective marketing strategy for promoting the green initiative and practice performed by the company. The message of the green initiatives that the company is practicing must be clear and precise. The marketing must focus primarily on the product and not the green initiatives. However, the green procurement initiatives must be addressed in the marketing of the product, but with minimal and necessary information. Apart from this, the company can also communicate with the customers regarding the green procurement practice through the USP (unique selling proposition) marketing of the product. It is suggested to the company that there is no need to promote the green procurement practices of the firm with separate marketing activities. Rather, it is suggested that the company must include the minimal information of the green procurement activities in the marketing of the product. Greenwashing will not ensure the green procurement practice, but will suppress the same. The implementation of the green initiatives not can entirely be done by the customers but the company must implement the same.
Referencing:
Amemba, C. S., Nyaboke, P. G., Osoro, A., & Mburu, N. (2013). Elements of green supply chain management. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(12), 51-61.
Barker, T. (2014). Sustainability Reporting: An Evaluation of the SASB Framework.
Battilana, J., & Norris, M. (2014). The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board.
Board, S. A. S. (2015). Accounting for a Sustainable Future. Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. Available online at https://www. sasb. org, checked on, 7(6), 2015.
CSR Activity Targets and Achievements - Fujitsu Singapore. (2017). Fujitsu.com. Retrieved 25 October 2017, from https://www.fujitsu.com/sg/about/csr/vision/kpi/
Fujitsu. (2017). Reduction of Environmental Burden in Our Business Activities - Fujitsu Global. Fujitsu.com. Retrieved 25 October 2017, from https://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/environment/operation/
Fujitsu.com, (2014). https://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/ECO/reports/2014/fujitsureport2014-05010401-e.pdf. https://www.fujitsu.com. Retrieved 25 October 2017, from https://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/ECO/reports/2014/fujitsureport2014-05010401-e.pdf
fujitsu.com. (2014). Green Procurement. Fujitsu.com. Retrieved 25 October 2017, from https://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/ECO/reports/2014/fujitsureport2014-06010201-e.pdf
Fujitsu.com. (2017). Fujitsu Global. Fujitsu.com. Retrieved 25 October 2017, from https://www.fujitsu.com/global
Gerhardt, S., Hazen, S., & Lewis, S. (2014). Small Business Marketing Strategy Based on McDonald's. ASBBS Proceedings, 21(1), 271.
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Khan, M., Serafeim, G., & Yoon, A. (2016). Corporate sustainability: First evidence on materiality. The accounting review, 91(6), 1697-1724.
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Pacheco-Torgal, F., Tam, V., Labrincha, J., Ding, Y., & de Brito, J. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of recycled concrete and demolition waste. Elsevier.
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