Global Collaboration for Sustainable Supply Chain

On June 6, 2016, the 14^th Sino-European CSR Roundtable was held in Beijing. The topic this year is “COP 21 and 13^th Five-Year Plan – implications for sustainable supply chains”. About 80 participants attended the forum.

The Sino-European Roundtable Forum starts from 2008 and gradually become the communication platform for China and European countries to discuss the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and related practices. The round table serves to develop the relationship between China and Europe as well as to promote CSR awareness.
In the forum, many hot issues in the supply chain were discussed in the past years covering labor relations, labor contract laws, due diligence for sustainable supply chains, etc. Each year the topic of the forum closely follows the influential big events both in the international and China.

2016 marks the first year of the 13^th Five-Year Plan as well as the start point after the Paris Agreement had been signed. As Mr. Guo Xiuming, Associate Counsel, Department of Policies, Laws and Regulations of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated in his opening remark, “it is of great significance to discuss CSR and supply chain under this brand new circumstances.”

He also pointed out: “from the value chain point of view, CSR in the industry and information technology field is an ecosystem that covers the responsible investment, responsible manufacturing and responsible consumption.”

Mr. Ewert, Director-General of Foreign Trade Association echoed: “doing business around the world in a sustainable way is our common vision. We believe macroeconomic stability, social inclusion, environmental protection and corporate responsibility as complementary objectives to ensure ‘Free but also Sustainable Trade’. Personally I see the future is in Global Responsible Sustainable Value Chains”.

According to the statistics of FTA, China is the most important souring market, representing the 70% of the total 11,000 audits of its members in factories and farms globally. Products we trade have embedded social and environmental impacts that are very much global in nature.

Global warming, water pollution and the wholesale degradation of our biodiversity are not the consequence of a single country, company or industry, nor do they recognize country borders. They are our shared responsibility. 


The Paris Agreement is the commitment that global leaders made to the mankind for addressing the climate change issue. While in China the 13^th Five-Year Plan put forward the green development, aligning well with the Paris Agreement. In the next five years, China will take a more proactive role replacing fossil fuels, boosting low-carbon public transport and cutting emissions.

What is the implication for the global supply chain? Global collaboration would be play an even more important role for the sustainability in supply chain nowadays. In the 14^th Sino-European CSR Roundtable Forum, Zhejiang CSR Promotion Association, China WTO Tribune and Foreign Trade Association – Business Social Compliance Initiative signed MOU of Enhancing the Development of Corporate Social Responsibility in Zhejiang Province.

The partnership will leverage their strengths in professional knowledge as well as resources to promote sustainable development of global supply chain. With the introduction of widely recognized social and environmental requirements such as BSCI and BEPI, three organizations will provide capacity building to and help raise the awareness of responsible competitiveness of companies in Zhejiang Industry Clusters and Featured Towns.