China's ICT Industry Sustainable Development and CSR Summit Forum 2019

 

On April 9, China's ICT Industry Sustainable Development and CSR Summit Forum 2019 was successfully held in Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center. 

Over 90 guests including Fan Bin, Deputy Director-General of Department of Policies, Laws and Regulations of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT), Zhao Bo, President of China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI), Christian Ewert, President of amfori (amfori formerly known as Foreign Trade Association), Zhou Bing, Vice President of Dell Greater China, etc. attended the meeting. Xiong Huajun, Deputy Secretary-General of Chinese Electronics Standardization Association (CESA), presided over the forum.
 

 

Fan Bin, Deputy Director-General of Department of Policies, Laws and Regulations of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT)

 

As an important pusher of CSR development in the industry, Mr. Fan Bin, pointed out in his speech that, CSR is the important guarantee of the sustainable development of our country and it plays a significant role in economic development, ecological environment and social stability. In recent years, the Department of Policies, Laws and Regulations of MIIT has collaborated with related organizations to carry out CSR activities. Focusing on SDGs, the Department aims to guide enterprises in the industry to practice social responsibility and build a good environment for social responsibility fulfillment via releasing related instructional documents and supporting tools, therefore laying a good foundation for the development of green supply chain.
 
In the future, the development of green supply chain should focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and push them to learn and utilize the advanced management philosophies, means and methods from home and abroad by helping them understand the significance of green development. We should collaborate with various parties to promote the development of green supply chain in ICT industry.
 
In 2018, the rapid growing ICT industry in China and the acceleration and deepening of integration with other industries, technologies and markets, have become an important engine that support building a world manufacturing power, cyber power, and innovation-driven economic and social development of our country. According to Xi Jinping's report at 19th CPC National Congress, China's economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development, which has pointed out a new direction and has put forward higher requirements to boost the development of ICT industry in the new era.

 

Zhao Bo, President of China Electronics Standardization Institute

 

Mr. Zhao Bo, believed that, to strengthen CSR management is the internal demand for enterprises to conduct restructuring and upgrading and improve their soft power. It is also the effective innovation means for government, better management approaches for the industry, and the only route to the sustainable development of ICT industry. As an important part of CSR fulfillment, the green supply chain plays a vital role in promoting high-quality manufacturing development and building a world manufacturing power. To develop green supply chain requires enterprises to be more responsible: The enterprises at the core of the supply chain should play a leading role to drive the upstream and downstream enterprises together in resource conservation and environmental-friendly path of sustainable development, hence realizing green development and improving the quality of the green growth of manufacturing industry.

 

 

Christian Ewert, President of amfori

 

The work of international mutual trust and integration in social responsibility standards is an important component to facilitate global cooperation on CSR. Mr. Christian Ewert, called on all actors to do the part they are best suited to and not avoid their responsibilities in the development of green supply chain, from the angle of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). No one has all the answers or expertise to these challenges, and this makes us reliant on each other to find new or innovative ways to ensure lasting economic, social and environmental development and promote the green supply chain of ICT industry, which will lead to the achievement of the SDGs.

 

 

Zhou Bing, Vice President of Dell Greater China

 

Industry-leading enterprises are the driving force for the development of green supply chain, and the core strength of joint promotion along the entire supply chain. Mr. Zhou Bing profoundly analyzed the importance of sustainable development from the perspective of enterprises. He believed that, sustainable development has become global common awareness, and to implement positive strategies of sustainable development is not only required by enterprises themselves, but also a means to satisfy the growing demand of sustainable consumption by customers. In the meantime, we must realize that ICT industry is the industry with the fastest solid waste increase, and we still have a long way towards sustainable development.
 
During the Forum, The Green Supply Chain Best Practices of ICT Industry 2019 was released. For the first time, The Observation Report of the Green Supply Chain Development of ICT Industry 2019 was included in the Best Practices, which revealed six main features of the green supply chain of ICT industry. In the end of the forum, a panel discussion with the theme of “Value Innovation of Green Supply Chain” was held.

 

 

The Observation Report points out that the supply chain enterprises involved in the ICT industry are large and complex. Environmental issues from any part of the supply chain could have a bad impact on the whole industry’s sustainable development. This to some extent brings serious challenges to the green supply chain management (GSCM) of ICT industry. The “five-sphere integrated model” of government guidance, industry promotion, customer requirements, corporate practices, and social engagement, plays a good role in pushing the green supply chain practices of China’s ICT industry.
 
Ms. Lin Bo, Vice President of GoldenBee (Beijing) Management Consulting Co., Ltd., pointed out that the green supply chain practices of ICT industry will have six features, and she also offered some countermeasures and suggestions for the ICT enterprises to build green supply chain: establishing the awareness of risk sharing and building strategic alliances; responding to policy trends and promoting benign competition; taking advantage of ICT industry’s technological strength and improving management efficiency; advocating cross-industry collaboration and sharing advanced experiences.
 
The six main features of the green supply chain practices of ICT industry:
 
1. Environmental management will be included in procurement standards;
 
2. Waste recycling and disposal becomes the highlight of responsibility fulfillment;
 
3. Green management of product’s whole lifecycle become the common sense of the industry;
 
4. Supplier communication and training will be organized regularly;
 
5. The green development potential of small to medium-size enterprises (SMEs) still needs to be further explored;
 
6. The transparency of the disclosure of green supply chain information still needs to be improved.

 

 

Lin Bo, Vice President of GoldenBee (Beijing) Management Consulting Co., Ltd.

 

In the process of compiling the Best Practices, 9 cases of 8 enterprises with outstanding performances after case collection, material verification, expert review, text editing, etc.
 

 

Guests unveil the cover of The Green Supply Chain Best Practices of ICT Industry 2019.
 

 

 
 

In the end of the forum, a panel discussion with the theme of “Value Innovation of Green Supply Chain” was presided over by Yu Zhihong, President and Editor-in-Chief of China Sustainability Tribune. He Zhizhang, Director of Social and Environmental Responsibility (SER) of Dell Technologies Inc., Zhao Xiangdong, Director of Environment Promotion Department of Panasonic Corporation of China, Zhou Guoyin, Senior Manager of Social Responsibility Department, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. and Zeng Yalin, Director of Shenzhen Innovation Corporate Social Responsibility Development Center (CSRDC) joined discussion.
 
During the discussion, all guests actively shared the philosophies and outstanding practices of their own enterprises and organizations in green supply chain, with the hope to bring thoughts and examples for more enterprises in the industry, and lead SMEs to improve their engagement and contribution to value creation in green supply chain, thus promoting the sustainable development of green supply chain.

 

Panel discussion — value innovation of green supply chain

 

Mr. Yu Zhihong, President and Editor-in-Chief of China Sustainability Tribune pointed out in the discussion that, the development of green supply chain changes rapidly in recent years, with its main topic gradually transferring from compliance and risk control to more active value creation. In the past, supply chain management was driven by the sense of corporate responsibility, but now it is no longer only required by social responsibility, but also the inner demand of industry chain and enterprises’ own development – responsibility and corporate competitiveness can both be considered.
 
Meanwhile, as regard to SMEs’ engagement in developing green supply chain, they can bring positive changes to supply chain by methods, such as pushing, driving, stimulating and awakening, etc. Social responsibility and sustainable development are no contradiction to supply chain management. Developing green supply chain can effectively enhance the responsible competitiveness of enterprises, and boost green development and transformation & upgrading of the industry and even the entire society.
 
Focusing on the topics such as the benchmarking role of large enterprises in green supply chain, the development of SMEs in green supply chain, etc., this forum invited experts, scholars, and enterprise representatives in the field of CSR to conduct related discussion, and offered new directions and ideas for strengthening the leading role of industry-leading enterprises, and extending practices of green supply chain from the industry-leading enterprises to the majority of SMEs, thus helping push the progress of developing green supply chain in ICT industry.
  
This Forum was hosted by Shenzhen Municipal People's Government and MIIT, organized by Chinese Electronics Standardization Association and Chinese Electronics Standardization Institute, and co-organized by the Committee on Social Responsibility of Chinese Electronics Standardization Association and China Sustainability Tribune.