绿色供应链CITI指数在贵阳论坛发布

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2014年7月12日，公众环境研究中心与自然资源保护协会在贵阳生态文明论坛联合发布绿色供应链企业环境信息公开指数（CITI），首期评价结果显示，苹果、H&M和溢达纺织在147个国内外消费品牌绿色供应链评价中领先。

CITI指数是全球首个基于品牌在华供应链环境管理表现而制订的量化评价体系。该指数由中国环保组织公众环境研究中心（IPE）和国际环保组织自然资源保护协会（NRDC）联合开发并运行，并得到了阿拉善SEE基金会等机构的大力支持。

CITI指数在SEE公益机构和IPE联合举办、贵州省环保厅协办的生态文明论坛之绿色采购拉动绿色生产分论坛发布。环保部宣教中心贾锋主任，对外合作中心方莉副主任，贵州省环境监察局局党委书记、局长田获书记，以及国合会外方首席顾问Arthur Hanson先生分别致辞，阐述了绿化全球供应链的必要性。

CITI指数的开发，正是为了协助应对全球生产和采购带来的环境挑战。作为世界工厂，大量工业产品的加工生产，对中国一些地区的空气、水和土壤环境造成了严重污染。而由于全球供应链的复杂性，既有的中外评价和认证体系多不能有效涵盖供应链环境管理。

NRDC环境与健康项目主任Linda Greer指出：“尽管全球商业中供应链的核心功能至关重要，尽管其生产制造过程中产生巨大污染，企业所履行的社会责任一般很少关注其生产制造对新兴经济体带来的环境影响。”

近年来中国环境信息公开的进步和环保公众参与的发展，为形成多个利益方合作参与的供应链管理提供了可能性。自2010年起， IPE与NGO合作伙伴先后推动IT和纺织行业数十家品牌运用污染地图识别和控制供应链污染，并开展定性评价，2013年8月起IPE开始与NRDC展开合作，对供应链环境管理评价体系进行了大幅完善，并吸收多方意见，最终形成了“企业环境信息公开指数（CITI）”。

公众环境研究中心主任马军提出：“首期CITI评价涉及的品牌在全球拥有数以亿计的消费者，希望中外消费者能够关注CITI指数形成的品牌表现得分和排名，用自己的购买权力作出绿色选择，为中国和全球的污染减排提供动力”。

通过本期评价看到，绿色采购正在推动供应链的节能减排。截止2014年6月，中外品牌共推动超过1600家企业进行沟通说明或披露排放数据，其中数百家企业进行了实质性的整改和完善。为了便于更多消费者了解品牌表现，IPE在其近期开发的一款名为“污染地图”的App中，提供了品牌环境表现的手机查询功能。

CITI指数另一个重要目的，是协助企业找到绿化在华供应链的可行路径。公众环境研究中心绿色供应链项目经理马莹莹介绍说，CITI指数设置了沟通互动、合规守法、延伸绿色采购、数据披露和责任回收等10项评价指标，每一步都是由易到难、由浅入深，因此评价标准本身就可以看作是一幅绿色供应链路线图。

马军认为：“CITI评价，能够反映品牌是否有意愿、有能力、有体系解决供应链环境污染问题，也能够协助品牌从环境合规迈向持续改进，直至达成最佳实践。”

首期CITI评价涉及的IT、纺织、食品饮料、日化、纸业、汽车、啤酒、皮革等8个行业，对环境均有较为显著的影响。通过对比分析，苹果、H&M、联合利华、可口可乐、Stora Enso、Puma等品牌分别在各自行业评价中排名靠前。但与此同时，依然有47家品牌未能对其供应链存在的问题作出任何回应，显示建立绿色供应链建设依然任重道远。

马莹莹指出：“CITI指数是建立在数据平台和信息公开的基础上的，我们认为，缺乏透明度的品牌企业，既不能与利益方开展实质性沟通交流，也不能借助社会监督力量，因此也难以确保其供应链条能够在复杂的社会条件下达成环保标准。”

值得一提的是，CITI评价也纳入一批来自中国大陆的品牌。虽然整体表现尚待提升，但华为、联想、李宁、雅戈尔、探路者等一批参与全球竞争的中国品牌也已经开启了绿色采购。

阿拉善SEE公益机构常务副秘书长王利民对此评价说：“近年来，中国的产品和服务逐渐走向全世界，中国企业也开始了自身产业链的国际化，海外投资迅速增长。在此过程中，这些企业也将与其他跨国公司一样，在企业的环境责任管理上接受各地政策法规和全球消费者的监督。因此，绿色供应链管理对于中国企业未来的全球化发展来说也是至关重要的。”

为协助中国企业承担环境责任，实现可持续发展，SEE今年6月启动了第一批60余家中国企业参与的“中国企业绿色契约——绿色供应链行动”。两位SEE会员，大成食品集团董事局主席韩家寰先生和探路者董事王静，出席了本次论坛，并与微软总经理Joan Krajewski女士、H&M中国区首席代表Leyla Ertur女士、广东溢达纺织针织布厂程鹏总经理、加州大学Alex Wang教授和NRDC环境分析师Susan Keane女士共同分享了各自在绿色供应链管理方面的认识和经验。

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Green Supply Chain CITI Index Released at Guiyang Eco-Forum



June 12, 2014 – The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) today jointly release the Corporate Information Transparency Index (CITI) at the 2014 Eco-Forum Global Conference in Guiyang, China. This inaugural CITI report found that Apple, H&M, and Esquel Group are leading the pack in terms of green supply chain performance out of 147 consumer brands that were assessed.



The CITI is a new quantitative evaluation system designed to measure a brand’s performance in managing the environmental impacts of their supply chains in China. The CITI is jointly developed by IPE and the NRDC, with the generous support of the SEE Foundation.



The CITI is being released at the Greening the Global Supply Chain sub-forum, organized by  the SEE Foundation and IPE, to be held at the Guiyang Eco-Forum Global hosted by the Environmental Protection Department of Guizhou. Jia Feng, Director at the Center for Environmental Education and Communications (CEEC), Fang Li, Deputy Director, Foreign Economic Cooperation Office, Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, Tian Huo, Party Committee Secretary and Bureau Chief, Guizhou Environmental Protection Inspection Department and Arthur Hanson, CCICED International Chief Advisor, are featured presenters who will be speaking on the importance of greening the global supply chain.



The CITI has been developed to help address the environmental challenges brought forth by global production and procurement. As the workshop of the world, China’s industrial production and processes have brought about severe pollution to its air, water and soil. Given the complexity of global supply chains, existing Chinese and international supply chain standards and assessment regimes have been ineffective in accounting for the environmental performance of supply chains.



“Despite the central importance of supply chains in globalized business core function, and despite the heavy impact of pollution from manufacturing in this way, company corporate social responsibility programs generally focus very inadequate attention on pollution from their supply chain. To the contrary, they focus on where it is easiest to start, rather than where it is the most important to fix,” says Linda E. Greer, Ph.D., Director of NRDC’s Health and Environment Program.



Over the past few years there has been progress made in the level environmental information disclosure in China and also developments in levels of public participation. In order to increase stakeholder participation in environmental management of supply chains, since 2010, IPE and partner NGOs have pushed dozens of brands from the IT and textile industries to use IPE’s Pollution Map database to identify and address their supply chain pollution problems. They have then conducted qualitative assessments of these brands. In August 2013, IPE began partnering with NRDC to refine its supply chain evaluation methods, and based on the input from multiple sources, developed the CITI.



Ma Jun, Director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs said that, “The inaugural CITI evaluation looks at brands that have hundreds of millions of customers across the world. Our hope is that consumers in and outside of China pay attention to the CITI evaluation scores and rankings and use their own purchasing power to make more environmentally conscious choices, and be a force for pollution and emissions reduction in China.”



It is already apparent from this inaugural CITI evaluation that green procurement policies are reducing energy use and emissions. As of June 2014, Chinese and foreign brands had collectively pushed more than 1600 suppliers to issue statements on their specific pollution problems or to disclose their emissions data, and several hundred of these companies have taken corrective actions. To help more consumers understand the performance of different brands, IPE has also developed the ”Pollution Map” mobile app that allows users to use their cell phones to look up the environmental performance of different brands.



Another goal of the CITI is to create a roadmap that brands can follow to green their supply chains in China. Ma Yingying, Project Manager at IPE, said that the CITI evaluation is built upon five main themes: Communication and Follow-up, Compliance and Corrective Actions, Extending Green Supply Chains Practices, Target Setting and Data Disclosure, and Recycling and Reuse. These five themes are split into the 10 criteria the CITI uses for evaluating companies. Each of the evaluation criteria is split into five levels, from ones that are easy to implement, to more challenging ones that require a deeper level of supply chain management. The final aim is to reach a level of green supply chain best practice. So overall the CITI is also designed to be a green supply chain roadmap.



Ma Jun believes that, “The CITI reflects the brand’s will, capability, and institutional backing to solve pollution problems in its supply chain, and can also aid brands to move from basic compliance to continuous improvement and eventually best practice.”



This inaugural CITI assessment looks at eight industrial sectors with significant environmental impacts: IT, textiles, food and beverage, household and personal care, automobile, breweries, and leather. Apple, H&M, Unilever, Coca Cola, Stora Enso, and Puma were top performers in their respective sectors. However, 47 of the brands were unable to provide any sort of response to questions about their supply chains, demonstrating that there’s a long road ahead before the goal of green supply chains can be attained.



Ma Yingying says that, “The CITI evaluation is based on data platforms and information disclosure. We believe that those brands that lack transparency cannot demonstrate the effectiveness of their environmental protection work, and cannot carry out meaningful communications with stakeholders, and therefore face difficulties in ensuring supply chains can meet environmental standards given the complex social conditions in which they operate.”



Notably, this CITI evaluation includes numerous Chinese brands. While Chinese brands have lots of room for improvement, Huawei, Lenovo, Li-Ning, Youngor Group, and Toread have already started to enact green procurement policies.



Wang Limin, vice secretary of the SEE Foundation, commented that, “Over the past few years, Chinese products and services have been distributed globally, with supply chains of Chinese companies extending worldwide, and Chinese outbound investment rising. This means Chinese multinationals, in respect to their environmental management, will be subject to many different local regulations and also public supervision from consumers across the world. Therefore, it’s important that Chinese enterprises develop their green supply chain management.”



To help Chinese companies assume more environmental responsibility, and implement sustainable development practices, the SEE Foundation, in June this year, initiated a conference called the Green Agreement for Chinese Businesses- Green Supply Chain Action, in which more than 60 Chinese companies participated. Two SEE Foundation members, Han Jiahuan, Chairman of the Board at the Dachan Group, and Wang Jing, Chairman of Toread, will attend the forum, and with other guests, including Joan Krajewski, General Manager at Microsoft, Leyla Ertur, H&M China Regional Representative, Wang Jing, Chairwoman of Toread Group, Alex Wang, Professor at UCLA School of Law, and Susan Keane, Senior Analyst at the NRDC’s Health and Environment Program, will share their knowledge and experiences on how companies can make their supply chains greener.