On 26 - 27 September 2019, SWITCH-Asia joined the Annual Conference and Capacity Building Workshop of the APEC Cooperation Network on Green Supply Chain in Tianjin, China.
Green Supply Chain is one of the most significant issues in economic and environmental cooperation under the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). As an innovative management tool, green supply chain management makes full use of market forces to guide governments, businesses and consumers across all sectors to purchase more sustainable raw materials and products.
With the aim of promoting regional green supply chain interconnectivity and inclusive growth in the Asia-Pacific region, the Annual Conference and Capacity Building Workshop was hosted by the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center (FECO) of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the APEC GSCNET Tianjin Pilot Center. The conference attracted around 100 participants from governments, manufactures, consultants, academics and associations to share experiences and exchange insights on green supply chain management among APEC member economies.
With an emphasis on exploring ‘green solutions’ to respond to global environmental challenges and green development needs in the Asia- Pacific region, the event shared policy experiences on green supply chain management, and practices on green supply chain management by various sectors (eg. cement, building, autos and printing sectors) among APEC member economies. Many participants highlighted the need to support incentive policies and green public procurement to support green growth in Asia-Pacific.
During the event, Ms. Lixia Zheng @switchasia, the SWITCH-Asia Regional Policy Advocacy Project Coordinator for China, presented the programme main activities and findings on Sustaianble Consumption and Production (SCP) in China. She focused attention on the fact that “breaking silos and bringing different stakeholders together is key to achieve SCP in China”. This was one of the key findings of the National Policy Dialogue on Sustainable Consumption for Policy Makers and Stakeholders in China organized by SWITCH Asia Regional Policy Advocacy Component with the China Environmental United Certification Center (CEC) on April 25th 2019. This is also one of the main preliminary recommendations of the policy status report on SCP currently being developed by CEC and the SWITCH-Asia Regional Policy Advocacy.
Lixia Zheng also announced that the call for applications to the SWITCH-Asia Leadership Academy on Circular Economy is now open. The event will take place in December in Beijing. For more information visit here.
