Battle of the Brands: Greening Global Supply Chains

Which company has a greener supply chain in China: Apple or Dell? Mobike or Ofo? Puma or Nike?

China is often referred to as the “workshop of the world,” producing around a quarter of the world’s manufacturing output by value. But along with China’s rapid industrialization and modernization have come grave environmental impacts — the result, in part, of a “pollute first, clean up later” mindset. To address supply chain environmental impacts resulting from the globalization of trade, the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), a local NGO based in Beijing, is leveraging information transparency and corporate responsiveness to brand reputation.

Environment China chats with IPE’s green supply chain project manager, Helen Ding, about how IPE applies its Blue Map Database of corporate environmental violation records to push major brands to improve the transparency and environmental performance of their supply chains in China. Helen discusses IPE’s Corporate Information Transparency Index (CITI) rankings of over 250 major multinational and Chinese companies, as well recent investigations into China’s growing shared bicycle industry, among other related topics. Listeners interested in learning more can check out the CITI rankings and annual report on IPE’s website, or watch a short PBS feature on IPE’s green supply work.