The Great Green Chains of China A case study of the sustainable evolution of supply chains in the Chinese economy

Abstract

“Looking back, I underestimated the risks. The planet and the atmosphere seem to be absorbing less carbon than we expected, and emissions are rising pretty strongly. Some of the effects are coming through more quickly than we thought then”. Nicholas Stern, 2013

Climate change is one of the major threats to mankind and the economic system as we know today. It is not only about environmental disasters or violent meteorological events, we talk about an extremely vulnerable economic system, not ready to absorb the damages inflicted by this titan created by humanity.

It is no longer enough to adopt a short-term perspective, today companies are demanded to rethink their production processes, their supply of raw materials and the commercialisation of their final products, not only to satisfy an ideology of sustainability, but above all to create systems capable to reduce environmental impacts and prevent damages to their value chain. What situation do businesses face today and what potential instruments can be used to build a strategy that could be beneficial and economically convenient both on the short and on the long term? How can companies contribute to the reduction of the total emissions produced and released in the atmosphere each year, but at the same time achieve a greater level of sustainability not only of their products, but involving every stage of their supply chains? Does the pressure coming from the public opinion and public policies encourage or hinder the sustainability path of companies?

Starting from an analysis of climate change and the economic system, the thesis will focus on the Chinese economy and the effects of the implementation of Green Supply Chain Management strategies. After analysing governmental policies and NGOs activities in China, the thesis will pursue with a quantitative research with the aim to discover the various approaches taken in place by Chinese and multinational companies operating in China. Drivers and obstacles, instruments and strategies, performance and results will all be evaluated. After that, a qualitative investigation will enrich the research with a study on concrete business cases in the Chinese IT sector.

The thesis will investigate potential answers to the previous questions, taking as reference the country of the dragon, known also as the workshop of the world. China today is living a complete revolution regarding sustainability, the economy and the necessity to face environmental issues. Green supply chains management is a relatively new field in China and it is at its early stages of implementation. For this reason, it represents an interesting research field to study and to discover.

The final goal? Finding a valuable response to a fundamental query: “Is it convenient for companies to become more sustainable?”.