Green Productivity & Scm

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GREEN PRODUCTIVITY AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Dr. Tay Joo Hwa Head of Division of Environmental & Water Resources Engineering Director of Environmental Engineering Research Center Nanyang Technological University Singapore

OUR ENVIRONMENT Every type of economic activity involves utilization of environmental or natural resources. It has been recognized globally that production and consumption patterns have become unsustainable. Increasing awareness and growing public concern about the negative impacts on the environment and natural resource base has prompted the government to reconsider its strategy for growth and economic development. Most of the Asian countries are trying their best to balance the development and environmental needs based on the economic situation of their countries. Prior to the 1950s, the common business response to environmental pollution was to ignore such problems. This was possible when the problems were relatively small and the awareness of the health and environmental impacts was low. In the 1960s, a common approach to pollution was to adopt “the solution to pollution is dilution” concept. Air pollutants were dispersed by tall smokestacks and water pollutants were discharged into the river/sea. However, these diluted pollutants accumulated in soil and water and eventually found their way into the food chain. In 1970s, the government realized that pollutants had exceeded the assimilative capacity of the environment. There were efforts to establish environmental standards to regulate the discharge of pollutants. This resulted in the use of end-of-pipe (EOP) treatment systems. As the discharge standards became more stringent, the cost of such end-of-pipe treatment of wastes became more expensive and affected the economic viability of some industries. Besides the high costs, the end-of-pipe treatment approach was found to be far from adequate. Pollutants were not eliminated, but merely transferred from one medium to another. The...