The greening of suppliers—in the South East Asian context

As South Asia is becoming an important manufacturing hub in the world, as a supplier of goods/services to several global players, the concept of ‘greening the suppliers,’ is assuming greater relevance. While more and more companies in this region are embracing the concept of ‘greening,’ this process has not been accompanied by sufficient research studies to provide insight into the extent and the nature of the implementation of the ‘greening’ process that is taking place in this region. This paper aims to provide an understanding of the extent of ‘greening’ that has been implemented and the underlying reasons for Asian companies to increasingly adopt it. The study, conducted across Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, identifies initiatives commonly taken by the companies in their greening endeavours and on the driving forces for these companies to take these environmental initiatives. It then clusters the companies with respect to the type of initiatives taken and the major driving forces considered by them. The analyses performed reveal the major driving forces that are responsible for the increasing endeavours in the greening of the suppliers.