Green procurement in trading sector of Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong is a strategic procurement center and logistics center in Asia. Majority of Hong Kong’s trading companies’ involvement in the supply chain is to bid orders from global distributors and retailers, and then search for appropriate contract manufacturers to produce the goods. In recent years, there has been an increasing concern for sustainability of products, processes, and services. To increase its competitiveness, it is an important issue for trading companies to take green supply chain management (GSCM) initiatives to improve its long-term development capabilities. This paper is on the establishment of a green procurement model for trading companies. The model integrates environmental and sustainability concerns into the procurement process. In trading firms, purchasing is the main SCM activity. It is therefore the focus of this paper to take environmental and corporate social responsibility (CSR) requirements into account for product and supplier evaluation and selection. The procurement model developed by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) comprises an approach to rank and select products and suppliers with the incorporation of sustainability requirements. The proposed system aims to support long-term supplier continuous assessment for further performance monitoring and evaluation, and also help on reviewing supplier management strategies and green supply management.