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Process Reengineering with Green in Mind
A number of business processes can be altered with an eye toward environmental responsibility.
One of the places where you might choose to change or alter your business processes is in your
supply chain management. Also known as green sourcing, using a green supply chain is gaining
momentum in the business world.
If you’re not already embracing green sourcing, you can make the change by
understanding a few issues.

Know Your Needs
This first step is to understand your existing supply chain. You need to study how your
organization spends and its consumption patterns. Obviously, you can’t make changes to
something you don’t understand. At this stage, you need to understand the current state of
your procurement and how you consume materials.
Make a Plan
Once you understand your supply chain, the next step is to develop a plan. At this stage,
you’ll create goals and the metrics to track your progress, as shown in Figure 5-1.
For example, some electronics companies want to improve end-of-life management by
increasing the lifetime of equipment by making it easier to swap out old components and
provide easy upgrade paths. In this case, the electronics companies have multiple initiatives
as the result of a single goal.
Internal and External Needs
With a plan in place, you need someone to oversee the project. It isn’t sufficient to simply
have a plan and expect individuals in your organization to find their piece within the plan.
Many companies have chief sustainability officers who coordinate and oversee green
efforts. Although this person will have different roles and functions in different
organizations, it is important to have someone in place as a single point of accountability.
Supply Chain Management overhaul

Recycling program
overhaul Accounting Dept.
greening project

IT Dept. greening Paperless office
project project