About the company: Global Asia Industrial Limited is a car accessory manufacturing and trading company, with a trading office based in Hong Kong and production lines in mainland China.

So what's the problem? "We were required by one of our main clients to implement an environmental management system (EMS)," Marketing Executive May Leung recalled. "But to do a proper job of it, we realised that we had to convince our suppliers to follow 'green' practices as well."

This was their solution. "Realizing that environmental protection will be an increasing concern for our clients we first decided to develop an EMS for ourselves," Leung said.

Global Asia joined Project Acorn, a programme that helps SMEs to develop an ISO 14001 environmental management system for its trading office in Hong Kong. By the third quarter of 2004, Global Asia had extended the environmental management system to its Mainland production lines. The Hong Kong office made regular inspections of its Mainland operations to ensure that correct measures were being followed. "Though our EMS is certified for our Hong Kong office, we should also be responsible for managing our manufacturing plants where most of the environmental impacts arise," Leung explained.

Global Asia next tackled the job of influencing the environmental performance of its suppliers. Suppliers were asked to answer a questionnaire about their environmental commitment and to sign an agreement to comply with Global Asia's environmental performance requirement.

"The suppliers at first reacted with hesitation, and we had to explain to them the pressure we face from our clients." Leung said. Global Asia explained to them that if they couldn't supply more environmentally friendly alternatives or didn't control pollution from their production lines, Global Asia would fail to meet its major clients' expectations and risk losing business. "This is the last thing the suppliers and Global Asia want to happen," Leung said.

Besides putting pressure on the suppliers, Global Asia also expressed its intention to establish long-term relationships with them. As a result, only a few suppliers opted not to follow the environmental requirement. Through this exercise, Global Asia was also able to identify suppliers who are ready to react to new market trends.

Who gained from the project? Following an environmental management system helps Global Asia to keep track of the latest trends in green products and packaging, helping them to stand out from competitors. "Some clients, especially the larger ones, prefer us because we readily offer greener, alternative packaging and commit to environmental management," Leung said. "Nowadays we are even able to alert our clients about the green product legislation in their export markets, such as restrictions in azodyes or heavy metals. This is value-added service for our clients."

Looking back. As Global Asia has implemented an environmental management system for less than a year, there isn't enough quantitative evidence to determine its impact on the company's business as yet. However, Global Asia has already realised the competitive advantage of environmental management.

"We now notice that almost all big clients are insisting that suppliers have to be environmentally responsible. For SMEs it is vital to meet these clients' requirements and secure long-term relationships with them.

"At Global Asia we are glad that we have already started controlling the environmental impacts of our production lines and suppliers. This move has already put us ahead of competitors. So we plan to keep on strengthening our environmental management system to stay competitive," Leung said.

	Notice board showing environmental practices at the Mainland production plant.
	Collection points for used batteries, ink cartridges, etc at the Mainland production plant.
	Envelopes reused for internal communication. "We reuse them so often that now we sometimes run out of old envelopes."