Greening the Supply Chain

Nestle Philippines, Inc. recently won a Success Story Award from the Pollution Control Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PCAPI) for the successful implementation of its "Greening the Supply Chain" or GSC Program. PCAPI is an association of environmental executives representing various corporations, including some of the country’s largest industrial and manufacturing operations.

Launched in 2003, GSC is an initiative of Nestle Philippines to promote environmentally friendly practices among the company’s business partners by helping them formulate and implement their own environmental management systems (EMS).

Now on its third year, GSC has successfully helped the first batch of 29 business partners establish their own EMS programs, in the process not only boosting environmental protection but also realizing significant operational efficiencies and cost savings. The second batch of Nestle business partners is now participating in GSC, setting up their own environmental management systems.

Every year, PCAPI presents the Success Story Award to institutions with successfully implemented environmental programs or projects that can be replicated by other companies. The following criteria for selection are applied: significant contribution to environmental awareness; environmental conflict resolution; natural resources conservation and pollution prevention; demonstrable/measurable success; approach indicating the self-generation of the project; sustainability of success and benefits; replicability in other similar industries; and significant savings.

Four other companies received the PCAPI award this year: Lexmart International (Phils.), Inc., Taiyo Yuden (Phils.), Inc., Fairchild Semiconductor Hongkong (Holdings) Ltd., and Toshiba Information Equipment (Phils.) Inc.

The awards were presented at PCAPI’s 23rd national convention with the theme "Thriving Business Through Environmental Management Systems" Nestle Philippines Corporate Environmental Services Head Jess Reyes, Corporate Environmental Officer Obet Feliciano, and Environment and Safety Officers Edwin Ramillo and Bert Cual of the Lipa and Cagayan de Oro factories, respectively, received the award for the company. In 1998, Nestle Philippines won PCAPI’s Mother Nature Award for its exemplary environmental programs, the first company to earn the award.

"Our GSC Program is a very effective means for strengthening the environmental performance of Nestle’s partners," said Jess Reyes, "Environmental initiatives take time to bear fruit, and this is why implementing GSC is a long-term effort, to make sure the benefits are realized in a sustainable way. The GSC program has shown that small businesses can be equal to bigger ones in caring for the environment, and both can learn and profit from each other’s environmental practices of efficiencies and savings."