Walmart, the world's largest retailer, will officially launch its "Green Sourcing" program next year. Up to one million suppliers' products must obtain carbon footprint emission certifications in a phased manner before they can be placed on the shelves. Major manufacturers that have already obtained certification, such as TSMC, UMC, AU Optronics, Chi Mei Optoelectronics, and ASUS, have essentially obtained Walmart's green sourcing ticket and will begin to reap the benefits of green practices.
Take TSMC as an example. Its annual revenue is as high as NT$400 billion, half of which comes from the US market. Having carbon footprint certification is a strong guarantee for entering the US and even the global market next year.
At the same time, global consumers are becoming increasingly environmentally conscious, and purchasing green products has become a trend. Carbon-reducing electronic products are definitely the future trend.
Walmart responded to environmental protection by using labels to love the earth. In July 2009, it announced a green sourcing plan, which was officially implemented in 2011. Before 2015, all products on the shelves had to be labeled with environmental information such as carbon footprint emissions, otherwise they would not be allowed to be put on the shelves.
Walmart has over 100,000 suppliers, and each supplier may have dozens of contract manufacturers and agents, which will affect up to millions of suppliers worldwide.
TSMC, UMC, AU Optronics, Chi Mei Optoelectronics, and ASUS are among the earliest major manufacturers in Taiwan to offer carbon footprint product certifications. System manufacturers like Compal Electronics and Quanta Computer, which manufacture for Dell and HP, have also established green departments to address this issue. iST and ICT are domestic manufacturers of carbon footprint testing hardware and software; these are all representative stocks in the carbon footprint concept sector.
Industry insiders say that carbon footprint labeling is like calorie labeling on food; the fewer calories a product has, the lower its carbon emissions, and the better it will sell. Since carbon footprint certification takes at least a year, failing to prepare early will result in lost green sourcing opportunities. Furthermore, by 2015, all electronic products will be green goods; without green products, there will be no business opportunities.
Shortly after Walmart announced its green sourcing, TSMC, together with its packaging and testing partner ASE, completed a declaration of its semiconductor environmental products and carbon footprint, providing a reference for the global semiconductor wafer manufacturing and packaging and testing industries to formulate green labels in the future.
Delta Electronics, a major power management manufacturer, has already participated in the international carbon disclosure program in response to Walmart's green label initiative. D-Link, a leading networking company, also recently completed carbon footprint certification for two of its green and energy-efficient switches.
In addition, ICT, which focuses on integrated systems, provides software recording systems for carbon footprint emissions; iST provides carbon footprint testing laboratories. With the surge in demand for Walmart's green labels, iST will be a beneficiary of the green procurement trend.
Source: Economic Daily
