2017 GEC Catalyst Awards

2017 GEC Catalyst Awards

Representatives from the Global Electronics Councilwere pleased to honor in-person several of the Winners, Finalists and a member of the Judging Committee at the 2017 Catalyst Awards Ceremony in Shanghai, China, in June 2017.

2017 Catalyst Award Winners

Sourcemap Inc. Supply Chain Transparency Community
Advances in supply chain transparency driven by enterprise social networking, analytics and visualization are making it possible for manufacturers and brands to have continuous assurance that their products are sustainably sourced and assembled. Sourcemap introduced the first supply chain social network designed to connect supply chain stakeholders, from raw materials to end customers, to enable full traceability across the hundreds of thousands of businesses that work together to deliver modern electronics. Used for years by individual brands and manufacturers to collect custom data from 1st, 2nd and 3rd-tier suppliers, Sourcemap is now introducing supply chain communities that enable multiple competing companies to benefit from a shared repository of pre-competitive information on suppliers’ social and environmental performance. Brands that have achieved visibility and benchmarks are also able to take advantage of Open Sourcemap, the world’s largest public platform for sharing product supply chains transparently with consumers through website embeds and linked QR codes.
Xerox Corporation Optimizing a Reverse Logistics System
Xerox, as a corporate citizen, has a role to play throughout the lifecycle of our products and services. Our responsibility does not end once the product is sold. Xerox takes on supply chain responsibility as an electronics manufacturer from material extraction all the way through the end-of-life management of products. Over the past few years Xerox has optimized the Eastern and Western Hemisphere reverse logistics systems, which manage and process all products at their end-of-life. Xerox has always been recognized as an industry leader in end-of-life management, and this innovative optimization takes the next step towards creating a robust circular economy. The optimization utilizes a new centralized control system which calculates the value associated with sending a product through one of five potential processes, then the optimization system selects the process that will create the greatest value. These five processes include remanufacture, refurbish, remove parts for reuse, recycle, and broker sales. This optimized system utilizes current part and product inventory levels, along with the condition and service history of each return, to create a real time end-of-life inventory of spare parts and full products. These parts and products are then used to supply the manufacturing of new products and second life sales. Specifically, in this optimized system the remanufacturing and refurbishing strategy has shifted from ‘waiting for a market need’ to ‘actively seeking and creating the highest possible value’ for each end-of-life product. In addition, the parts reuse process has improved in multiple ways so that a recovered part is always the first choice over a newly manufactured part. The last end-of-life product stream is broker sales, which is a newly established process in the optimized system and is able to create a 2nd life for a product without any additional processing. Through all of these innovative improvements the optimized reverse logistics system as a whole has helped Xerox realize over $127 million USD in cost benefit, achieve over 115 million lb. CO2 equivalent in greenhouse gas savings, decrease cross continental transportation, and enable social sustainability. Xerox makes continuous improvements to this system in order to overcome all challenges, specifically to increase end-of-life collection of equipment that is not directly sold by or leased from Xerox. The global goal is to continue to drive innovation and optimization in order to increase the incremental cost savings and environmental savings by increasing the quantity of products taken back, formalizing the sharing of assets between Eastern and Western Hemisphere operations, and integrating consumable returns into this optimized system. With a global team working together towards these common goals, Xerox will continue to lead the industry with a truly innovative and sustainable reverse logistics system.

2017 Catalyst Award Finalists

China United Environmental Certification Center
Government procurement list of environmental labeling products (hereinafter to be referred as “List”) aims to promote green procurement in China and promote the development of a green supply chain. China’s policy on government procurement of environmental labeling products has been improving over the past years with wider scope of products and gradual improvement of management mechanism. It plays a good guiding and demonstration role in facilitating comprehensive implementation of sustainable consumption. Up to the end of 2016, 19 issues of the list have been released. The government policy and list on procurement of environmental labelling products not only improves environmental performances of government agencies, but also reduces energy consumption and emissions of pollutants by forcing green upgrading of enterprises through consumption and promotes the development of green supply chain, in particular electronic product industry. The scale of government procurement of environmental labelling products reached 715.45 billion Yuan during 2008~2016 with continuous rise of the percent of environmental labelling products in similar products of government procurement.
凯撒医疗集团
电子和信息技术使Kaiser Permanente能够为会员、病人和医生提供实时的电子医疗信息，这加快并简化了医疗服务的提供。但是，计算机、打印机、显示器及其电子配件的制造、使用和处置在全球范围内对人类和环境健康产生了重大不利影响。认识到这一点，Kaiser Permanente在21世纪初开始工作，以确定对环境更负责任的电子产品，使他们能够最大限度地发挥其IT运营的效益，同时最大限度地减少对环境的影响。2006年初，Kaiser Permanente成为世界上第一批在与新的计算机系统供应商签订的合同中指定EPEAT--由美国环保局支持的电子设备环境评级系统的私营公司之一。合同语言规定了对节能和对环境负责的电子设备的强烈和明确的偏好，将EPEAT作为一个基准来可信和有效地识别此类产品选项。在与EPEAT合作的十年中，Kaiser Permanente的规格要求更高的性能水平，并扩大到新涵盖的产品类别。经过十（10）年的采购承诺，采购EPEAT注册的电子设备，该组织连续三（3）年获得认可，并获得绿色电子委员会颁发的EPEAT二星奖级别。2016年，Kaiser Permanente对EPEAT注册设备的采购量比2015年增加了约5.9%，2016年在EPEAT注册设备上的总支出达到惊人的8500万美元。这一次，该组织包括购买EPEAT注册的电视--进一步证明了卫生系统的购买力，使市场朝着正确的方向发展!Kaiser Permanente现在的目标是在受到挑战的产品类别中提高性能，同时在其他类别中保持顶级的EPEAT采购。
Pacific Gas and Electric
在PG&E，我们衡量我们自己的环境影响和合规表现。由于这些举措，我们确定了运营效率，实现了成本节约，并让我们的客户、员工和供应商参与到环境管理的好处中。我们希望我们的供应商也有类似的计划和目标。作为供应商参与的一部分，我们教育供应商建立环境管理系统（EMS）的重要性，跟踪他们的环境影响，制定改进目标，并公开报告他们的表现。收集这些细节的机制是我们在电力行业可持续供应链联盟（联盟）的成员中完成的年度供应商可持续发展调查。PG&E于2008年成为该联盟的创始成员，并且是首批根据调查问卷的答复创建记分卡方法用于供应商评估的成员之一。该调查的问题以联盟的环境框架为基础，并有一个系统，其中的答案建立在成熟度上。这为供应商提供了一个学习工具，使他们能够评估自己的表现，并清楚地看到需要以最有影响力的方式来推进他们的工作。对调查的答复被量化，并用于供应商的年度记分卡评估，其中包括许多关键的绩效指标，包括质量、绩效、供应商多样性和可持续性。供应商会根据5分制得到一个分数。PG&E每年都设定一个企业目标，让一定比例的供应商达到3分或更高的分数。环境表现标准帮助我们衡量供应商在努力减少环境影响方面的重要性。经济和市场影响 自实施供应商环境管理标准以来，PG&E看到供应商的表现逐年改善。每年约有一百家供应商接受调查。在2013年，我们的目标是让55%的受访供应商达到3分或更高的分数。这个目标被超过了，此后我们的目标越来越高。在2016年，目标是70%，我们实现了75%。这意味着每年都有更多的顶级供应商意识到测量、设定目标和公开报告其环境影响结果的重要性，并实施或维护相关的系统。挑战 我们在实施和执行该计划的过程中遇到的一些挑战包括。需要持续的供应商参与和培训，尽量减少供应商接触点，以及克服 "一刀切 "的调查障碍。每个挑战都被单独解决了，但都考虑到了供应商的利益。我们为调查的执行、记分卡的结果和我们的计划行动提供完全的透明度。这确保了供应商了解他们的答复将如何被使用，以及他们如何能够随着时间的推移改善他们的表现。计划里程碑 2016年，我们扩大了接受调查的供应商的范围，包括我们的一些多元化供应商。这是为了让他们做好准备，如果他们成为顶级供应商，将对他们有什么期望，以及教育他们如何提高他们的环境绩效。每年，我们努力使达到3分或更高分数的供应商的百分比得到改善。2017年，我们的目标是让75%的顶级供应商达到这一水平。
toxnot PBC

Customers, retailers, and name brands are demanding chemicals transparency from their manufacturers and supply chains. Manufacturers must meet these requests or lose their largest customers, e.g. Walmart, Google, and LEED builders. Without supply chain transparency, manufacturers risk lost sales and legal costs. Today, manufacturers spend a lot of money hiring consultants to survey suppliers and produce one-off transparency reports. toxnot’s software solution reduces manufacturers’ costs and risks by automating the chemical transparency process with: (1) Fast, searchable access to the world’s best chemicals hazards data. (2) Seamless supply chain data collection. (3) Automated transparency reporting for multiple industry standards toxnot is a web based software solution that supports manufacturers and suppliers of all sizes in selecting preferred chemicals and automating the product reports required by their customers. toxnot provides a freely accessible chemical hazard database as well as best in class subscription tools for supply chain data collection and product reporting. toxnot is quickly becoming THE source for chemicals hazard data. Our ‘software as a service’ subscription tools provide the easiest and lowest cost path to generating product transparency reports. Customers can access chemicals hazard data for free and purchase modular subscriptions starting at $49/mo to access reporting and supplier survey tools. toxnot is the first transparency software that is fully accessible to all business users regardless of their company size. It is also the first solution to incorporate workflows for the two most difficult issues (data collection and reporting) for users in one software solution: Toxnot combines supplier data collection directly with a full chemical hazards database and reporting engine so that users can manage the entire product transparency reporting process from one place. In addition, toxnot provides its searchable database free to anyone – the first service to make complete hazards data available to all. Our business model offers free access to our chemical hazards database, allowing all supply chain participants to drive better product design outcomes. We are the only source for free access to GreenScreen List Translator scores, the predominant method for communicating chemical hazards in product reporting. Our solution seamlessly integrates with companies’ Bill of Material and formulation systems, importing product data directly into our reporting engine, and drastically reducing the time and cost of reporting. Suppliers skip tedious web forms and quickly import their data to submit to their customers. toxnot protects proprietary chemicals while still allowing suppliers and manufacturers flexibility to see hazards and run products against changing compliance lists without having to recollect data from their suppliers. Our service was engineered from the ground up for scalability – it works across different device sizes, from phones to desktops, and can scale to hundreds of thousands of users.

Umicore Rechargeable Battery Materials
One couldn’t imagine a world without tablets or smartphones. Lithium-ion batteries have been powering the portable electronics technology in the last decade and this technology still has a very healthy growth perspective. Umicore Rechargeable Battery Materials is a world leader in the production of cathode material for lithium-ion batteries. Next to the development of new technologies and products, Umicore pays a lot of attention to the sustainability of their products and the sustainable procurement of raw materials. Together with portable electronics, the growth for lithium-ion batteries is supported by the transition towards the electrification of the automobile. Both the electronics and electric vehicle sector are driven by the ambition for a sustainable and bright future. Companies in the battery supply chain, however, are facing high ethical and environmental risks in the supply chain of cobalt, an essential mineral in the lithium-ion batteries of portable devices. Umicore is aware of the risks that are linked to the sourcing of cobalt. Infringements of human rights, occurrence of child labor and environmental issues, as well as the lack of sufficient health and safety protection are reported to occur in certain parts of the cobalt supply chain. Last year, research by Amnesty International revealed the occurrence of the worst forms of child labor in the artisanal mining activities of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Amnesty International, “This is what we die for”, January 2016). To avoid the occurrence of these practices in Umicore’s supply chain, and consequently that of its customers, Umicore has created a dedicated Sustainable Procurement Framework for Cobalt already in 2004. The current Sustainable Procurement Framework for Cobalt builds on this and takes into account the specific risks that are currently linked to the mining of cobalt. It is inspired by the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals (OECD, 2013). For the practical implementation of the framework, Umicore has created a decision tree. Following the decision tree leads to the decision whether or not to source from a certain cobalt supplier. This decision tree includes four essential steps: supply chain traceability, supplier research, risk assessment and risk mitigation. In 2016, Umicore was the first company worldwide to obtain external validation for its ethical procurement approach. Umicore proactively engaged the services of the assurance provider PricewaterhouseCoopers to perform an audit on Umicore’s procurement activities of 2015. The audit included providing full transparency on Umicore’s purchasing activities, chain of custody documentation and due diligence research, as well as visit reports and risk mappings. Aiming to raise the bar for the cobalt industry, Umicore has made the compliance report of the last audit publicly available in March 2017. In doing so, Umicore wants to increase transparency towards its customers and stakeholders. Next to that, Umicore wants to stimulate other players in the cobalt industry to develop similar systems and engage with third-parties for verification. In this way, Umicore believes it is actively contributing to the further development of a sustainable supply chain of cobalt. Umicore believes that its unique approach and publicly reporting on its compliance, provides comfort to its customers about the provenance and the ethical nature of the cobalt used in the material they source. Umicore’s customers have valuable brands to protect and Umicore is committed to provide them peace of mind on all aspects.