Supply chain management is a very important factor directly related to the productivity and the overall business competitiveness. Greening of Supply Chain is an emerging concept for Asia and the Pacific region. It advocates that the purchaser uses its purchasing power to demand an improved environmental performance from the supplier upstream in the supply chain. It is also implied that the purchaser - which in many cases is a big corporation - will play a facilitator's role towards its suppliers - which are usually small and medium enterprises - and help them in their efforts for becoming a more environment-friendly organization. This effect is expected to trickle down throughout the supply chain so that the entire supply chain becomes "green" or more environment-friendly.

The APO has been promoting Green Productivity (GP) as a strategy for simultaneous improvement in the productivity and the sound environmental management. GP thus helps organizations in increasing their overall competitiveness. It is well recognized that the Greening of Supply Chain constitutes a very important aspect of Green Productivity efforts of any organization. With this background, the "Top Forum on Green Productivity A Management Strategy to Enhance Competitiveness by Greening the Supply Chain" was organized from May 25-27, 2000 in Taipei, Republic of China. The forum brought together experts from Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and North America to share experiences and discuss the issue of Greening the Supply Chain.