Green Supply Chain in Telecommunications
The Greening economy paradigm is already a mind shift within every sector within the economy globally and has become a focal point within our industry. Our consumers are constantly looking forward to improved quality service within a sustainable environment via our day-to-day products as well as our infrastructure and operational activities. Environmental awareness and the need to make our environment sustainable is driving various business in Nigeria to have a second look into their operational activities, this also includes us in the telecommunication sector where there is perceived notion that we have waste that is not sustainable thereby affecting the reduction of carbon footprint within our environment.
The Telecommunication sector is currently complex with a value chain that is long and with dynamics increasing on a daily basis (Ranjan Gupta et al 2010). The bottom line is a great focus within this industry which is equally changing rapidly and with advancing technologies regularly which is also tending towards the world global order on sustainability. The need to meet these various requirements from the increased triple bottom line, added customer value, improved partnership along the value chain has driven most companies to outsource their SCM which does not leave the Telecommunications sector behind. OEM’s are few and tailored in manufacturing with their components outsourced in other to be competitive as well as meeting the tight delivery schedule that is existing within the sector. Company brand image is of utmost importance in all decisions been taken at the board and senior management level to fit into new environmental conditions. The combined effect of issues regarding climate changes, continual resource depletion has added more to the awareness created amongst industry players and watchers.
Examining the effect of the ‘’green paradigm on our operational and production effectiveness as leading telecommunications and ICT services to provide alongside the attendant risk along with this paradigm shift and our strategic decisions towards using sustainable Supply Chain management as our competitive advantage within the industry in totality from a business perspective.
With the rapid change in climate globally ebbing away at the earth’s resources, the vast array of businesses around the world is becoming more environmentally conscious. This hasn’t left the Telecommunications industry behind as we are also focused on ensuring that we comply and make our products and services environmentally friendly. As is seen in major products, we have the ‘’ecofriendly’’ icon displayed as a logo on it to show that compliance is been adhered to. The Green supply chain monitor depicts the current motivation towards the implementation of a ‘’green initiative’’ within the telecommunications industry from 2008 to 2010. We have our major infrastructure which are the cell sites powered by fossil fuel-based power generation in the majority of the African countries as power is largely unavailable on the national grid and we have incorporated power generation alongside our core services, this currently adds to the carbon footprint in all our operating countries and it’s not in line with our ‘’green strategy’’. In fulfilling our service deployment, we have our supply chain created along with the centralized system whereby all parties are interconnected as shown in the Supply Chain Ecosystem figure below. Despite having our OEM’s and distributors spread wide across, we work towards creating a process whereby we evolve in meeting these needs.
According to Martin and Schouten(2011), there is high consumption of the planet’s resources especially through the non-replenishable fossil fuel that we are using. These are primarily felt through the unsustainable economic activity which is felt in declining natural resources and ecosystem as well as an increase in demand for the planet’s resources and services. The telecommunications sector though not one of the major players in pollution of our environment also contributes some quota to carbon footprint, with infrastructure situated all around our environment are largely powered by fossil fuel generating plants due to the current state of power generation within our country with 52% of our Base Transmission Station(BTS) off-grid and 81% of this numbers are without power for 6hours and above daily (GSMA).
Finally, there is a need to have an appropriate policy to support the right implementation and adherence to the green supply chain as a form of strategy towards greater competitive advantage.