Green Suppliers Network (GSN) is a partnership between industry, the Department of Commerce, Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to work with the suppliers of large manufacturers to promote process improvement and waste elimination in their operations. While the EPA provides support and funding to the program, at its core the program is designed to help suppliers and manufacturers to work together without fear of reprisal or fines of any sort, and to identify opportunities for improvement through waste reduction using a third-party. The GSN is designed to assist small and medium-size companies with sustainability and cost reduction, because these are generally the organizations with the least amount of expertise and resources to devote to making sustainability changes. GSN focuses on the fact that the program essentially combines sustainability with lean practices. Materials and energy improvements easily fit into traditional lean manufacturing business models because they cut costs and focus on reusing materials and recycling waste, as well as reduce a company's environmental impact, presenting a strong business case for these smaller organizations.
The GSN program is usually initiated by a "corporate champion," which is usually a large manufacturer. This corporate champion reviews its suppliers and identifies those that are strong candidates for the GSN assessment process, and as a result are more likely to adopt several lean and clean manufacturing practices. The cost to the supplier for this assessment is US $6,500. For supplier facilities that have less than 500 employees, the EPA provides an additional cost buy-down, so the final cost to the smaller supplier is US $5,400. While not required by the program, many corporate champions actually offer to pay a portion, or in some cases the entire fee, for their suppliers to become GSN partners. The assessment is conducted through a third party, the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP). Each local GSN review team is lead by lean experts from a local MEP center and an environmental expert from the state. No EPA personnel visit the supplier or the corporate champion. Instead, the GSN assigns local GSN review team representatives versed in the supplier's industry to visit the facilities and conduct the two-to-three-day assessment. All information from these assessment is kept confidential from the EPA and the customer, both of whom do not see facility-specific data. The corporate champion may receive aggregate data about the supplier's performance, but the decision on how much to disclose and actually implement from the recommendations stays with the supplier.
During the assessment, the GSN review team trains the suppliers on how to use the lean and clean GSN tools and apply those tools with the supplier's staff to a product or process line. The team then offers suggestions to address identified issues related to production and the environment.
Source: Cooling, L. "One Green Turn Deserves Another." Inside Supply Management, August 2008, Vol. 19, No. 8: pp. 30-33.