Integrating green supply chain management into an embryonic eco-industrial development: a case study of the Guitang Group

Industrial ecology is an emerging concept for the establishment of ecologically sustainable industrial development of industrial zones and estates in China. Optimizing materials and energy flows among facilities within specific regions or industrial ecosystems is a basic industrial ecology strategy. As such, life cycle analysis and management and green supply chain management are related approaches. The Guitang Group, a Chinese sugar complex, has developed an embryonic eco-industrial development by applying an integrated approach to green supply chain management. This paper describes the Guitang Group and its evolving integrated green supply chain management model. After summarizing experiences of the application of the Group's model, the paper analyzes challenges and then introduces possible solutions. Some conclusions are developed on the basis of this analysis. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.