In some countries up to 90% of the total industrial production is constituted by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), though the final steps in the supply chain are covered by large commercial companies. Some products can contain spare parts from thousands of different companies, and it is difficult to measure the true environmental impact of these, as you would need to check the performance of each single company in the supply chain. Therefore, it is important for large international companies, who would like to improve their environmental profile, to control the production standards of their suppliers. Monitoring suppliers can also be an incentive for their suppliers to invest in more efficient technologies in order to stay in the market.
Through better supply chain management large enterprises and retailers can be involved in providing support and incentives for SMEs to shift towards more sustainable production. This approach is interesting in terms of creating outreach to larger groups of companies, taking into consideration that there are more than 30 million registered SMEs in Asia.