Industry alliances are emerging as a strategic solution to growing supply chain risks and Scope 3 pressures, enabling shared standards, resources, and coordinated actions across sectors.
Suppliers—especially SMEs face major gaps in carbon data, audit capacity, and decarbonization resources. Unified platforms, training, and risk tools can significantly reduce their burden.
For Taiwan’s ICT sector, alliances offer a critical pathway to scale capabilities, drive joint decarbonization, and build a globally competitive sustainability ecosystem.
Supply chain management has long been a core pillar of corporate risk management, covering operational continuity, cost control, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance. As global operating environments grow increasingly complex, companies must proactively identify and mitigate supply chain risks.
Within this context, climate risk and carbon management have become new focal points. Whether driven by net-zero policies, supplier sustainability audits, investor ESG expectations, or the physical impacts of extreme weather on raw materials and logistics, companies are increasingly integrating climate considerations into the heart of supply chain risk assessments.
Among these challenges, Scope 3 emissions—indirect emissions across the value chain—stand out as the most difficult. Scope 3 often accounts for more than 70% of a company’s total emissions, yet spans multiple supplier tiers with fragmented data, limited traceability, and weak coordination. Even when companies recognize its importance, implementation often feels overwhelming.
As a result, establishing industry-level collaboration, shared resources, and mechanisms that increase supplier participation has become a critical pathway for driving low-carbon supply chain transformation.
Global regulations and brand-driven decarbonization requirements are rapidly intensifying. Major companies—including Apple, Dell, and Microsoft—have set Scope 3 reduction targets, while the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) expand corporate responsibility across the supply chain.
Despite increasing awareness of the importance of sustainable supply chain management, companies—particularly those relying heavily on SMEs—continue to face significant challenges.
Many suppliers lack carbon accounting capabilities, sustainability governance structures, or access to training and improvement programs. Training resources from anchor firms are often duplicated and fragmented, and standardized platforms are lacking. Even when brands offer support, the absence of systematic, scalable guidance limits impact.
Existing questionnaires, assessments, and third-party audit systems frequently overlap, consuming resources without translating into meaningful decarbonization actions. While platforms such as the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) or EcoVadis offer reference value, SMEs often face cost, language, and complexity barriers.
Tier-1 manufacturers face intense Scope 3 pressure from brands, yet suppliers typically lack the expertise, data, and resources to execute decarbonization initiatives. SMEs especially face barriers to entering renewable energy markets. Even motivated suppliers often struggle with data gaps, technical constraints, and limited financing, making it difficult to identify actionable pathways.
In this landscape, individual companies acting alone cannot drive systemic change. Industry alliances—pooling resources and coordinating action—have emerged as a more effective solution.
In response to these challenges, more companies are turning to industry alliances to consolidate resources, standardize expectations, and jointly build supplier capabilities.
Unified carbon accounting methodologies, assessment mechanisms, and training modules reduce duplicative demands on suppliers.
Led by industry champions, alliances create accessible platforms that enable SMEs to participate at lower cost.
Alliances facilitate technology adoption, consulting support, and financing partnerships, amplifying sector-wide transformation.
Shared databases and trusted mechanisms foster cross-company and cross-border cooperation.
Automotive Industry:
Drive Sustainability brings together 18 companies—including BMW, Ford, and Honda—to establish industry guidelines, training programs, and compliance frameworks.
The Responsible Supply Chain Initiative (RSCI) provides unified assessment tools and third-party on-site audits to strengthen risk management.
Catena-X connects over 190 companies, including Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, to build an open data ecosystem and sustainability solutions marketplace, enabling product carbon footprint tracking and digital product passports.
Electronics and Apparel: Platforms such as the RBA and the Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) support standard setting, capability building, and financing mechanisms to help companies and suppliers jointly accelerate their journey to net-zero.
These international cases show that when sustainability challenges exceed the control of any single company, industry alliances become an indispensable pathway toward systemic solutions
Manufacturing accounts for roughly 52% of Taiwan’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 3 emissions from the sector are 23 times higher than Scopes 1 and 2 combined—meaning more than 90% of emissions come from the value chain. With the electronics industry at the center, supply chain decarbonization is crucial to achieving national and corporate net-zero goals.
As a critical player in global electronics and ICT supply chains, Taiwan carries both responsibility and opportunity. On one hand, its SME-dominated supplier base faces challenges such as limited manpower for carbon accounting, language barriers, fragmented systems, and uneven resource allocation. On the other hand, Taiwan benefits from strong industrial clusters, a collaborative ecosystem, and influential industry associations—ideal conditions for establishing powerful alliances that could position Taiwan as a leader in sustainable supply chain transformation across the Asia-Pacific region.
Drawing on global best practices, we propose three strategic pillars for Taiwan’s ICT-focused Integrated Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative:
Develop customized training curricula, create standardized learning platforms, and introduce supplier learning records and digital badges. Build collaborative communities to support knowledge exchange and best-practice sharing.
Integrate resources to establish standardized questionnaires, audit methodologies, validation mechanisms, and shared scoring systems. Promote alignment with international standards such as RBA and EcoVadis.
Offer one-stop solutions—including government subsidy guidance, unified carbon data platforms, and public scoring systems. Facilitate joint renewable energy procurement, energy-efficiency programs, and a marketplace for decarbonization solutions.
Supply chain sustainability is no longer solely about operational efficiency or cost—it is a strategic arena where risk management, carbon reduction, and long-term competitiveness intersect. As companies confront Scope 3 and the realities of net-zero transformation, no single organization can address these challenges in isolation.
Industry alliances—through harmonized standards, shared resources, and coordinated action—can meaningfully strengthen supply chain resilience and elevate sustainability performance. When combined with government support, responsible procurement, and green financing, alliances can further expand industry momentum while lowering barriers for SMEs.
We envision an ICT industry alliance that brings together public and private stakeholders to reduce compliance burdens, streamline audits, and co-create a globally competitive sustainability ecosystem.
Ultimately, success depends on active participation across the value chain—brands, manufacturers, and suppliers working not as transactional counterparts but as partners co-creating sustainable value. The road to sustainability is no longer an individual corporate effort; it is a process of collective industry evolution.
Only through cross-company, cross-sector, and cross-regional collaboration can the ICT industry achieve both decarbonization and long-term competitiveness, and build a truly sustainable supply chain for the future.
