Sustainable Supply Chain in China: FTC's Role as CCIFC RSE Group Coordinator Since 2021

In the late 2010s, European and American regulators began scheduling a wave of environmental legislation set for enforcement in the 2020-2025 period. Plastic bans, supply chain traceability, carbon border adjustments, strengthened social audits, transition to new materials: the agenda was broad, the timeline was ambitious, and the obligations were clear.

For companies based in China doing business with Europe, one thing was beyond doubt: these regulations targeted us directly. Our supply chains, our factories, our logistics partners. The rules came from Brussels and Washington. The operations were in Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Shandong.

Then COVID hit. And the already difficult task of tracking, understanding, and preparing for incoming legislation has become something close to impossible.

A Working Group Born Out of Necessity

By spring 2022, the gap between regulatory reality in Europe and operational awareness in China had become a genuine problem for the European and American business community on the ground. CSR-related inquiries were multiplying. Lockdowns were restricting movement and communication. Reliable, expert-level information was hard to access.

It was in this context that French Touch Consulting approached the Chamber of Commerce and French Industry in China (CCIFC) with a proposal: create a dedicated working group on CSR. A structured, recurring format where expert speakers could address the regulations that mattered most to the community, and where companies could share knowledge, ask direct questions, and leave with something concrete.

Juratoys and its sister brand Kaloo represented by Thomas Royet, joined FTC as co-coordinators. A trial event was set for June 2022 in Shenzhen. The CCIFC RSE Group was born.

What Coordinating the Group Actually Involves

The coordinator role is more operational than it might appear from the outside.

The process starts several months before each event. FTC and Thomas propose a shortlist of topics to the CCIFC, always anchored in what is most pressing for the business community at that specific moment. This is an important distinction: the topic is chosen for its relevance to the audience, not for the convenience of the speaker companies.

Once a topic is confirmed, organizers identify and approaches expert organizations to present. We then build the full event structure: number of presentations, format, Q&A approach, timing, and logistics. This includes coordinating the Shenzhen and Guangzhou sessions simultaneously, which requires its own preparation.

On the day itself, FTC and Thomas manage the program from start to finish, moderates the audience questions, and closes with a networking cocktail. The format is designed to be practical. The goal is that every attendee leaves with something useful, not just an awareness that a regulation exists.

Four Events. Four Regulations That Are Reshaping Supply Chains.

June 2022, Shenzhen: CBAM with Bureau Veritas

The first event covered the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, the EU's carbon pricing instrument for imports. Bureau Veritas presented the technical and operational requirements. For a new group finding its format, it was a solid first step, and CBAM was a topic that most attendees were encountering seriously for the first time despite covid complex organization requirements.

June 2024, Guangzhou: B Corp Certification with Juratoys, Utopies, and Danone

This was one of the strongest events the group held. B Corp certification had been gaining significant momentum among European companies, but the practical realities of pursuing it were poorly understood.

The combination of Juratoys as a mid-sized OEM manufacturer, consulting firm Utopies, and Danone as a large corporation with hands-on B Corp experience gave the audience something rare: three genuinely different perspectives on the same journey. The room was full. The discussion was candid. The follow-up conversations ran long after the event ended.

May 2025, Shenzhen: EUDR with Green Mind

The European Union Deforestation Regulation is one of the most operationally demanding pieces of legislation to have reached supply chains in recent years. For companies sourcing wood, paper, acacia, or agricultural commodities from China, the traceability requirements are significant.

Green Mind brought genuine expertise to a regulation that many attendees were still struggling to map onto their specific operations. This event generated strong engagement during the Q&A and produced follow-up conversations that extended well beyond the session. For many attendees, it was the first time they had sat in a room with people facing the same compliance challenge across different industries.

May 2026, Shenzhen: PFAS with QIMA

The most recent event addressed PFAS regulations, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances used as coatings in a wide range of manufactured goods, including food-contact materials. Bans and restrictions are progressing rapidly across Europe and North America, and the implications for manufacturers and importers are significant.

QIMA presented on testing protocols, certification requirements, and the practical steps for verifying compliance in a Chinese supply chain. For FTC, this topic sits at the center of what we do: every bagasse product and coated food-contact reference we develop is tested and certified PFAS-free as a baseline requirement. Not as a differentiator. As a standard.

Why This Work Matters: Beyond the Events Themselves

French Touch Consulting is an eco-friendly tableware supplier and sustainable HORECA supply chain partner headquartered in Shenzhen. The products we develop, bagasse tableware, FSC-certified paper goods, PFAS-free coated containers, reusable ranges in acacia wood and stainless steel, exist precisely because regulations and market expectations are moving in the direction, they are.

Coordinating the CCIFC RSE Group is not separate from that work. It is an expression of the same conviction: that staying ahead of regulation is not a burden. It is a competitive advantage for the companies that take it seriously.

There is also something worth saying about the Chinese manufacturing ecosystem. The narrative that sustainability and China-based sourcing are fundamentally in tension is increasingly out of date. The factories and suppliers we work with are moving, driven by domestic environmental policy, by the expectations of their European and American clients, and by their own recognition that compliance is becoming a condition of doing business at all. This is structural change, not surface-level adjustment. We see it in our factory audits every year.

For companies sourcing products from China, having a partner who is embedded in these regulatory conversations from the inside changes the quality of the decisions you can make.

What Comes Next

The regulatory pipeline is not slowing down. Topics under consideration for future CCIFC RSE Group events include supply chain due diligence under the CSDDD and evolving extended producer responsibility frameworks. We're also tracking updates to EU Ecolabel criteria for food-contact materials, as well as emerging sustainable material and technology alternatives across the supply chain.