Greenpeace Hails Apple On Conflict Minerals, Supply Chain ‘Transparency’
Greenpeace praised Apple for reducing use of conflict minerals -- the sale of which is believed to be financing armed conflicts -- and improving supply chain “transparency” after the manufacturer posted a supplier responsibility report at its website. Apple’s improved transparency is “becoming a hallmark” of CEO Tim Cook’s leadership at the company, said Greenpeace Energy Campaigner Tom Dowdall in a statement Thursday.
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Apple has “flexed its muscles in the past to push suppliers to remove hazardous substances from products and provide more renewable energy for data centers, and it is proving the same model can work to reduce the use of conflict minerals,” said Dowdall. Samsung and other CE companies “should follow Apple’s example and map its suppliers, so the industry can exert its collective influence to build devices that are better for people and the planet,” he said. Samsung, the only company he cited by name, didn’t immediately comment.
Apple is encouraging the “responsible sourcing” of minerals, it said at its website (http://bit.ly/1jFGK6A), and publicly released a list of smelters and refiners in its supply chain to promote transparency. All active, identified tantalum smelters in Apple’s supply chain were “verified as conflict-free by third-party auditors,” said Apple. Its Supplier Code of Conduct was “already one of the toughest” in the CE industry, said Apple. But Apple “made it even stronger,” and is ensuring “compliance by conducting hundreds of audits” each year globally, it said. Its efforts “span the entire range” of Apple’s supply chain, from the makers of “tiny components to the facilities that assemble” the final products, it said. “Every factory” that supplies parts for Apple products is “accountable for upholding” its Code of Conduct, it said.
Apple did 451 audits at all levels of its supply chain in 2013, a 51 percent increase from 2012, it said in its 2014 Progress Report, also posted at its website. Those audits covered facilities where almost 1.5 million workers make Apple products, it said. Apple also publicly released for the first time more than 100 pages of “comprehensive requirements” behind its Supplier Responsibility Standards, it said.
To address the shortage of qualified environment, health, and safety (EHS) personnel, the company launched the Apple Supplier EHS Academy, a formal, 18-month program, and in 2013, more than 240 personnel from factories with more than 270,000 employees enrolled in the program, it said. That will “raise the standard” for EHS management in Apple’s supply chain, it said.
Apple expects suppliers to “act in environmentally responsible ways,” it said. Therefore, it’s working with industry experts to “identify high-risk facilities, conduct audits focused on environmental issues, and develop methods to lessen our environmental impact,” it said. Apple launched a pilot Clean Water Program with sites that collectively use more than 41 million cubic meters of water per year, and has “aggressive goals to reduce freshwater usage by reusing and recycling” water within the production process, it said.
"Suppliers must treat workers fairly and ethically at all times,” Apple also said. The company “strengthened” its programs to help suppliers “protect student interns and other at-risk workers” and is continuing efforts to “end excessive work hours,” it said. In 2013, its suppliers achieved an average of 95 percent compliance with Apple’s maximum 60-hour work week, it said. Apple last year did 33 specialized audits at facilities employing migrant workers who may have been at risk for unfair treatment, it said. The company also required suppliers to reimburse $3.9 million in excess foreign contract worker fees, it said. Several workers at Apple supplier Foxconn’s Shenzhen, China, factory committed suicide in 2010, prompting Foxconn to be criticized for poor working conditions (CED Aug 9/10 p8). The media attention surrounding the incidents put a spotlight on poor working conditions at overseas factories and Apple received criticism over it also.