Sustainable Procurement & CSR News - ICT Industry

Apple supplier Lens Technology has joined a growing list of companies that have been accused of using forced labor in its manufacturing facilities.

According to documents uncovered by the Tech Transparency Project and shared with The Washington Post, "thousands" of Uighur workers from the Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang were sent to work for Lens Technology.

An Apple spokesperson denied the report, stating in a statement that Lens Technology "has not received any labor transfers of Uighur workers from Xinjiang." He added that the company has a "zero tolerance" policy for forced labor.

Apple said on Monday it has put its Taiwanese supplier Pegatron on probation after finding that the company violated Apple’s supplier code of conduct by asking student employees to work night shifts or overtime, Reuters reported.

This past spring, Apple was implicated along with other US brands like Nike, Dell, and more for having its supply chain allegedly involved with forced labor of the Muslim Uyghurs in Chinese factories. Now a new report from The Information says that Apple has paid to lobby Congress around legislation having to do US companies that could have connections with slave labor in China.
After the initial allegations were made back in March, Apple shared this statement:

“Apple is dedicated to ensuring that everyone in our supply chain is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve,” said spokesman Josh Rosenstock. “We have not seen this report but we work closely with all our suppliers to ensure our high standards are upheld.”

Apple’s decision to remove the charger and headphones from iPhone 12 boxes has generally been well received by environmentalists.

However, the tech giant has been pressed to go much further in reducing its impact on the environment.

Apple believes there are over 700 million pairs of wired EarPods and around 2 billion Apple power adapters in circulation.

Google was the first major company to become carbon neutral, in 2007. Now, the tech giant says it is the first company in the world to eliminate its entire carbon footprint.

Google has announced that, as of today, it has eliminated all of the carbon it has emitted since its founding in 1998.

Apple has previously bought clothing for Apple Store uniforms from a subsidiary of a company that the US Government is alleging violated human rights in China's Xinjiang region.

Following Tim Cook saying to the House of Judiciary that Apple will not tolerate the use of forced labor in its business or any part of its supply chain, documents have shown that the company has previously bought from a subsidiary of Esquel. Changji Esquel Textile is currently facing sanctions for alleged human rights violations, including forced labor.

"Esquel is not a direct supplier to Apple but our suppliers do use cotton from their facilities in Guangzhou and Vietnam," an Apple spokesperson told The Guardian. "We have confirmed no Apple supplier sources cotton from Xinjiang and there are no plans for future sourcing of cotton from the region."

Details on staff uniforms come after CEO Tim Cook says he will not tolerate modern slavery

Circular Centers are all about quickly sorting through the inventory rather than tying up overworked staff. Microsoft plans to increase its reuse of server parts by 90% by 2025. "Using machine learning, we will process servers and hardware that are being decommissioned onsite," wrote Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, in a blog post announcing the initiative. "We'll sort the pieces that can be reused and repurposed by us, our customers, or sold."

The sustainability ambitions of the world’s largest cloud software companies — Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce — have been well-documented. The broad semiconductor industry’s position to date, however, has been less transparent and less ambitious, with the highly visible exceptions of AMD, IBM and Intel. 

We are going to hold our supply chain to the same standards that we hold ourselves in the areas of environmental impact, labor standards, and diversity and inclusion.

The Global E-Waste Monitor 2020 reports a record 59 tons of e-waste, and predicts a rise to 81 tons by 2030.

Samsung may not include chargers in the boxes of some of its smartphones starting in 2021, according to a report from Korean news site ETNews. The company is taking them out because many people already have chargers and to help reduce costs, the report says.

While not including a charger in the box might seem like a big move, Samsung reportedly isn’t the only major phone maker considering it. Apple may do something similar by not including a charger with this year’s iPhone lineup, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Apple may also phase out the 5W and 18W chargers that currently come with iPhones (depending on which model you buy) and instead offer a new 20W fast charger that will be sold separately, said Kuo.

Big tech is hitting the pause button in Hong Kong.

Last week, China's top legislative body passed a sweeping new security law in Hong Kong , which criminalizes dissent against the Chinese Communist Party and allows China to set up a national security apparatus in Hong Kong. Those charged with the most severe offenses like undermining the Chinese government face a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The new law has already been used to arrest at least ten pro-democracy protesters and has prompted widespread protest among Hong Kong residents who see their freedoms slipping.

To make this process profitable, the manufacturers of complex items such as vehicles are likely to use advanced internet-based data systems that can track components and products throughout their life cycles, from source to final use. That means that the companies best suited to helping introduce a circular economic model are the big tech firms that already use similar online data technology, such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google.

And that will inevitably create concerns about the implications on data privacy and security. Further sacrificing our privacy might be the price we have to pay to achieve a waste-free economic model. Or to put it another way, data protection may ultimately become a barrier to a circular economy.

The electronics supply chain faces more challenges than usual, so companies are reassessing all aspects of their business to maintain resilience. Supply chain partners can reduce these difficulties through strategic planning.

Covering the period 2020-25, the strategy is based on the perception that, while ICT is often championed as a means to supporting environmental sustainability, it can also contribute to the problem and needs a careful approach to ensure that government’s use of digital technology does not undermine greening efforts.

It is aimed at meeting five of the UN Sustainable Development Goals – sustainable energy for all, resilient infrastructure, sustainable consumption and production, climate adaptation and partnerships with the technology sector – and at producing five outcomes – reduced carbon and cost, increased resilience, increased responsibility for doing the right thing, increased transparency and collaboration, and increased accountability.

A central element is the listing of three business rules, developed with the technology industry, to be applied to all ICT procurements and reported on annually.

The first is to work towards meeting net zero emission targets by 2050 or sooner, with suppliers required to commit to the target and follow up with roadmaps and action plans. Second is support the circular economy, aiming for zero waste to landfill and an increase in the use of recycled and refurbished ICT kit by 2025.

Recently appointed Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark signed a United Nations (UN) pledge for renewed international cooperation, a move set to boost the vendor’s efforts in creating technology to solve societal issues.

In a statement, Lundmark noted the role of global cooperation was crucial for solving “big challenges, such as Covid-19 and climate change” and the company believed in “a multilateral system where businesses, governments, organisations and individuals all work together” towards creating a more sustainable future.

The signed statement, United in the Business of a Better World, brings together more than 1,000 global CEOs to mobilise international cooperation in times of unprecedented disruption and global transformation.

As part of the pledge, CEOs commit to ethical leadership, invest in addressing inequalities and injustice, respect human rights and promote equality.

Nokia outlined some of its sustainability efforts so far included radio networks supporting 6.4 billion global subscriptions in 2019, and cooperation agreements for improved connectivity in 16 emerging countries and territories in Africa, Asia, South America, Oceania and the Caribbean.

Latest Greening Government strategy points to demanding new sustainable procurement rules for IT suppliers

The government has this week unveiled a new strategy for reducing the environmental impact of its digital activities over the next five years, in a bid to meet its Greening Government Commitments and ensure that all its IT supplier have credible net zero emissions strategies in place.

In the policy paper, titled Greening the government: ICT and digital services strategy, the government pledges to ensure its "digital infrastructure and associated supply chains are rationalised, responsible, resilient and free of slavery/exploitation creating environmental, economic benefits for all".

The new initiative, called the Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA), will partner with governments and NGOs to improve the welfare of those employed in artisanal and small scale mining (ASM), which accounts for 11-20% of the cobalt exported from the DRC annually.

Between 1.5 million and 2 million people are estimated to work in the DRC’s ASM sector, which has been identified as having heightened risk of modern slavery, child labour and poor working conditions.

The aim of the FCA is to build sources of responsible cobalt, from which businesses can purchase and be sure that they are not financing activities which are misaligned with their social commitments. It will begin working with the owners and operators of mines across two regions – Kasulu and Kamilombe – to ensure that best-practice processes are being followed, before rolling the initiative out to other parts of the DRC.

Intel says that a fact-finding trip to Rwanda is helping the semiconductor company understand their complex mineral supply chain, and go beyond addressing conflict minerals to achieving responsible sourcing.

Consumers and, increasingly, investors want reassurance that companies are responsible corporate citizens. Part of that means rooting out human rights abuses from their supply chains.

This year, the culture for change may be shifting. BLM protests, the MeToo movement and growing awareness around LGBTQ+ rights have provided renewed focus on disparities in pay, opportunity and success that underrepresented groups face in the workplace. Now, it’s more important than ever for tech companies to prove their commitment to closing the gender and diversity gap in tech — and companies appear to be responding with more substantial policies than before.

Apple already has ventured far beyond most other companies when it comes to pushing for climate action within its supply chain. 

Consider that it has convinced more than 70 Apple suppliers to use renewable energy to produce products on its behalf, an effort funded in part by close to $5 billion in green bonds issued by the technology giant as well as a dedicated pool of money in China. 

The report explains that Nanchang O-Film Tech has links to Apple and other tech companies:

The US Department of Commerce added 11 Chinese companies to its list of firms implicated in human rights violations, including China’s reported campaign against Muslim minority groups from an area of the country known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. At least one of those companies, Nanchang O-Film Tech, is listed as a supplier or undefined ‘partner’ with nearly two dozen tech and car companies, including Amazon, Apple, Dell, GM, and Microsoft.

The Global E-waste Monitor 2020, a new report produced in collaboration with the UN Environment Program (UNEP), found that a record 53.6 million metric tons of electronic waste was generated last year. Raw materials contained in that waste had approximately $57 billion in value.

Now in its third edition, the 2020 report was created by UN University’s Global E-waste Statistics Partnership, the International Telecommunication Union, the International Solid Waste Association, and UNEP with contributions from the World Health Organization and the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.

Electronic waste is defined in the report as discarded products with a battery or plug. Last year’s record amount of electronic waste was up 21% in five years, the Global E-waste Monitor 2020 said. Regionally, Asia generated the largest volume of e-waste, 24.9 million metric tons (Mt), with the Americas generating 13.1 Mt, Europe at 12 Mt, Africa with 2.9 mt, and Oceana following with 0.7 Mt, according to the researchers.