They are the most important customers for mobile phone brands, purchasing large numbers of phones in order to sell them on to you as a customer, usually as part of a network/handset bundle. In the market for mobile phones, the network service provider acts as an intermediary between the end customer and the mobile phone brand. This means that the pressure on the industry is less powerful and coordinated for this product group.
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One reason for the lack of commitment from the smartphone industry could be that the majority of smartphones are purchased by individuals rather than through procurement in large quantities by professional buyers. We contacted TCO Certified asking why no smartphones were currently accredited. Many of the materials and processes used to make computers and phones are very similar and so should be easily certifiable in many cases. This came as a surprise, especially as the same database listed 182 TCO certified notebooks, 133 desktops and 7 tablets. This time when Ethical Consumer searched the TCO Certified online database it found that no mobile phones currently on the market were certified.
At the time, this was only the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. In the previous mobile phone guide we gave a positive sustainability mark to any phones that were TCO certified. TCO Certified is a global sustainability certification for IT products.
Find out more in our feature about conflict minerals and technology. This highlights the importance of government legislation in pushing companies towards more ethical practices. Publicly listed US companies are required by the Dodd-Frank Act to report on the sourcing of conflict minerals, but European companies have not yet been subject to the same legislative pressures.
Interestingly, the two American companies in this guide ( Alphabet and Apple) both have very good conflict mineral policies, whereas two out of three of the European companies ( Doro & HMD Global) receive our worst rating – the other European company, Fairphone, received our best rating. The example shows how a company can proactively overcome barriers to ensure that its products do not support the conflict minerals trade. To compensate for this, the company pays for an equivalent quantity of gold from certified fairtrade refiners and allows this to then be traded on the Exchange. In fact, an article published by Fairphone demonstrates how it was not possible to effectively trace the supply chain of gold used in their phones beyond the Shanghai Gold Exchange, where all component suppliers in China sourced their gold. This level of public disclosure regarding a company’s supply chain is rare in any sector, but we argue it should be the norm. It is the first smartphone company to integrate Fairtrade gold into its supply chain and has also publicly disclosed a detailed list of its suppliers: 76 for the Fairphone 3. Fairphone leads the pack, having taken great measures to map out its suppliers, even down to the fourth tier.
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