Intel Announces Commitment to Conflict-Free Microprocessors
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), has announced that it is now manufacturing and shipping its first-ever conflict-free electronics product, a microprocessor. Speaking at the 2014 Consumer Electronic Show, Intel’s CEO, Brian Kranich said, “We felt an obligation to implement changes in our supply chain to ensure that our business and our products were not inadvertently funding human atrocities.” Intel, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of microprocessors, also called on others in the electronics industry to join them in a mission to create conflict-free products. The extraction and transport of “conflict minerals” – tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold – has helped rebel …
DC District Court Upholds “Conflict Minerals Disclosure” Section of the Dodd Frank Act
Susan Baker, Vice President, Shareholder Advocacy and Corporate Engagement: July 2013 On July 23rd, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled to uphold the implementing rules for Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which relates to Conflict Minerals Disclosure. The Court also dismissed a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Business Roundtable; “[f]inding no problems with the SEC’s rulemaking and disagreeing that the ‘conflict minerals’ disclosure scheme transgresses the First Amendment, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs’ claims lack merit.” Section …
Investors Welcome New SEC Rule Addressing Conflict Minerals in Supply Chains
Investors, including Trillium Asset Management, welcome yesterday’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule on Section 1502, the “Conflict Minerals” provision, of the Dodd-Frank Act. The final rule details how corporations will need to report to the SEC on their use of “conflict minerals” from the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where a violent conflict has been raging for 14 years, claiming over five million lives. The four conflict minerals—tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold—are used in large quantities in electronic components, jewelry, automobiles, and many other manufactured products. “Although we are pleased this unprecedented rule has finally been issued …
Congress: Companies Must Account for Conflict Minerals
Susan Baker Its wealth is unearthed by the poor, controlled by the strong, then sold to a world largely oblivious to its origin. So reads the “African natural resource curse” – a paradox of plenty. In few African nations has this curse brought greater conflict and environmental damage than in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). When perpetrators of the genocide in Rwanda crossed the border, battles escalated with rebels and foreign armies for control of valuable mineral deposits. In Africa’s Eastern Congo and neighboring Uganda and Rwanda, the extraction and transport of “conflict minerals” – tin, tungsten, tantalum (the …
Trillium Calls for Improved Working Conditions in China
Trillium Asset Management Corporation (Trillium) is leading a group of 40 international investors in issuing a public statement condemning abusive workplace conditions in the global electronics supply chain. The lead group of investors, including Trillium, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, Boston Common Asset Management, LLC, As You Sow and Domini Social Investments LLC, are sending a strong message to the electronics manufacturers in their portfolios urging stricter supply chain compliance. The statement, which follows many years of work on human rights in supply chains, was prompted by the recent suicides at the Foxconn Technology Group factories in China which manufacture consumer electronics …
Performance
The word “performance” in modern times has produced everything from Viagra to ergogenic supplements to insider trading. …
Slouching To (and From) Kabul (Archive)
Last month, Unocal Corporation, a multinational energy concern loathed in many circles for its business relationship with the Burmese military regime, dropped plans to pursue a natural gas pipeline deal with the Taliban government of Afghanistan, a regime loathed in many circles for its heinous treatment of women. The official story from Unocal is that low oil prices worldwide have forced cost-cutting measures, some of which just happen to include closing three out of four of its offices in the Caspian and Central Asian regions. The real story is that feminists and human rights advocates have made Afghanistan too hot …
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