According to Sophia Pickles from Global Witness, Apple’s new Conflict Minerals Report is “a significant step forward for due diligence reporting”. Pickles and her organisation call on all companies to conduct due diligence along their mineral supply chains.
Pickles is positive about the details Apple has included in its report, identifying and addressing the risks they have found. Compared to many other electronics firms, Apple is ahead of the curve when it comes to due diligence reporting. Furthermore, the company recognizes that individual companies have to take their responsibility, and that industry due diligence schemes alone are not enough.
Apple’s latest Conflict Minerals Report covering 2015 was published on 30th March 2016 and can be found here. More relevant documents filed by Apple at the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC in 2016 can be found here and here (previous years).
Global Witness calls on all companies to undertake supply chain due diligence along their mineral supply chains and provide detailed and substantive information about supply chain risks they have identified and the steps they have taken to address these risks when using supply chains linked to any conflict-affected and high risk area as they file their reports ahead of the May 31 deadline. For more information click here.
