Apple Auditing Supply Plants for Pollution
During promised meetings with the organisations behind a damning report into the company’s environmental impact, Apple said that it has been conducting environmental audits on a number of Chinese suppliers. From Caixin online:
In a three-hour meeting with Chinese environmental groups on November 15, the technology company said it is working with third-party bodies to audit 15 of its suppliers in China. 11 of the 15 reviews have been completed, with the remaining four “on the road,” the company said.
Apple declined to specify which supply firms were under review or what specific environmental problems the audits have thus far uncovered. The company said it has invested more than 100 million yuan towards pollution control, and that it plans to edit and combine the audit results into a new set of standards for suppliers ….
Five Chinese environmental NGOs attended the meeting, including the EnviroFriends Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Friends of Nature and the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs. Some, like IPEA director Ma Jun, interpreted the meeting as a positive development, while others said there was much more progress to be made.
“In terms of information transparency, Apple still has not done enough,” said Friends of Nature Secretary-General Li Bo to Caixin, following the meeting.
From The Wall Street Journal:
“This a major step forward,” Mr. Ma said. “They asked these companies to take corrective plans and give a timeline, and Apple will verify whether all these issues have been resolved ….”
Mr. Ma still urged greater transparency from Apple, saying the company didn’t name the suppliers it is scrutinizing. He also called for the polluting suppliers to disclose what measures they plan to address the advocacy groups’ concerns.
“Apple is trailing far behind in terms of transparency and pushing for the polluters to be held publicly accountable for their problems,” he said ….
Ma said Tuesday’s meeting was one of several he has had with Apple since the Chinese groups issued their report, including one meeting at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., with a senior executive and other Apple officials whom he declined to name.
Scrutiny of the firm’s environmental record has also reached China’s state media, with CCTV airing a 40-minute report on two major Apple suppliers last month. One of them, Taiwanese notebook casing manufacturer Catcher, faced partial closure of a Suzhou factory after local residents complained of a strange odour.
Note: This post has been edited to reflect changes to the Caixin article, which originally stated that Apple had admitted to pollution from its suppliers. Rob Schmitz of American Public Media’s Marketplace had earlier questioned the accuracy of the original report:
Yesterday’s Caixin article on Apple (http://bit.ly/sy1NNz) is, according to at least one person who attended the mtg, full of errors. →
Envirofriends’ 李力 [Li Li] told me Apple did -not- admit to violating any pollution laws. The only thing it admitted was having 15 suppliers in China →
