The world is changing. A revolution is underway. Driven by a family of technologies that can erase barriers associated with time and distance or raise an individual voice instantaneously onto a global platform, people, organizations and governments around the world are embracing the potential changes this digital revolution can produce. Future 500’s new Tech Planet Journal initiative works to chronicle and shape positive development with broad stakeholder support.
It seems like every day there are news stories from around the world on a dizzying array of topics associated with how the Internet, broadband, microchips and software are changing the way we live and work…
Social media has become more than an outlet to discuss favorite recipes or weekend plans with friends.
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube have become tools of the pro-reform masses across the Middle East, Asia and North Africa. When natural disaster strikes millions the world round turn to those same tools for damage assessments, missing persons’ pleas and donation drives.
Humanitarian agencies and NGOs have begun to look at incorporating Internet-based solutions driven by volunteer communities such as Ushahidi, CrisisMappers and OneStreetMap into existing systems of global humanitarian response. Western governments are providing millions of dollars in funding to support technological fixes to help dissenters sidestep government censorship of the Internet and restrictions to access.
Mobile telephones are evolving into more than just a replacement for traditional rotary phones – morphing into a valuable asset that overcomes infrastructure gaps in the developing world.
Across Africa mobile banking has opened up economic opportunities for the urban poor, women and agricultural communities. Farmers in Asia, the Middle East and Africa are able to avoid some of the worst climate change effects by tapping into mobile solutions to get information on weather patterns.
The field of mHealth is exploding with a huge percentage of development focused on using mobile phones to diagnose, track and deliver care. The drive to improve maternal and child health worldwide continues to draw particular focus.
If it seem like a lot, that’s because it is…and actors worldwide – whether they be individual entrepreneurs, NGOs, companies or governments – are innovating and driving additional applications every single day.
Not every innovation will solve the problem it sets out to address. Not every government embraces technology. Not every community welcomes to the openness, and scrutiny, that comes with access.
These are opportunities and challenges the world will need to address as we move through the 21st century.
The Future 500’s new Tech Planet Journal initiative is working to track and shape the revolution – in part by providing a website clearing house of case studies, organizations, tools, services, and reports that document the current and potential impacts of digital technologies on sustainability, prosperity, and democracy.
Come visit the new Tech Planet Journal site…and let us know what you think.
Environmental and human rights watchdogs often levy criticism against governments and corporations for failing to live up to socially responsibility commitments. But this week Global Witness released a report on the World Wildlife Fund’s Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) initiative highly critical of failures to adequately screen participating companies for illegal timber and habitat destruction activities.
Global Witness’ report Pandering to the Loggers claims that companies associated the GFTN are using WFF association to bolster environmental credibility while continuing to contribute to the destruction of forests and trade in illegally sourced timber. The report names Malaysian logging company Ta Ann Holdings Berhad, British building supplier Jewson and the Swiss-German timber company Danzer Group as GFTN members involved in human rights abuses or environmental degradation of forests.
“WWF should publicly disassociate itself from any company using timber from illegal or unethical sources. It’s shocking that one of the world’s most trusted conservation groups deems it acceptable to take money from such companies. This investigation raises bigger questions about the underlying strategy and efficacy of such voluntary schemes,” Global Witness Forest Campaign Leader Tom Picken said.
The report’s authors noted that producing a report so critical of another NGO stakeholder that is involved in promoting solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental and human rights issues was a difficult decision. But because the GFTN receives public funds and current strategies to combat deforestation are insufficient, publication of the report went ahead.
The GFTN works to link environmentally responsible producers, suppliers and buyers committed to forest protection through sustainable forest management, supply chain transparency, and product certifications. Over 270 entities – including major international brands Avon, Hewlett-Packard, Kimberly-Clark and Marks & Spencer — representing annual trade in wood and forest-sourced products worth $45.2 billion participate in the 20-year old program.
Global Witness said the network lacks transparency, a system for independent evaluations, and monitoring or enforcement mechanisms, and that membership rules are simply inadequate to prevent abuses. The organization has called for an independent assessment of GFTN rules and effects on the world’s forests.
GFTN officials were quick to respond to the Global Witness allegations by highlighting the network’s contribution to creating a multi-sector standard for responsible purchasing and credible product certification.
“GFTN creates market conditions that help conserve the world’s forests, while providing social and economic benefits for the businesses and people that depend on them,” GFTN head George White said in response to the Global Witness report.
“Of course, some GFTN partners have a way to go on their journey to sustainability. But these are precisely the companies that should be in GFTN, and we applaud their commitments to improving their environmental performance. Companies caught flouting the rules and spirit of GFTN will be removed from the network.”
Destruction of the world’s forests and the long-term environmental implications have united a broad array of stakeholders in efforts to slow the pace of deforestation. The United Nations General Assembly declared 2001 the International Year of Forests noting that 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods and that 80% of the world’s biodiversity is housed in forests.
The overall rates of annual global deforestation dropped from 16 million hectares in the 1990s to 13 million between 200 and 2010 according to the UN Food & Agriculture Organization, but the amount of primary forest – areas untouched by human activity – continues to decline.
Efforts to build on forest protection efforts will ultimately be most successful with the inclusion of private sector actors who help manage local, national and global marketplaces’ demand for forest products. The reality that not all companies are able or willing to shift over to sustainable practices should not erode support for efforts such as the GFTN.
Stakeholders across the spectrum are responding to predictions of massive growth in e-waste and the detrimental effects discarded electronic devices have in the developing world. Major national and international telecommunications firms, for example, committed to developing the first industry standard universal charger to promote efficiency and aid in the battle against climate change, the United Nation’s International Telecommunications Industry (ITU) announced this week.
The new charger upgrades a 2009 universal battery charging system decision by the ITU that eliminates the need for individual chargers for products sold by different manufacturers. This will eliminate the need for manufacturers to sell chargers with each new phone.
With this week’s decision, the ITU expanded the reach of the universal charger to cover cameras, GPS systems, headphones and other lower-power devices. The new chargers will use faster charging currents to reduce charging tomes, and also feature a detachable cable with standardized connectors to allow data transfer. These additions will reduce the number of cords needed, decrease production energy consumption and ultimately impact the amount of waste generated by the industry. ITU officials expect manufacturers to roll out the chargers –which will be produced with eco-friendly materials – by the billions over the next few years.
“Other standards claim to be universal and energy efficient, but only ITU’s solution is truly universal and a real step forward in addressing environmental and climate change issues,” ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure said after the decision. “This updated standard will bring the benefits of the universal charger to a wider range of devices and consumers… The environmental impact of wide adoption will be enormous.”
Several major industry players have already committed to the new system, including AT&T, France Telecom-Orange, Swisscom, Telecom Italia and the China Academy of Telecommunication Research. The Geneva-based ITU works with 192 governments and over 700 private sector entities to set industry standards.
Buy-in from industry players operating or based in high usage growth regions like Asia and Africa is paramount for the broadest impact. In China, for example, the growth of the middle class over the last decade has catapulted demand for electronics while domestic energy consumption levels have risen dramatically.
The new standard meets requirements of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal –known more commonly as simply the Basel Convention –according to the ITU.
E-waste –the collective name for discarded or scrap electronics like television, cellular telephones, refrigerators and computers –remains a major campaign focal point for influential stakeholders such as Basel Action Network, Greenpeace International and the Campaign for Recycling.
The world produces around 40 billion metric tons of e-waste every year –with hundreds of millions of tons making their way to landfills in places like China, Nigeria and India. The components contain toxins and heavy metals like mercury and lead which leak into nearby soil and water supplies, and endanger the health of impoverished workers picking through landfills for components to sell.
In late 2010, the United Nations released a report with stark warnings about the growth rate of e-waste in developing countries. India will see a 500% growth in the amount of e-waste in its’ landfills over the next decade, while China and South Africa will see 400% increases over their 2007 levels in the next ten years. The bulk of the waste will not originate in those countries but come from abroad, predominantly the U.S.
Multi-stakeholder initiatives in the U.S. and internationally are looking to address the need for better recycling and waste processing. Companies including Samsung, Capital One, Bank of America and the Apollo Group have signed up as Basel Action Network e-Stewards committing to support the group’s rigorous certification process for responsible electronics recycling. In April 2011 the Consumer Electronics Association pledged to triple recycling rates in the U.S. for e-waste by 2016, to equal one billion pounds of electronics annually, through a combination of public education projects, infrastructure building and recycling enhancement. The industry group’s eCycling Leadership Initiative will look to build national recycling standards to enhance different state-level policies.
Local stakeholders in the Democratic Republic of Congo are working to build local capacity for sustainable change –with an emphasis on the country’s youth and the opportunities ICT tools provide to raise Congolese voices.
“Local organizations on the ground are often overlooked, yet it is through the strengthening of local entities that true change and stability is possible,” says Maurice Carney of Friends of the Congo (FotC).
Local stakeholders face a broad array of challenges in their work. Security across the DRC is shaky, at best, even in areas where armed combat isn’t a daily occurrence. While international efforts to address violence in DRC as it relates to the trade in “conflict minerals” such as tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold have intensified with action from the U.S. government, multinational electronics companies and others, the violence is unlikely to end anytime soon.
Tens of thousands of people have fled eastern DRC flooding into cities like Kinshasa where crime and abject poverty are standard challenges. Corruption and bribery are rampant. The DRC also has a marked lack of infrastructure –from roads, to water supply, to telecommunications.
Yet no one knows better the kind of change needed in the DRC than the people who live there.
And with an estimated 40 million residents under the age of 18, DRC’s youth have the potential to mobilize into a formidable force.
One such program –the Youth Project –being championed by FotC is looking to harness that potential and turn it into real power.
Beginning with one social network cell based out of Kinshasa, a core team of ten Congolese have created the opportunity for young Congolese to tap into the Internet and the array of tools –like Skype, Facebook and Twitter –that are available to help them raise their voices to a global audience. Participants are encouraged blog, vlog or create videos highlighting the issues that mean the most to them. Because many of the participants have little or no experience with ICT tools or virtual community building, administrators provide training and development support that covers everything from basic operation of computers and cameras, to life lessons that emphasize self-sufficiency to push for change.
FotC hopes to see the program go nationwide and is working with the core team to explore ways to make the program itself self-sufficient.
“The reality of the situation on the ground is stark. If the people of the country aren’t empowered to make their own change then the situation will perpetuate…and the youth are key,” believes Carney.
Capacity remains a challenge –with the fledgling network currently reliant on a modem that can connect four computers, and sporadic electricity supply. While the administrators have a generator to use during power outages, finding fuel for it is a constant challenge.
Even though Africa is home to around 400 million cellular telephone subscribers, it remains the world’s least “wired” continent. Research, like this study from the University of Cape Town, shows the relationship between Internet access and economic growth –and as the world has witnessed over the last five months ICT tools can also help power social change.
In addition to their own programs, FotC is lending support to efforts of other local organizations helping put together “Ruined: A Mother’s Day Fundraiser” in Washington, D.C. to benefit two south Kivu-based groups, the Association of Widows and Congo Restoration. The event will feature a performance of the Pulitzer-prize winning play “Ruined,” followed by a panel discussion with the play’s actors and women from the DRC.
The Association of Widows provides a variety of services to the local communities including health care, skill building opportunities and child-care. Congo Restoration works exclusively with war orphans and female victims of violence, providing help with basic survival needs, training and education.
A new set of rules for mineral suppliers in Central Africa backed by the world’s leading electronics companies came into effect April 1 in a bid to remove conflict minerals from international supply chains and end the trade’s contribution to violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While the Conflict-Free Smelter Program has broad support from stakeholders, there is near universal acknowledgement that the effort will only ultimately be successful as part of a comprehensive multi-pronged approach to ending the association between DRC minerals and conflict.
Mineral trade in the DRC has been a central feature of conflict in the country – with combatant groups locked in deadly battles for control of mines, perpetrating abuses against local populations to ensure control and using profits from the trade to obtain weapons and drive armed conflict.
For years activist stakeholders have applied pressure on governments and industry to take action and keep so-called conflict minerals out of the international supply chain. The electronics industry in particular – which uses DRC-sourced minerals to produce a variety of consumer products including cellular telephones, GPS and computers — has faced intense pressure to find an effective way to address the issue.
And now the time may have come.
The Conflict-Free Smelter Program requires participating mineral processing players in the DRC and neighboring countries to provide proof their supply purchases do not contribute to conflict in the DRC by funding militia groups or other armed combatants. The program, developed by the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), covers tin, tungsten, gold and coltan.
While the program is voluntary both for smelters and buyers, the creators expect companies from other industries will use the system, or something similar to it, as other regulatory requirements come into force. U.S. companies will be required to provide accountings of the mineral supply in their products under reporting provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act due as of 2012. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations to implement the provisions were expected April 15, but have now likely been delayed by as much as three months.
The April 1 Conflict-Free Smelter Program launch met with immediate, but in some cases tempered, support from stakeholders.
“We believe it is a step in the right direction that companies are cleaning up their supply chain,” says Kambale Musavuli from Friends of the Congo, a Congolese youth group that emphasizes the use of technology to drive change. “We also don’t think it will have an impact on the conflict but more so create a de facto ban of Congo’s minerals thus allowing more illegal smuggling of Congo’s minerals.”
Indeed within a couple days of the program’s official launch NGO observers began receiving reports from the DRC that militia commanders were finding it challenging to find willing buyers for their product. Until domestic and regional verification systems can be put in place, however, most stakeholders agree militias will find ways to get their product into the export stream.
Buyers for Chinese, Indian and other countries’ manufacturers who are not part of the program or subject to U.S. legislative requirements coming in effect in early 2012 face no regulatory requirements to ensuring their purchases are conflict-free. This could prove particularly valuable for those seeking to sidestep controls given that Chinese demand for minerals like copper are predicted to rise 7% every year between 2010 and 2014.
Other powerful private and public stakeholders are working to create and implement additional elements of a more comprehensive strategy to end the use of conflict minerals. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations, for example, have been working on tracing and certification programs. The International Tin Research Institute began implementation of the first phase of a tracing program in 2009 that it has been working with Congolese authorities, representatives from other industries and stakeholders on to refine and increase effectiveness.
Supporters of the efforts hope the initiatives will apply pressure on the DRC government to demilitarize mining sites and throw genuine support behind tracing programs. But some observers worry the pressure will merely push DRC mining enterprises towards less-restrictive markets and do little to alleviate the poverty and conflict that afflicts the country.
Posted by Pua Mench, Future 500 Manager for Stakeholder Engagement – Asia
Day two of the CSR Asia Summit in Hong Kong saw the conference halls buzzing with activity. My primary focus in the Asia region is water—a hot topic on many levels, and one that’s left some companies scratching their heads—so I made a beeline to the session entitled: “Water—the next carbon?” where Peter White, Director of Global Sustainability for Procter and Gamble (P&G), gave a compelling talk on the validity of this statement, and what P&G is doing about water.
The big difference between carbon and water, according to White, is that while carbon is global in scope “water is a local issue that occurs globally.” With carbon you can draw upon existing vetted methodologies to create a global carbon budget, as some organizations like World Wide Fund for Nature have done, you cannot simply add up water to create a global water budget.
P&G is taking a look at its entire water footprint, in part by using the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) Global Water Tool. P&G said that by far the largest component of their footprint is the water use attached to its products. To this end P&G is designing products that are both more efficient to manufacture and require less water for end-use, like “Ariel” and “Downy One Rinse.”
Discussion around local challenges and solutions for resource use was not limited to water. Graham Clewer, Director of Ethical Trade for the Body Shop International, made a point to emphasize local engagement during a lively session on sustainable ingredients. “If you do not manage ingredients on the local level you will have problems,“ said Clewer. “Body Shop reaches out and constantly addresses a vast network of NGOs.”
One thing that’s struck me at this conference is the innovation springing forth from companies facing ever-increasing external pressure to be sustainable. Granted CSR conferences tend to be a bit of a corporate love-in, it is inspiring to hear so many stories of lemonade being made of lemons—and P&G is far from the only one doing so. At the end of the day many are discovering it’s just plain good business sense to run cleaner, leaner and greener operations.
Graham Clewer perhaps put it best, “What we used to see as risk we now see as value.”
The business argument for sustainability is something the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) understands well. And when Adam Tomasek, director of WWF’s Heart of Borneo Initiative, addressed this topic I was very happy to (finally) hear an NGO-voice.
Tomasek described how WWF collaborated with Cargill to look at the economics of palm oil production at plantations. Their research showed that companies are able to produce sustainable palm oil at the same cost as unsustainable palm oil, minus all of the social and environmental issues attached—essentially making it “cheaper” to produce sustainable palm oil. Backed by research and a corporate partner, WWF now has the confidence to engage with companies globally.
The session moderator, who sits on the Roundtable of the Sustainable Palm Oil in Malaysia, observed that even though companies are willing to work with NGOs no “real” partnerships exist in the palm oil sector and present relationships are “weak.” – an observation that points to a tremendous opportunity to both sides to develop meaningful and productive relationships.
Genevieve Hilton of the German chemical company BASF, reminded companies to carefully consider what is meant by “greener” when responding to external pressure. She advised the audience to not just depend on what’s visible to the consumer when assessing environmental impact, and that in the long-run it’s “better to be influenced by the latest science and not the latest trend.” Comparing the eco-impact of product x versus product y is often more complex than one would assume.
The BASF presentation also included the following: “when you talk about how green a product is you need to consider how green compared to what? What are the alternatives?” A valid point but also a sensitive topic, as one member of the audience, representing the NGO-sector, offered: “Bad is still bad, even if there is no immediate better solution.”
Will Afghanistan’s mineral wealth result in the world’s next Conflict Mineral scenario?
By Juliette Terzieff
From cellular telephone to computers, from jewelry to medical devices, minerals sourced in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) make their way into dozens of types of consumer products every year. But the competition to control the land and mines home to some of the world’s largest deposits of tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold – collectively known as “Conflict Minerals” – drives violence, environmental degradation and human rights abuses. Proceeds from the sales fund armed groups vying for control.
It’s an abysmal situation – a flip-flopped jumble that sees an opportunity to enrich the lives of Congolese and fund development instead disintegrated into a nightmare scenario.
Multinational corporations in the electronics, aerospace, extractive, medical device, automotive and retail sectors have emerged as targets – and partners — in what is one of the most active and concentrated activist campaigns of this new decade.
“Conflict minerals” officially made it to the New York Times’ 2009 list of buzzwords released on December 19. Does this mean that they have gained the notoriety of “blood diamonds”? Not yet (at least not without Leonardo DiCaprio to shine some star power on the issue) … but the NYT acknowledgement does clearly suggest advocacy to raise the issue of conflict minerals has come a long way – “conflict minerals” have gone mainstream.
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