Asking Ericsson About Conflict Minerals

In September 2011, I had the opportunity to attend the United Nations Social Good Summit in New York City. While there, I was given special access to the Hans Vestberg (President and CEO of Ericsson) and Elaine Weidman-Grunewald (Vice President, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility at Ericsson).

During this special access meeting, I decided to take your questions from Twitter. One of these questions came from J. Lam (zengarden17) who asked: "Can companies do a better job of purchasing products that don't fund wars?"

https://twitter.com/#!/zengarden17/status/116214738253381632

This was Ericsson's response to that question.

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Please Note: Although Ericsson sponsored my trip to NYC, they did not control what I could or could not say unless they thought I was directly misrepresenting the company or stating a lie.

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Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Ericsson
• Social Good
• Conflict Minerals
• New York City
• NYC
• Cellphones
• Technology
• Congo
• DRC
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Civl War
• War
• Wars
• Violence
• Conflict
• Corporate
• Corporation
• CEO
• VP
• Hans Vestberg
• Uncultured Project
• UnculturedProject
• Shawn Ahmed
• United Nations
• Mashable
• EnoughProject
• Enough Project

[KenmoreT]

Nothing against you, Shawn. And in fact, I'm impressed that they allowed you to interview the President and CEO about stuff like this. But the abstract nature of her response is troubling. I, for one, want to know what actual, practical thing (or things) are happening to comply to these new US regulations.

[KenmoreT]

That doesn't strike me as much of an answer. Yes, they are going to prevent conflict minerals from going into their product, but how do they handle a supply chain issue like that? Then she says the issue is social, and that they can't just ban stuff like Coltan from the DRC ... which emphasizes the importance of the dodged question: HOW do you look at your supply chain and assure consumers that their purchase isn't funding human rights abuses half a world away?

[Maddog53]

I think it's a bit like having their cake and eating it too. I totally agree with her that outright banning would probably have little effect on the conflict, however saying that it is entirely a social issue is a tad disingenuous in my opinion. I'm loving these interviews, though!