We in the innovation community should consider a new certification for consumer electronics: Fair Trade Electronics. Do you have a cell phone, TV, iPad, GPS or laptop? Odds are good that about 75% of the consumer electronics you rely on are the product of an elaborate, global chain of suppliers who contract with brand name original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as HP, Dell and Apple. As described in a recent fantastic series of New York Times articles, “Bleak working conditions have been documented at factories manufacturing products for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba and others.” Like Fair Trade coffee, Fair Trade Electronics would call consumer attention to the environmental impact and working conditions of the supply chains that provide us electronic goods.
For the book I’m writing on 3D printing, I’ve been digging into research about the interplay between jobs and the manufacturing supply chain. Unless you live in an isolated hand-built cabin in rural Montana, grow your own food, wear couture or vintage clothing and use decades old household products, you’re buying offshored goods. Apple, for example, has 700,000 people all over the globe working in its global supply chain, engineering, building and assembling iPads, iPhones and other products. Just try to buy a cellphone or laptop that bears the “Made in the USA” label. I haven’t been able to find one. Have you?
To read the full, original article click on this link: Fair trade electronics: responsible innovation « Triple Helix Innovation
