Участие общественности в сохранении рек

Созванная в 2007 г. Институтом публич­ной политики в Пекине Коалиция «Зеленый выбор», включающая 37 НКО, занимается контролем загрязнения среды, добиваясь про­зрачности и общественного участия в управ­лении цепочками поставок. Коалиция также помогает потребителям делать «зеленый вы­бор». Хорошим примером служит начатая в 2009 г. кампания по цепочкам поставок для корпораций в области информационных тех­нологий (IT), стартовавшая после обнародо­вания 12 вопиющих случаев массового от­равления тяжелыми металлами в результате деятельности поставщиков IT-производств. Коалиция вступает в диалог с транснацио­нальными корпорациями, требуя от них глас­ного контроля за социально-экологической безопасностью цепочек поставок и исправле­ния нарушений, зафиксированных в открытой базе данных по предприятиям-загрязнителям Института публичной политики (www.ipe. org.cn/En). К середине 2010 г. уже 29 круп­ных IT-корпораций вступили в диалог с коа­лицией, некоторые начали использовать базу данных. Важной победой в 2011 г. стало при­знание компанией Эппл APPLE фактов отрав­ления рабочих с их последующим незаконным увольнением с завода-поставщика. Мы, Envi­roFriends, работаем с компаниями Японии и Кореи, имеющими китайских поставщиков. В нашем регионе Sony Corporation, Canon Cor­poration, Panasonic Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd, Hitachi Ltd, Toshiba Corporation, Sharp Corporation и Brigestone Inc уже вступили в диалог с коали­цией и дали обязательства по улучшению кон­троля за цепочками поставок.

Background.

The Green Choice Alliance (GCA) was called by Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environ­mental Affairs and founded by 21 NGOs in China in March 2007. The GCA aims to control pollu­tion in China's manufacturing hubs by integrating transparency and stake-holder participation into existing supply chain management systems. The GCA also aims to promote a global green supply chain by urging corporations to concentrate on sustainable procurement and the environmental performance of their suppliers. The GCA encour­ages consumers to exercise their purchasing pow­er by making green choices. The members have grown to 37 NGOs until early 2011.

As part of the Chinese government's initia­tive to strengthen environmental enforcement, le­gal and policy measures have been established to facilitate public participation. Evolving environ­mental policy, alongside the increased capacity of environmental NGOs in China, and corporations' aspiration to achieve environmental excellence, have set the stage for broad public-private col­laboration to tackle China's pollution problems.

Capitalizing on increased public disclosure of pollution monitoring data, in 2006 the Insti­tute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) launched the China Water Pollution Map, provid­ing a user-friendly inter-face through which the public can access thousands of environmental quality and infraction records released by various government agencies.

Tapping into the database's over 27,000 re­cords (by August 2008) of specific citations of companies violating emission standards and oth­er environmental rules in China, from 2004 on­ward, corporate users can use the search engine of the database to handily compare their list of suppliers with IPE's list of violators. Some major companies are already using IPE's China Pollu­tion Database to monitor their sourcing practices in China.

The GCA Program means to develop upon the dynamically updated IPE database a system­atic solution that responsible corporate citizens can utilize to monitor the environmental compli­ance records of their suppliers and to help control pollution in China in a practical, verifiable, and transparent way.

Heavy Metal Pollution by IT Brand Sup­ply Chain

According to the statistics of the Environ­mental Protection Ministry, in 2009, in the 12 cases of heavy metal pollution the Ministry re­ceived, blood level of lead in 4,035 people and the blood level of cadmium in 182 people were excessive, which led to 32 mass incidents.

The national government has taken the harm­ful effects of heavy metal pollution very seriously, and strengthened its administration and manage­ment in 2009. On April 10, 2010, in a telecon­ference on regulating illegal industrial discharge to protect the public health and environment, the State Council reiterated the need to further in­crease corrective measures on industrial heavy metal discharge violations and to check on heavy metal incidents that happened so frequently.

China is undeniably the world factory for IT industries with around fifty-percent of the world's computers, cell phones, and digital cam­eras manufactured in China. However, the battery industry relating to the production of IT products and the electroplate industry relating to printed circuit board (PCB) production are both impor­tant sources of heavy metal pollution. Among all the negative impacts of heavy metal discharge, heavy metal pollution should be taken very seri­ously. Accordingly, Institute for Public and Envi­ronmental Affairs, Green Beagle and Friends of Nature carried out an investigative study of this industry to promote this fast-growing industry to­wards enhancing heavy metal discharge control measures.

The study found some IT enterprises had violated heavy metal discharge standards and had caused serious pollution. Take the printed circuit board (PCB) production as an example. A large number of PCB manufacturers have not been able to sustain compliance with discharge standards in the process of electronic plating and copper foil etching of the board. The wastewater contains to­tal copper, nickel and chromium caused serious environmental pollution. By retrieving corpo­rate violations of wastewater discharge standards through the China Water Pollution Map and the China Air Pollution Map, the study also found that a number of suppliers of some well-known

IT brands have exceeded heavy metal discharge standards and have become heavy polluters.

NGOs communicate with IT Companies

After discovering the relationships between the famous IT brands and their suppliers that ex­ceeded discharge standards and violated regula­tions, on April 15^th and 16^th of 2010, we wrote to the CEOs of 29 IT companies.

We requested answers to the following ques­tions:

• Are the above enterprises your company S suppliers?

• If the enterprises are your suppliers, have you been aware of their environmental violation records?

• If you have been aware of their violations, what measures have you taken to remedy them? If you have not been aware of the violations, then, after receiving the letter, what kind of measures or action will you prepare to take?

• Do you have any other suppliers that have problems with environmental compliance?

• Do you have environmental standards for your suppliers? Have you established an envi­ronmental management system for your supply chain?

Our first research report was released on April 26, 2010 by "Environmental Protection" magazine to promote awareness and concern for heavy metal pollution in all members of society. By May 26th, the number of IT brand companies that responded grew to 21 brands. The second round of communication with the 21 brands in­corporates these main aspects:

• 1. Some companies said they were carry­ing out investigations.

We expressed our hope that the companies would make a timely disclosure of internal inves­tigation results.

• 2. Some brand companies claimed that the companies environmental NGOs have listed as exceeding environmental standards are not "direct suppliers" or "first tier suppliers."

Given that IT production relies heavily on outsourcing, we believe that it is not sufficient to extend environmental management only to first tier suppliers; rather, environmental management needs to be extended further down through the supply chain. We therefore hope the corporation can confirm if related companies are part of their supply chain.

• 3. Some brand companies claimed that the companies that environmental NGOs have listed as exceeding environmental standards are "not currently their suppliers."

Considering some companies' non-compli­ant behavior happened in past years we hope that these companies can confirm if related companies used to be their suppliers.

• 4. Some IT brand companies mentioned that they have introduced certain supplier envi­ronmental / social responsibility management standards, including the industry's volunteer standards such as the "Electronics Industry Code of Conduct."

We hope the company can clarify how these measures and standards would be implemented and to confirm if the implementation of standards like "Electronics Industry Code of Conduct" would be sufficient to ensure timely and effective identification of violations by suppliers.

• 5. Most brand companies seemed to be unsure of how they could improve their existing management system.

We want the IT brand companies to clearly confirm if they will consider using public govern­ment data in their supply chain management.

Since 5th June, 2010, the NGO Coalition had a series of contact with the 29 I.T. brands. It is estimated that this involved more than 80 e­mail and letter exchanges, 14 telephone commu­nications, 3 telecommunication conferences and 3 face to face meetings

Consumer Actions

At the same time, we believe that through making green choices, the public has the influ­ence to change these enterprises too. To those businesses that have refused to respond, we advo­cate that consumers of their products to express their expectations and require that they strength­en their supply chain management and control the production processes that generate heavy metal discharge. we provide consumers with the fol­lowing guidelines:

• Why should we care about the IT indus­try's heavy metal discharges?

The public should care because the manufac­turing process of IT products creates heavy metal discharge that will bring serious and long-lasting damage to the environment and public health.

• Are there solutions to control heavy met­als in the IT industry?

Yes. In the production process of PCB (print­ed circuit boards), there is a mature solution to control heavy metal pollution. This is to simply install equipment at the end of the production process that can effectively recover heavy metals.

• Why is it so important for the IT industry for IT brands to get involved in the control of heavy metal discharge in their supply chain?

If the IT brands integrate environmental pro­tection requirements in their sourcing code, they could promote suppliers to improve their envi­ronmental performance.

• Why do we need to promote consumer participation in pollution control for the IT in­dustry?

Consumers are the most important stake­holders for IT brands. Consumers' clear expres­sion of their desire for pollution control would be a great driving force for IT brands to take action.

• Why do IT brands have the responsibility to respond to my expectations and demands?

Most of these brands have made an environ­mental protection commitment one way or an­other, which means that if you buy their product, you are also purchasing a commitment. IT brands rely heavily on outsourcing their production and if suppliers are left unchecked and violate envi­ronmental rules and standards, the brands violate their commitment. As a consumer of their prod­ucts, you have the right to require open explana­tions on their behavior and corrective actions.

• Are there cases where major brand com­panies have successfully helped suppliers to eliminate pollution?

The pollution map database now contains over 60,000 corporate violation records from government sources. This allows brands to easily compare their list of suppliers with government issued non-compliant records. Currently GE, Nike, Wal-Mart, Esquel, Unilever, Mitsui Prop­erty and others have already started to use the da­tabase to track the performance of their suppliers in China. Since 5th June, 2010, there have been over 260 calls from South China Nature Society, Nanjing Green Stone, Green Student Forum, Da­lian Blue, Lanzhou University Community and the Biodiversity Conservation Research Center, as well as other initiatives from environmental or­ganizations. These Chinese consumers wrote let­ters to Apple, IBM, Canon and LG amongst other I.T. brands to express their concern over the I.T.

industry's heavy metals discharge resulting from their manufacturing processes.

Action to save Snow White

Lian Jian Technology who is a supplier of touchscreens to Apple, Inc. located in Suzhou Industrial Park (Suzhou) began requiring its em­ployees to replace the alcohol-based cleaner with n-hexane in Aug. 2008. N-hexane was clearly su­perior to using the alcohol-based cleaner, allow­ing them to significantly reduce the defect rate.

However, this "miracle" substance that was so beneficial to Apple's profits was actually a poi­son. By not reporting the use of toxic chemicals to the authorities Lian Jian Technology violated China's "Law on the Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases". Starting in August, 2009, the Suzhou No.5 People's Hospital admit­ted 49 Lian Jian Technology employees that had fallen sick. According to hospital tests and the doctors' diagnosis, these employees' upper and lower peripheral nerves had been damaged, caus­ing the sickness and leading to slowed reactions and weakness in their limbs.

According to the workers, several dozen of their sick colleagues had chosen to leave their jobs because "the company also hoped you would leave". and had to sign an agreement that any­thing that happened to them after they left had nothing to do with the company.

Since April 2010, Dozens of NGOs from China and USA had sent large numbers of letters to Apple to ask them to examine and manage its suppliers. Apple replied to Pacific Environment and the Chinese NGOs in July 15^th, 2010 stat­ing: Apple Inc. will not disclose any informa­tion about suppliers including anything about an investigation, its timing and/or the results of the investigation.

For the evasive attitude of Apple, 36 envi­ronmental groups from China carried out a re­port titled "The Other Side of Apple". The report faulted the tech giant for failing to respond to in­quiries related to the working and environmental conditions at its suppliers, while also refusing to disclose who the company's suppliers are.

At Feb. 15^th, 2011, Apple published their an­nual report of supplier responsibility. In the re­port, Apple acknowledged the n-hexane incident. "In 2010 we learned that 137 workers at the Su­zhou facility of Wintek, one of Apple's suppli­ers, had suffered adverse health effects follow­ing exposure to n-hexane, a chemical in cleaning agents used in some manufacturing processes," the report read. "We required Wintek to stop us­ing n-hexane and to provide evidence that they had removed the chemical from their produc­tion lines. Following China law, Wintek has paid medical treatment, meals, and foregone wages for sick or recuperating workers. A majority of the 137 workers have returned to employment at the same factory." they said.

East Asia Environmental Information Sharing Network

As one of the first party members of GCA, Envirofriends took upon the internal coordina­tion of NGO organizations, consumer training and preparation of press conference. We find some Japanese and Korean companies pollut­ing environment seriously in China while they are environmental lead in their own country. We could not be indifferent to a company carrying out two opposite environmental policies in dif­ferent countries. We sent letters to the Chinese office of polluters and asked them to survey and control pollutions, but received no replies. Using the advantage of network, we entrusted Japanese/ Korean partner NGOs to communicate with the headquarters of polluters in their own country. After several emails, expressages and office vis­iting of Tokyo based East Asia Environmental Information Express Messenger, the Brigestone Inc. began to dialogue with us finally. The same strategy has also made Sony Corporation, Canon Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Seiko Ep­son Corporation, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd, Hitachi Ltd, Toshiba Corporation and Sharp Corporation to communicate with GCA and say that they will manage pollution.

We believe that Green choice can promote to reduce pollution substantially and contribute everyone's effort for a green earth.

Our Website: http://www.envirofriends.ngo.

cn

Most materials are cited from four Reports of Heavy Metal Pollution by IT Brand Supply Chain represented by Institute for Public and En­vironmental Affairs, Green Beagle and Friends of Nature in Beijing.

Best thanks to Ma Jun and Wang Jingjing who work at Institute for Public and Environmen­tal Affairs.

 Ли Ли

Директор института экологических наук и технологий EnviroFriends, Китай Director of EnviroFriends Institute of Environmental Science and Technology

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