The 2019 Apple Supplier Responsibility Report has been released. The report [PDF] is broken down into three categories: People, Planet, and Progress.
[Apple’s Environmental Impact – TMO Daily Observations 2019-03-05]
People
In 2018, the Thompson Reuters Foundation gave Apple the Stop Slavey Award. The company repaid US$30.9 million dollars in supplier recruitment fees since 2008, US$616,000 of which was repaid in 2018. Apple reached 96% compliance with Working Hours Standards across all work weeks, and trained over 17.3 million employees on their rights since 2007.
Planet
100% of final assembly sites for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods, and HomePod were UL Zero Waste certified. 7.6 billion gallons of freshwater were saved with a 39% water reuse rate for suppliers. In 2018 Mind the Store gave Apple an A+ award and ranked first out of 40 retailers for the company’s actions to eliminate toxic chemicals. Apple was also rated #1 in the Corporate Information Transparency Index (CITI) for the fifth year in a row.
Progress
In 2018 Apple conducted a total of 1,049 supplier assessment reports in 45 countries, as well as 279 smelter and refiner third-party audits. The company found that 76% of supplier facilities were high-performing, and 1% was low-performing. However, Apple did see a 30% increase in high-performing suppliers year over year. 100% of the supply chain participated in these audits across tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold, and cobalt smelters and refiners.
[Examining Apple’s Recycling Ambitions]
Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash