[woodsguy]

A good listen.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory

 

[rockofullr]

I don't need to fall asleep for a few more hours.

 

[kidwoo]

Steve Jobs was a fvcking SAINT!!!

You take that Back!!!

 

[Pesqueeb]

Haven't listened yet but its on my iPod. Syadasti, can I get an irony check?

 

[dump]

Thanks for the link. Put it on while cooking... started a bit slow, but was really interesting. Thanks.

 

[syadasti]

Nokia's responsibility report (Winner of numerous corporate responsibility awards a number of years in a row from a range of organizations - Forbes, Greenpeace, Dow Jones, etc. In 2012 still makes their high-end smartphone phones in Finland and Hungary):

http://i.nokia.com/blob/view/-/261908/data/2/-/nokia-sustainability-report-2010-pdf.pdf

Apple's Supplier Report (Only makes recommendations, still has problems year after year. Outsourced the iPhone to the lowest bidder from day one.):

http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2012_Progress_Report.pdf

 

[stevew]

Nokia's responsibility report (Winner of numerous corporate responsibility awards a number of years in a row from a range of organizations - Forbes, Greenpeace, Dow Jones, etc. In 2012 still makes their high-end smartphone phones in Finland and Hungary):

http://i.nokia.com/blob/view/-/261908/data/2/-/nokia-sustainability-report-2010-pdf.pdf

Apple's Supplier Report (Only makes recommendations, still has problems year after year. Outsourced the iPhone to the lowest bidder from day one.):

http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2012_Progress_Report.pdf

totally blindsided by this post....

 

[syadasti]

More 2011 Responsibility Rankings:

Samsung was named the most Sustainable Technologies Organization in the world by Dow Jones Sustainability Index Annual Review in 2011. HP and Microsoft were removed and Apple has never made the index period.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/sustainability/ethical-investment-revolt-hp-microsoft-deleted-from-dow-jones-sustainability-index/1618?tag=search-results-rivers;item0

http://www.global100.org/annual-reviews/2011-global-100-list.html
http://www.global100.org/methodology/overview.html
Nokia 4th
Intel 6th
Sony 30th
Philips 58th
HP 75th
Panasonic 80th
Samsung 93rd

Newsweek's Green Ratings
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/features/green-rankings/2011/international.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/10/16/newsweek-green-rankings-2011-full-methodology.html
Top 500:
IBM 2nd
Philips 9th
HP 15th
Nokia 22nd
Samsung 23rd
Dell 25th
Toshiba 27th
Intel 47th
Ericsson 49th
Motorola 53rd
LG 65th
Sony 75th
Microsoft 91st
Apple 117th

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/cool-it/Guide-to-Greener-Electronics/
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/climate-change/cool-it/Guide-to-Greener-Electronics/Ranking-criteria-PDF/
Greenpeace's Green Electronics Guide (ratings are out of 10)
HP(5.9), Dell(5.1), Nokia(4.9), Apple(4.6), Philips(4.5), Sony Ericsson(4.2), Samsung(4.1), ... , RIM (1.6)

Also Apple has never joined the third party non-profit Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) despite years of serious problems, instead Apple just now finally joined a bullsh*t PR front (industry funded - self policing) formed by Nike for their infamous sweatshop operations:

"The United Students Against Sweatshops, have stated that the FLA has "... a weak code that fails to provide for women's rights, a living wage, the full public disclosure of factory locations, or university control over the monitoring process." WAAKE-UP! was also critical of the Fair Labor Association as much of its funding comes from organizations it monitors, creating a conflict of interest.

 

[DaveW]

I was interested to see that Microsoft also use the same third party supplier as Apple.... Foxconn.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57357453-92/microsoft-probing-report-of-foxconn-mass-suicide-threat/

 

[syadasti]

I was interested to see that Microsoft also use the same third party supplier as Apple.... Foxconn.

That's not news but it is news that Apple has finally released the list of all of their suppliers - I linked the Apple report above. NYT also mentions it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/14/technology/apple-releases-list-of-its-suppliers-for-the-first-time.html?_r=1

OEMs like Foxconn, Asustek, Compal, and Quanta are all very well known for making a large majority of the electronics on the market for quite some time now. Products are made according to the customer's specs/standards and what they are willing to pay (similar to bike brands and bike manufacturers)

NYT article I mentioned (bottom line is in bold below - Apple won't do anything as long as they profit - people are too selfish to punish Apple for being irresponsible, especially the prime Apple demographic):

Apple Lists Its Suppliers for 1st Time
By NICK WINGFIELD and CHARLES DUHIGG
Published: January 13, 2012

Apple released a list of its major suppliers for the first time on Friday, bringing the company up to par with other big American corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Nike, which have released similar lists.

The list accompanied a report detailing troubling practices inside many of the technology giant’s suppliers. Apple said audits revealed that 93 supplier facilities had records indicating that over half of workers exceeded a 60-hour weekly working limit. Apple said 108 facilities did not pay proper overtime as required by law. In 15 facilities, Apple found foreign contract workers who had paid excessive recruitment fees to labor agencies.

And though Apple said it mandated changes at those suppliers, and some showed improvements, in aggregate, many types of lapses remained at general levels that have persisted for years.

Labor rights groups, journalists and academics have long asked Apple to reveal the names of its suppliers. While other companies have published the names of firms providing parts and services, Apple has resisted, with some inside the company citing the firm’s culture of secrecy.

Judy Gearhart, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum, an advocacy group for workers’ rights, was disappointed Apple did not reveal the location of the suppliers on its list, complicating outside efforts to monitor the progress at the factories. Some plants on the list are relatively unknown, with Web sites that do not list where facilities are situated.

“It’s a bit of a half-step really to say, ‘Here are the names of the factories, go look through a haystack,’ ” Ms. Gearhart said. “But it’s a start.”

Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, declined to comment beyond the report.

The calls for Apple to disclose suppliers became particularly acute after a series of deaths and accidents in recent years.

In the last two years at companies supplying services to Apple, 137 employees were seriously injured after cleaning iPad screens with n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause nerve damage and paralysis; numerous workers have committed suicide, or fallen or jumped from buildings in a manner suggesting suicide attempts; and in two separate explosions caused by dust from polishing iPad cases, four were killed and 77 injured.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., posted the supplier list on its Web site on Friday as part of something it calls its supplier responsibility progress report, a document typically published in February. Apple provides aggregate statistics of audits examining labor, discrimination, worker health and safety, environmental and other practices.

The list consists of 156 companies, accounting for 97 percent of what Apple says it pays to its suppliers. Apple’s tally of its suppliers includes many big-name companies like Intel and Nvidia, both makers of chips for Apple’s Macintosh computers, along with other parts makers like Samsung Electronics, Toshiba and Panasonic. The list also includes less recognized companies like Zeniya Aluminum Engineering, Jin Li Mould Manufacturing and Unisteel Technology.

But the list excludes many of the secondary suppliers — companies that provide parts to firms that directly contract with Apple. For instance, though the American glassmaker Corning has manufactured the strengthened glass in iPhones, it does not appear on the list because it technically does not contract with Apple, but with an intermediary that finishes the glass before it is delivered to an assembly factory.

Apple said 229 audits were conducted as part of this year’s supplier responsibility report, an 80 percent increase over the number the year before. The company said the facilities where repeat audits were done had shown fewer violations.

In an e-mail to Apple employees, Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive, said Apple had used its influence to improve living conditions for the people who make its products, including employee housing. “To meet our requirements, many suppliers have renovated their dorms or built new ones altogether,” he wrote.

This is the sixth such report Apple has issued. The company began conducting audits and publishing reports after news articles in 2006 showed poor working conditions at Foxconn, a Chinese manufacturer of Apple products.

Apple said in the report that it recently became the first technology company to join the Fair Labor Association, a nonprofit group that aims to improve conditions in factories around the world. Apple said it would allow the association’s auditing team to gauge the performance of Apple’s suppliers against a code of conduct and publish the results.

“We welcome Apple’s commitment to greater transparency and independent oversight, and we hope its participation will set a new standard for the electronics industry,” Auret van Heerden, the association’s president, said in a statement.

Jeff Ballinger, a global labor activist, said he was skeptical that transparency alone would change the behavior of Apple’s suppliers, unless Apple was willing to pay more. “They can say forced overtime is a big problem, can you give Saturday afternoons off?” he said, adding that the factories’ “response is going to be raise the prices you give us.”

“That they don’t want to do,” he said of Apple.