PW2 Web Blog

Environment: Apple’s Supply Chain Pollution

Contributed by Rick DeVan on September 2, 2011 at 8:00 pm ET

Resource: Apple Blasted For Alleged Pollution By Suppliers via NPR.

Apple is defending itself against a fresh barrage of criticism from Chinese environmental activists over alleged pollution by the manufacturers who make its iconic iPhones, iPads and other products.

Resource: The Other Side Of Apple II: Pollution Spreads Through Apple’s Supply Chain via Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Faced with an ever evasive Apple, a group of Chinese NGOs decided to dig deeper and carry out further investigations into the environmental problems that exist within Apple’s supply chain. Through five months of research and field investigations we have found that the pollution discharge from this $300 billon dollar company has been expanding and spreading throughout its supply chain, and has been seriously encroaching on local communities and their surrounding environments.

About the IPE:

The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) is a registered non-profit organization based in Beijing. Since our establishment in May 2006, the IPE has developed two pollution databases (water & air) to monitor corporate environmental performance and to facilitate public participation in environmental governance. Our aim is to expand environmental information disclosure to allow communities to fully understand the hazards and risks in the surrounding environment, thus promoting widespread public participation in environmental governance. The IPE is a member of a coalition of NGOs throughout China, promoting a global green supply chain by pushing large corporations to concentrate on procurement and the environmental performance of their suppliers. This ‘Green Choice Alliance’ consumer initiative takes into consideration the environmental performance of manufacturing enterprises while exercising their purchasing power to make green choices.

As distant as China seems, it is part of our backyard now.

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Filed under Environment

Tags used: Apple, China, Environment, Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, iPad, iPhone —

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