Kayla O'Daniel by The New School

Advocating for Design Ethics in Global Material Sourcing

Kayla Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Daniel Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Design Studies MA Program in Design Studies Parsons The New School for Design 2018

CONTENTS

Abstract

Introduction

Chapter 1

Understanding Conflict and Its Implications for Designers

Chapter 2

Design Hierarchies and Ethical Considerations

Chapter 3

Motivations for Ethical Material Choices

Chapter 4

Creating Standards for Material Sourcing

Chapter 5

Rethinking Material Education

Bibliography

101

Appendix

105

Abstract

Gold, tungsten, tantalum, and tin are material elements that permeate multitudes of industries. These elements are included in the material makeup of various objects we consume on a daily basis, yet the question of material origination is often overlooked. However, the sourcing of these materials has brought about inquiries of questionable labor and human rights violations. Known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;conflict minerals,â&#x20AC;? these materials have gained significant recognition over the past ten years with their connection to the conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In 2010, the United States government passed a legislation known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Section 1502 of this legislation requires companies who utilize these four minerals flagged as potentially from a source of conflict both within the products themselves as well as in the production of these products to report the mineralsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; country of origin. In requiring this sort of transparency from companies, the U.S. government tries to dissuade companies from the continued trade of these conflict minerals from the DRC. While the legislation only draws focus to the four minerals listed above sourced from a very specific part of the world, it does suggest a greater issue of ethics within the sourcing and production of material artifacts. Design in itself is a means to negotiate the potentials of the artifice, a world on which mankind has become reliant. The act of designing through the negotiation of actualities and potentials is intrinsic to the

realm of ethics, for ethics should be the basis in making design decisions.1 Intended for not only for designers in the practicing realm but also for those who make design decisions without any formal training, this thesis will use the discussion of conflict minerals as a way to explore the larger questions of design and material ethics with a focus on the designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in material selection and sourcing, as well as the difficulties designers face in exercising this responsibility under the constraints of capitalism. Material selection is an issue of ethics. Designers need to be aware of the effects of materiality on larger social systems because materials are in fact commodities in so far as the material has exchange value that is independent of the amount of labor required to produce it.2 Companies and the designers within them should not limit their responsible duties to what is suggested by the law but should not only use this legislation to recognize the larger picture of the material sourcing but should also educate themselves in the political and social ramifications of their sourcing. In framing design in a capitalist system while recognizing the political and social constructs that dictate the designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role within the production of material goods, I use various ethnographic methods to understand material sourcing as an ethical consideration in the production of commodities in both the jewelry and lighting industries. These methods include interviews with designers and other non-design individuals within the companies referenced, as well as interviews with industry and legal professionals that frame the larger issue of material sourcing of which designers are not necessarily aware. In addition, analysis of company, industry, and governmental documentation and databases 1 Clive Dilnot et al., Ethics? Design? (Chicago, IL.: Archeworks, 2005). 2

Karl Marx. Capital. Place of Publication Not Identified: Theclassics Us, 2013. 27.

offer insight into the extensive regulations that may limit or inform the designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to make informed design choices. Through the exploration of material sourcing with case studies within the jewelry and lighting industries, a couple of which are known to contain conflict minerals, this thesis will map a larger systemic practice of ethics and material production framing a need for a shift in design education in regards to understanding material sourcing.

Introduction

Material Ethics and Design in a Capitalist Structure Before we consider the particular issues of material sourcing in context with conflict minerals, we need to look at the political and economical climate in which this thesis is framed. This thesis, which is about the production and labor that yields not only conflict materials as named by a particular legislation but also other materials that are sourced from questionable practices, frames design’s ability to mitigate capitalist structures in which it is bound. The capitalist system as referenced through the remaining chapters is based on Marx’s examination of capitalist modes of production. Understanding how Marx explains this allows for the critical analysis of the role of designer within the capitalist system. The capitalist modes of production are based on wage-labor and private ownership and are the systems that organize the production and distribution of commodities within capitalist societies. Marx’s view of capital is materialistic in itself and as such suggests how it not only affects design but also how design can affect it. The production and distribution of products or commodities form the material basis of society’s existence.3 Marx claims that the wealth of societies where capitalist modes of production prevail, “presents itself as

Anwar Shaikh, M. Milgate, and P. Newman, "Abstract and Concrete Labour," in Marxian Economics, ed. J. Eatwell (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1990).

‘an immense accumulation of commodities.’”4 The commodity, which is a designed object as the artificial is always designed in some respect, is the basis for wealth and stability within capitalist societies. The designed objects in the case of this thesis are jewelry and LED lights. While these two product category types do not make up the wealth formed by the capitalist structure in totality, these product case studies will call attention to the wide reaching effects capitalistic structures have on the production of these goods. Capitalism and its modes of production influence various aspects of political and social life. In a footnote of Marx’s Capital, Marx declares, …that each special mode of production and the social relations corresponding to it, in short, that the economic structure of society, is the real basis on which the juridical and political superstructure is raised and to which definite social forms of thought correspond; that the mode of production determines the character of the social, political, and intellectual life generally, all this is very true for our own times, in which material interests preponderate…5 While this writing was first published in 1867, this statement still rings true. The commodity, commodity here meaning not only the products like jewelry and LED lights, but also the system in which these products are produced, is the basis for economic structure within capitalist systems; therefore its mode of production dictates the social and political character of the societies and the individuals within over which it has influence. In other words, the capitalist modes of production that originate from a capitalist driven society (in the case of this thesis, predominantly U.S. based companies)

4 Marx. Capital. 27. 5 ibid. 58.

impact the social and political realms of the countries that these modes of production are present (the U.S., DRC, etc.) regardless of differing political systems. Since labor is a central aspect of the capitalist system and is integral to the production of the commodity (regardless of what system produces it), it is imperative that labor in relation to the production of the commodity be analyzed. The capitalist system, especially with the productiveness and demand within the modern industry, exploits labor-power, which is, as Marx would describe, the workers’ capacity to do work.6 As Marx notes in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, “The product of labor is labor which has been embodied in an object, which has become material: it is the objectification of labor;” this objectification is seen as the alienation of the worker from the object. 7 Marx continues, “The alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his labor becomes an object, an external existence, but that it exists outside him, independently, as something alien to him, and that it becomes a power on its own confronting him.”8 The product and the labor that produced it does not belong to worker (or the person who makes it) as it is predetermined by design and the intellectual laborers like designers. In the case of this thesis, the designer and his or her design choices dictate the product and its material makeup and by default, the worker/miner’s labor. Therefore, the labor is an external power to the worker and instead is controlled by the designer who is controlled by the capitalist structure. This suggestion of hierarchy in labor within a

6 ibid. 297. 7

Karl Marx. 1932. MS, Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Moscow. 29.

8 ibid.

capitalist society leads to the possibility of the informed designer’s ability to enact mitigation of the proportion between the “devaluation of the world of men” and the “increasing value of the world of things,”9 which will be discussed throughout this thesis through the examination of materials and the sourcing labor that produces the designed object. Framing the Issue at Hand In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into federal law by former President Barack Obama in response to the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Within the act are multiple sections that attempt to improve accountability and transparency in the United States financial system and in U.S. business practices. Section 1502 deals with an issue that should be of particular interest to the design community as it alludes to the ethics of design practice and materiality. For more than fifteen years, the DRC has faced concerns of armed groups causing violence, harm, and death among the people of the eastern region. A driving source of power and money for these groups comes from the mining of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold (otherwise abbreviated as 3TG), which are recognized as the four conflict minerals of Section 1502. The word conflict here can become confusing. While 3TG are considered conflict minerals, the legislation only deems them problematic if these minerals are mined in the DRC to finance conflict, entailing human rights abuses such as sexual violence and poor labor conditions.10

9 ibid. 28. 10 United States Government Accountability Office. “Conflict Minerals: Information

on Artisanal Mined Gold and Efforts to Encourage Responsible Sourcing in the

When the legislation was passed it required companies listed on the U.S. stock markets to identify and report whether their products contained conflict minerals from the DRC. The act gave these companies three years to report their findings. As revealed in a study conducted by Yong H. Kim and Gerald F. Davis of the University of Michigan, almost 80 percent of the companies admitted that they were unable to declare with certainty the country of origin of the conflict minerals contained in their products.11 While the legislation was meant to hinder the practices of human rights abuses, there was already a precedent that showed that legislation like this would not be as effective as intended. In September 2010, before this legislation was enforced, the Congolese President Joseph Kabila began a ban on mining in the Kivu and Maniema provinces.12 This ban led to increased militarization of the non-militarized mining sectors. Furthermore, the ban on these two mining sectors put miners out of work.13 The implementation of Section 1502 needed to ensure that it was not damaging to the communities of the DRC, for a complete ban of the materials sourced from this location can have a negative impact on those it is trying to protect. My own interests in material ethics started when I was an undergraduate at North Carolina State University in 2011. What began as a simple exercise within a consumption

Democratic Republic of the Congo.â&#x20AC;? Report to Congressional Committees. (August, 2017). http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/686745.pdf 11 Yong H. Kim and Gerald F. Davis. "Challenges for Global Supply Chain Sustainability: Evidence from Conflict Minerals Reports." Academy of Management Journal59, no. 6 (2016): 1896-916. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0770. 12 Laura E. Seay. "What's Wrong with Dodd-Frank 1502?" Center for Global Development, 2012. https://www.cgdev.org/publication/what%E2%80%99swrong-dodd-frank-1502-conflict-minerals-civilian-livelihoods-and-unintended. 13 ibid

diary led to a rabbit hole of understanding material sourcing. After taking a week to write down how I spent my time, I realized that a lot of my time was spent reading ebooks on the Kindle Fire. It was debated at that time whether using devices like the Kindle and tablets were better for the environment than reading paper books. In order to understand the impact this object had, I began to examine the object itself, realizing that I had no idea of its material makeup. While I was too attached to it to disassemble the Kindle to truly see all of the materials contained within, I did begin the search through the use of secondary sources. As noted, during this time, material sourcing garnered much attention through the recently passed legislation and the understanding of how materials in the Kindle were mined was of great interest to me. Of course, the DRC and 3TG came up in my research, but what was interesting is that the mineral that was of issue in the Kindle and most other electronic devices was cobalt. Cobalt is not recognized as a conflict mineral according to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act though it is found and mined in the same general locations in the DRC as the other conflict minerals defined by the legislation. This raised questions of what materials are actually considered â&#x20AC;&#x153;conflictâ&#x20AC;? and why. I started to notice the material makeup of other objects I used on a daily basis. I realized that conflict minerals were all around me. Theoretical Framework The mining of conflict minerals is a wicked problem,14 not only because there are an abundance of products that use these minerals, but also because there is a ripple effect

14 Horst Rittel, a design theorist from Germany, was the first to suggest the idea of

wicked problems, which he defined as problems that are symptoms of higher-level problems that have no definitive solution that is either good or bad. For more on

for the production and consumption of these goods. That is why the sourcing of these materials opens up questions of ethics of materiality. Designers are the focus of this thesis for their direct relation to materials and in turn their indirect relation to larger social systems that stem from their material usage. While using conflict minerals as starting point, this thesis will use the following research questions to understand the ethics of material selection. •

How does material selection become a discussion of ethics?

•

What is the process of identifying conflict minerals and what laws dictate necessary responsibilities?

•

How can designers increase their knowledge of material sources?

This thesis will explore the theoretical intersections of design, materiality, ethics, labor, politics, and consumption. The following writings in these fields, which will be discussed in more detail throughout the thesis, will be studied in order to identify how designers have an effect and how their practices are affected by materiality. The basis of material selection is in fact an ethical decision. Theories of design ethics will be explored in the context of materialism, conflict minerals, and the understanding of material sources. Clive Dilnot’s writings and published lectures on ethics will provide a ground for this theoretical structure. Design has the capacity to pinpoint the incommensurable and therefore recognize and negotiate among those incommensurable forces and goals, as

wicked problems see Horst W.J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber, “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning,” working paper presented at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley, November 1972.

he claims in Ethics?Design?15 This could conceivably lead to a possible rethinking of the wicked problem of sourcing conflict minerals that as of now seems to have ineffectual mitigations. As he argues, designing has the capacity for criticality and can shape the world we are creating. To further the discussion of ethics in design, Tony Fry’s writings offer more valuable insights into understanding how design in itself is a question of ethics. Fry discusses the notion of defuturing and our unsustainable current state in Design as Politics.16 Design, as both Dilnot and Fry suggest, is a form of destruction. Something must be destroyed, i.e. the earth, for design to be fulfilled. These notions are in line with that of the unsustainable labor practices that occur due to design choices. Similarly, in his book Becoming Human by Design, Fry further discusses the notion of connectedness. He writes, “How we act in relation to one another, individually, interculturally and internationally, and upon the biosphysical world is actually a determinant of the nature a possibility of our actually having a viable future.”17 This notion of destruction as a design conundrum becomes evident through Zygmunt Bauman’s Wasted Lives. Design is the creation of something new, and as Bauman points out, there are two ways that the new can be created: mining and farming. The allegory was introduced by Lewis Mumford, and essentially highlights the distinction of destruction though mining or the continuity of

15 Dilnot. 34. 16 Tony Fry. Design as Politics. Oxford: Berg, 2011.

17 Fry, Tony. Becoming human by design. London: Berg, 2012. 176

farming.18 Mining leaves nothing to be replaced, while farming allows for a “growth without losses.”19 Design’s capacity for destruction does not only pertain to environmental issues but also issues of labor. Karl Marx’s Capital has been discussed at the beginning of this chapter and will continue to be referenced during the remainder of this thesis for it is his view of capitalism that is a driving force behind design and labor practices. The production and consumption of material goods, including conflict minerals, is driven by a capitalistic society. Since the system of production in a capitalist society is commoditized in and of itself, all that is produced within the system becomes commodities as well; this includes not only the products or goods that make their way into the consumers’ hands, but also the materials that aid in the production of the finalized goods. Materials will be viewed as commodities through the discussion of exchange value and valuable laborpower that produces them. In his book Material Politics, Andrew Barry the Chair of Human Geography at University College London discusses transparency and the idea of knowledge controversies. His work in this regard is distinctly relevant to the portion of this thesis, which focuses on the awareness of conflict minerals. Materiality has a role in political life as well as social life and Barry’s writings highlight this. Since transparency is the most talked about in terms of responsible mining, Barry’s analysis of the knowledge

18 Zygmunt Bauman. Wasted Lives : Modernity and Its Outcasts, Polity Press, 2003.

ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/newschool/detail.action?docID=1184111. 20-21. 19 ibid. 21.

controversy of BP pipeline discussed in the book can act as a guide to the knowledge controversy of conflict minerals.20 Barry specifically accounts for how materials play a role in knowledge controversies, which in his view revolves around more than just the disagreements about the rights and interests of human actors.21 Barryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s argument that knowledge controversies are not just for the political classes but also others like designers makes his discussions pertinent to the notion of material selection, which will be discussed in more detail later. Case Studies In order to look at broader issues of design and material ethics, I will focus on two supply chain processes from raw material to end product, analyzing the connections materials have with humans at every step of the process from the mine to consumer, and I will map the network in which actors influence the use of these materials. I will start with the jewelry industry with the help of jewelry designers like Ted Muehling in New York City. There is already some precedence in terms of responsible mining in the jewelry sector. The blood diamond is a good example for those who are unaware of the issue of conflict minerals. I will consider what was done to draw awareness to this, comparing the similarities to Andrew Barryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s knowledge controversies. Part of this process will involve starting with an object and analyzing the material it is made of. This will then allow me to trace the material origins. Jewelry offers a simple pathway with its minimum material use.

20Andrew Barry. Material politics: disputes along the pipeline. Chichester: Wiley-

Blackwell, 2013.

21 Ibid. 8

With that as a basis, I will then turn to the lighting industry, analyzing the materials that make up many of the products produced by a lighting company in North Carolina named Cree. Lighting is a significantly harder realm to pursue because conflict minerals can be found in almost every aspect of production from the bulb that contains a tungsten filament to the wires that contain gold as a conductor. Methods In addition to the research mentioned above, this thesis utilizes several primary research methods including document analysis, interviews, and Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) database analysis. Full analysis of the laws and regulations that are integrated into the development from raw material to end product are needed in order to understand what barriers are present to both designers and companies. This includes federal and state laws, as well as internal company regulations that dictate the use of conflict minerals. I have collected information on Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and laws regarding the use of conflict minerals in the European Union. There will also be a detailed analysis of the labor laws that speak to the mining practices of the Congo that is the initial point of interest for this thesis. Interviews are a significant portion of this research. The interviews allow for a more in-depth view into the process designers use when choosing materials. My research began with an interview with a quality control specialist at Cree who afforded an inside look at the supply chain process of the lighting company. This has led me to speak with lighting designers to understand their role within the company and within the production

of the light itself. These interviews allow me to map the process from material to final product within a specific company, showing possible critical points in which designers can make informed decisions and offer alternate possibilities. Once the process is successfully analyzed within one company, it then can inform communications about sourcing with other designers within other companies. An interview with jewelry designer Ted Muehling opens up the conversation of the designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in material selection from the perspective of a designer and small business owner. As a designer who recognizes the importance of materials, Muehling speaks to how the materials he uses in his designs are sourced. Different from those interviewed at Cree, Muehling has more autonomy when it comes to the production of his products. As a small business owner, he sets the standards for how his company and the practice of sourcing of materials within his company should function. However, as a small business owner, Muehling does not fall within the typical legal guides of Section 1502 and therefore has to consider ethical sourcing in a different manner as there is no obligation to do so. Interviewing others that are outside the specific companies that I am analyzing gives other perspectives to consider. An interview with Jonsara Ruth of the Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design provides some insight into the ways in which her cohort is researching the notion of healthy materials, which has given me ways to approach designers and others within the process of material selection as well as how to go about researching the process. Outside of academia, Hillary Amster, Senior Program Manager at the NGO Responsible Minerals Initiative, also provides industry insight from

not only legal perspectives but also how research is conducted into material sourcing. In addition, information gathered from scholars of politics and laws and from non-profit companies like the Enough Project, help explain not only the laws themselves, but how to understand the context in which these laws are formulated.

Chapters This thesis begins by introducing in detail conflict minerals and their relation to human rights violations occurring in the DRC. This section explains the process of how these conflict minerals make their way into company supply chains. Through the exploration of this process, one will see the difficulty of tracing back material sources. This section also critically examines Section 1502 and discusses the intergovernmental economic organization called the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s involvement in setting global standards of responsible mineral sourcing. After the framework of and around conflict minerals has been presented, I will then discuss how and why designers should care about the topic of conflict minerals through the introduction of cases studies in the jewelry and lighting industries. The jewelry case study is used as an introduction to the premise of conflict minerals as explained in the preceding section. Interviews and a critical analysis of public relations documents from luxury jewelry retailers begin a map of material sourcing in that industry. The second case study, lighting, uses a lighting company called Cree to explore the material makeup of an individual light. Next, I will explain what is currently being done to call attention or deter the use of conflict minerals. Organizations like the Enough Project and Healthy Materials Lab

are discussed as well as databases like the RMI smelter database that provides information about conflict minerals. The thesis then concludes with a proposal of how designers can make more informed decisions of material selection.

ONE

Understanding Conflict and Its Implications for Designers

This chapter explores the term conflict in relation to materiality with a focus on contextualizing the term and its use within the supply chain process. Using Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as reference, the term conflict, as it is used in this thesis, will be defined in terms of how to clearly articulate how one is to understand its meaning contextually and variously with regard to both mining and production. Since Section 1502 only stresses the conflict found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this chapter too will explain the ethics and politics of material extraction using the DRC as an extreme case. This chapter will then generally describe how these extracted conflict minerals find their way into supply chains and explain what companies recognized by the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) are required to do when this happens. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Conflictâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; will then be broadened to gain a better understanding of its importance in the realm of design, recognizing that this issue should not only be limited to the four minerals recognized in Section 1502.

Defining the Conflict in Conflict Minerals This thesis first defines conflict using the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD)22 definition as the use of violence to violate the human rights of individuals and/or communities using the extraction and trade of raw materials. In many cases, this includes the use of armed conflict, which has become the most prevalent form of struggle among the mining communities affected by Section 1502. Armed conflict, through the assessment of OECD, can be of international or noninternational character where an armed force stakes confrontation against another state through wars of liberation, insurgence, civil war, and other types of state struggles.23 Before I explore the particulars of Section 1502, it is important that I first clarify how the OECD contextualizes conflict for it pertains to the larger issue of responsible mining on a global scale. The OECD uses the terms “conflict-affected” and “high-risk areas” to classify locations where widespread violence is causing instability within the

22 The OECD is an intergovernmental economic body of 35 developed countries that

has formulated guidelines on responsible sourcing for companies operating in its member countries. Since 2012, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recognized the OECD guidance as an international framework for due diligence. (See "OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas," OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas - OECD, , accessed March 15, 2018, http://www.oecd.org/corporate/mne/mining.htm. ) The OECD guidance is the foundation on which Section 1502 was created and as such will be used in this thesis as a foundation for defining conflict while showing the possible limitation of such a definition. 23 OECD (2016), OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas: Third Edition, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264252479-en. 13

civil structure it is affecting.24 Human rights abuses and violations of national and international law are often the characterizations of these professed places. Human rights abuses on the global scale regarding mining practices often occur in labor. The relationship dynamic of labor to production brings material selection into the realm of the political as it involves power. The design of material objects and physical systems, in this case the mines themselves, which objects are later constructed and designed are in themselves “integral to the conduct of politics.”25 Minerals extracted from the earth become political in their value to the production of material products, specifically in relation to their ultimate value as commodities. Miners’ labor supports the power structure benefited from the production of conflict minerals. The harshly controlled labor practices that characterize these mining sites are meant to sustain the power structure itself; in the case of the DRC, the power structures are the warring ethnic groups that battle for control and profits of productive artisanal mines. Miners of the DRC face both oppressive and exploitative power structures that violate their human rights to sustain the power structures themselves, whether intentional (what one can see with the human rights violations occurring from the warring ethnic groups) or unintentional (the cheap labor practices that have formed due to capitalist urge for lower cost for higher profit). It is the conflict arising from these power structures that have turned the DRC into a “high risk” area. Large scale human rights abuses in regards to the mining of conflict minerals within the DRC has triggered countries like the United States to implement legislation 24 ibid.

25 Barry. 2.

that hinders the power possessed by armed groups.26 The U.S. legislation Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act Section 1502 defines mines that are “under the control of armed groups” as mines where armed groups: A. physically control mines or force labor of civilians to mine, transport, or sell conflict minerals. B. tax, extort, or control any part of trade routes for conflict minerals, including the entire trade route from a Conflict Zone Mine to the point of export from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or an adjoining country. C. or tax, extort, or control trading facilities, in whole or in part, including the point of export from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or an adjoining country.27

26 China and the European Union are also discussing the need for specific legislation

banning the use of 3TG from the DRC. The EU is expected to be enacting the Conflict Mineral Regulation on January 1, 2021. (See "Conflict Minerals Regulation Explained," Trade - European Commission, accessed March 15, 2018, http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/conflict-minerals-regulation/regulationexplained/.) This legislation is similar to the American Dodd-Frank Act Section 1502, however, it does not seem to limit the coverage of the legislation to a specific country or group of countries. It is unclear when any official legislation will be enacted for China, however, China does have the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals Minerals and Chemicals Imports and Exports (CCCMC), which was established in Beijing on September 1, 1988 to ensure its over 6,000 members are abiding by laws and regulations surrounding the trade of metals, minerals, and chemicals in China. (See China Chamber of Commerce of Metals Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters (CCCMC), "Brief Introduction to CCCMC," CCCMC, , accessed March 15, 2018, http://en.cccmc.org.cn/aboutcccmc/briefintroductiontocccmc/index.htm.) 27 Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, § 1502 (2010). 2218.

In this legislation, the word conflict is combined with mineral, which limits its breadth and inclusion of other conflict torn locations that may or may not produce the same minerals. Section 1502 explicitly states that there are four minerals that have fueled conflict within the DRC and it is these four minerals sourced from only the DRC and its nine surrounding countries that should become objects of scrutiny.28 These four minerals are tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold; otherwise known as 3TG. The confusion of the term “conflict mineral” stems from how it is used to describe 3TG. Section 1502 states that these four minerals are considered conflict, however, they only become objects of concern if they originate from the DRC or surrounding countries. Therefore, finding conflict minerals within a supply chain does not necessarily mean that they originate from a conflicted source; it is in these instances that these minerals are recognized by Section 1502 as “DRC conflict free.”29 Section 1502 requires companies listed on the U.S. stock markets to determine if conflict minerals are found in their supply chain and if so, urges these companies to perform acts of due diligence mapping the sources of these conflict minerals to confirm if these minerals originated from the DRC. When it was first introduced in 2010, companies were given over three years to conduct research into their supply chains. Now, companies are urged to file a yearly Specialized Disclosure (SD) form for conflict mineral reporting.30 This report demonstrates acts of due diligence on the source and chain of

28 Surrounding countries include Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo

Republic, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

29 Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, § 1502 (2010). 2214. 30 The Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system allows the public to

view these SD forms as well as other forms submitted to the SEC by its recognized

custody of conflict minerals originating from the DRC, which include independent private sector audits and details of the products, the entity who conducted the private sector audit, the facilities that process these conflict minerals, and efforts to determine the mine or location of origin.31 This section alludes to larger problem exposed by conflict materials. It does not prevent companies from sourcing materials from the DRC’s conflict areas, it just places focus on the importance of transparency in supply chains.32 While exposing the issue connected to the use of conflict minerals within production, only focusing on the importance of transparency in the supply chain has the effect of limiting the ethical considerations to those imposed on companies and designers that are covered by these legislations. This is a limited form of ethics as it suggests that sourcing from conflicted locations is an unacceptable or unethical practice, while neglecting the ethics of sourcing from other positions such as environmental and social sustainability. companies. This system is used later in this thesis when searching for the SD for of the companies explored in the upcoming case studies. 31 Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, § 1502 (2010). 2214. 32 It is important to note that this legislation does not officially ban the use of conflict minerals from the DRC. Instead, it is forcing companies to understand their suppliers and their suppliers’ sources. In doing so, the legislation is suggesting that companies should not be sourcing from the DRC conflict areas while lacking the enforcement of such a suggestion. If conflict minerals from the DRC do show in the supply chain of a product, the company must publically disclose this information using the SD form. However, as of May 4, 2017, the House Financial Services Committee passed the Financial Choice Act, which repeals Section 1502 all together. (See Jennifer Horvath, "Latest Updates in Conflict Minerals Law," Lexology, November 20, 2017, accessed March 2, 2018, https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d27d2d5f-df96-4506-83024b2958cb92a4.) The act has already passed the House of Representatives and is currently waiting for the Senate’s approval at the time of writing this thesis. In the meantime, the SEC has indefinitely halted the enforcement of Section 1502 as it was deemed unconstitutional by the United States Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. (See Jennifer Horvath, "Latest Updates in Conflict Minerals Law")

Poor enforcement of the legislation has been an issue since its implementation. Through the first round of reports, it was shown that approximately 80 percent of companies that reported could not with certainty determine the country of origin of the conflict minerals found in their supply chain; and even still, seven years after the legislation was introduced, the majority of the companies reporting through SD forms cannot with certainty determine the country of origin.33 There has also been debate on the effectiveness of the legislation. The seemingly simple solution of just banning imports of conflict minerals from the DRC could be more detrimental to the people of the countries affected. The mining of conflict minerals is a major source of income and removing that source is only causing harm. That is why nonprofit organizations like the Enough Project are making the move to “conflict free, not Congo free,” a slogan found in their recent report of the use of conflict materials in the consumer electronics and jewelry industries.34 The Enough Project was co-founded in 2007 by the Center for American Progress and the International Crisis Group whose mission was to end genocide and other forms of crimes against humanity. The DRC has become one of their areas of focus. Their urge for “conflict free, not Congo free” comes from the realization that 3TG minerals are important sources of income for the artisanal

33 Yong H. Kim and Gerald F. Davis. ibid.

34 Demand the Supply: Ranking Consumer Electronics and Jewelry Retail Companies on

Their Efforts to Develop Conflict-Free Minerals Supply Chains from Congo. Report. The Enough Project. November 2017. Accessed November 2017. https://enoughproject.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/11/DemandTheSupply_EnoughProject_2017Rankings_final. pdf. 11.

miners and their dependents who are not under the control of armed forces.35 While the legislation has made some improvements in the opinion of the Enough Project, tension still remains and the inability to enforce any kind of control over these armed groups causing conflict consistently lingers (see appendix A).

Tracking Conflict Through the Supply Chain One of the challenges companies face is the tracing of conflict minerals back to their origins. All of these minerals come from mines. Gold comes from gold ore, tin from cassiterite, tantalum from tantalite, and tungsten from wolframite. These ores are mined directly from the earth. Through the process of refining and smelting, almost untraceably they become integrated in a vast majority of supply chains. In general, there are about six steps in the conflict mineral supply chain.36 It starts in the mines, either in large scale or artisanal mining efforts. Artisanal or independent miners are known as orpailleurs in the DRC. This terms stems from the artisanal process of refining gold. Miners and militia that control these mines sell their ore to nĂŠgociants that then sell them to the exporters known as comptoirs.37 These exporters sell the conflict minerals to either refiners or smelters depending on the stage of the individual ores. The process of smelting is essentially what these artisanal miners are doing by heating up of the mineral to leave only the metal itself. From there the metals go to distributors, then to

35 ibid. 14. 36 With these six typical steps minerals and materials pass through the mines,

trading houses, smelters, refiners, and manufacturers, before they finally reach the end consumer, which is the sixth step. 37 Peter H. Eichstaedt, Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the Worlds Deadliest Place(Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books, 2016).

manufacturers that create the products containing these metals, which will then be sold to consumers.

Mining Viewed Outside of Geographical Considerations Mining is a primary cause for concern for those companies affected by Section 1502. Mining in and of itself is a highly destructive act that has both environmental and social impacts. The environmental impacts are fairly obvious. The removal of substances from the earth without a means of replenishing them leaves nothingness in its stead, or to better analyze the situation, mining leaves only waste in its stead.38 Objects need certain materials and the process of design in shaping them generally causes a disposal of the unneeded. Extracting materials from the earth means that there will be some sort of waste once only the unneeded items remain. But waste, as has been argued, is indispensible to the creative process.39 So the question becomes then, is mining the best route for material sourcing or is there another possible means? Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman suggests we consider the allegory mentioned by architectural historian Lewis Mumford of mining versus farming. Mumford points out that there is a distinction between the process of mining and the process of farming. Farming is a system of continuity; once something is removed it is replaced, i.e. one grain is replaced by more grain.40 On the contrary, mining is the process of removal and discontinuity, a one-way movement toward destruction or death,

38 Bauman. Wasted Lives : Modernity and Its Outcasts. 39 Ibid. 22. 40 ibid. 21.

irreversible and irrevocable.41 While, Bauman applies this thinking to the creation of the new or in the creation of a new design through the removal or replacement of an older one (i.e. a new car), this thesis recognizes that this applies to material sourcing as well. Mining and farming have respective places among the material sourcing of conflict minerals. Mining, in its most obvious meaning, is the removal of 3TG from the earth. Farming, on the other hand, could be seen through the recycling process of these minerals. Recycling in some regards allows for waste to be minimized. While this process is not replenishing the minerals found in the earth’s crust, it is replenishing the minerals that are found in the supply chain of the companies that use them, meaning more minerals are not being sourced through mining. Recycling as a means to combat a company’s impact on destruction is evident in the upcoming jewelry case study. Much of the precious metals, including gold, are sourced from recycled sources. This form of “farming” from the already existent shows that certain materials, while highly destructive in their original production, can when recycled, limit future social and environmental damage. While mining is the primary concern, the ability of companies recognized under Section 1502 to accurately determine the mine origins of the materials found in their supply chain is extremely low. As mentioned in the introduction, a study conducted by Yong H. Kim and Gerald F. Davis showed that 80 percent of the companies mentioned in the study could not without reasonable doubt determine where their materials

41 ibid.

originated.42 This number shows the magnitude of the situation and why material sourcing is such an important discussion. Section 1502 is further limiting because it only requires companies to trace back materials to the smelters. The smelters, are the third step within a general supply chain of conflict minerals. Smelting is the process of extracting metal from the ore in which it originates. This can include processes like those performed in artisanal mines where miners use mercury to extract gold from its ore (appendix A). Often times, smelters gather minerals from various sources and it can become nearly impossible to determine the exact origin of materials that are then smelted and shipped to distributors. Because smelters are hubs of the material distribution of conflict minerals, it is these locations that have been under great scrutiny. In an attempt to gain control over the issue, the NGO Responsible Mineral Initiative (RMI), is creating various resources for companies to use in performing due diligence. Their crowd-sourced database includes 3,053 known smelters that deal with conflict minerals. It is determined if these smelters are compliant to the legislation through third party auditing. The database is limited, however. Being crowd sourced and based on third party audits, it is clear that there are some information gaps. Participating international smelters have to go through the Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP) as required by RMI; those smelters that do not participate are deemed not clear in terms of the RMIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

42Yong H. Kim and Gerald F. Davis. ibid.

requirements. The audit validates the smelter’s management of responsible mineral procurement. It is only through this process that smelters are qualified as compliant.

When Conflict Extends Past the Law While the U.S. legislation of Section 1502 has opened up discussions of transparency, it is only limited to the four minerals of 3TG from the DRC. Limiting the legislation to these standards makes the statement that responsibility of material sourcing is limited to specific materials mined from the specific locations. But responsible sourcing should not be limited based only on what a legislation enforces. The conflict and turmoil that has resulted in the DRC from the sourcing of conflict minerals is not being belittled here, but is opening up the conversation that both companies and designers need to be having. Material selection is an ethically charged event within the practice of design. “…The ethical is bound into the deep structure of practice and design accesses this ethical core through the processes and complexities (i.e., the negotiations) of the design process itself…” Clive Dilnot writes.43 However, as Dilnot points out, while ethics are intrinsic to the practice and negotiations of design practice, they often times fail to be recognized.44 One of these instances is through the negotiation of material selection. As a negotiation, material selection can be an event of mediation through selecting alternative materials, sources, or possible means of production. When Dilnot speaks of negotiation, he says that it is within negotiation that incommensurability can be

43 Dilnot. ibid. 36. 44 ibid. 37-41.

recognized and the possibilities explored.45 Negotiation is a concrete moment in the abstract component of design ethics.46 It is through this negotiation that that more ethical decisions can made because the balance of harmful and beneficial effects of material choices are openly considered. Making informed decisions of materiality is a responsibility inherent in the practice of design but often ignored. It is materiality that has direct correlation to destruction and defuturing. It is through design decisions we now have to face the problem of destruction of the planet; Not only designers, but also consumers, manufacturers, and the economic and political systems that perpetuate destructive practices, have brought the world into being.47 So it stands to reason that future design decisions can create (or not create) a world in which we want to be. While the decision to choose a certain material may seem to only rely on the specific needs of the product to function or rely on consumer desires, material selection also has implications in the up stream of the supply chain. For example, using nonrecycled gold from smelters not cleared by RMI has the potential of labor abuses from the DRC. As discussed, this decision can have affect on destructive mining practices in relation to extraction from the earth, but also destruction and defuturing relates to labor practices and societies involved in material sourcing. This destruction and defuturing comes from our negligence in understanding material sources and the nature of the labor that is involved in their production. 45 ibid. 28. 46 ibid. 28.

47 Fry. Design As Politics. 103.

Labor’s erasure in design is typical as David Brody suggests in Housekeeping by Design.48 Brody’s suggestion, made from his research into the invisible labor of the housekeeper in hotels and the designs that affect them, provides insight into how labor is viewed generally. Much importance is placed on objects and the celebrated design without any “witness [as to] how it will be construed or maintained…” as Brody writes.49 Design decisions have certain human costs.50 Deciding on certain materials has an impact on the labor conditions of individuals, which is the basis of this thesis. It is the commoditization and fetishization of these commodities that is the cause of labor’s erasure as both Marx and Brody write.51 As both claim, “…capitalist societies obscure the actualities of labor, relegating commodities to the class of things that we exchange without an understanding of the work that has been transpired to make these goods.”52 Hidden labor is something designers must be acutely aware and must recognize that this hidden labor is a weighty consideration in material selection. The upcoming case studies will show commodities (jewelry and LED lights) that obscure the labor attached to the objects. This thesis aims to reverse the mentality of commodity obstruction of labor through case studies that will de-fetishize the commodity and explore how the material makeup of objects have hidden labor attached to them. These case studies will also show that limiting what qualifies as a conflict mineral is problematic to the ethics of material selection. Companies should not rest on the laurels 48 David Brody, Housekeeping by Design: Hotels and Labor (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 2016), 111. 49 ibid.

50 ibid. 128. 51 ibid. 24. 52 Ibid.

of knowing where only four minerals within their supply chain originate. This is a much larger issue and should not be contained by specifics. First and foremost, the term conflict is questionable. By definition from the OECD, conflict only reflects issues of extreme human rights abuses, yet certain unstable labor practices and environmental impacts extend past this term. It is time that we consider all material sourcing as an ethical dilemma. The Designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Role in Ethical Material Sourcing This thesis uses the term designer broadly. In a perfect world, the designer would be well educated in the design process and the ramifications of making design decisions. However, in reality, those making design decisions within a company are not always educated in design despite the fact that they are doing the work of design in the most catholic sense of the word: shaping artifice and inserting it into the world via the market. Design has many different players none of which are exempt from ethics. The ethics of material selection as a network not only includes designers but also, makers, purchasers, policy makers, and so on. It is for this reason material selection cannot be viewed in a silo for certain selections can have varying ramifications. The designer or the one making design decisions in the network will vary depending on not only their role in the company but also their role within the network of production. Those making the design decision of material selection within the upcoming case studies take on certain roles within their respective companies and have an impact on the process of selecting materials at a company level. The companies highlighted also

have roles within the network of global production that can have an impact on industry standards and policy making.

TWO Design Hierarchies and Ethical Considerations

The first case study examined in this thesis is the jewelry industry. This section will explore three jewelry companies, one of which, Tiffany and Co.,53 a U.S. based company, is recognized by the SEC and therefore must be transparent with their use of any 3TG (tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold) minerals. The second, Pandora,54 an international Danish jewelry manufacturer and retailer, will provide contrast for Tiffany and Co. in the analysis of how each company exposes its own material sources. The third is a small company run by jewelry designer Ted Muehling who works directly with the 53

Tiffany and Co. is a U.S. based company with an international production system. The company has approximately 13,100 full-time and part-time employees (5,600 of which are stationed in the U.S.) (See Tiffany’s 2017 Annual Report for more). Designs for jewelry production come from employees, suppliers, independent designers and independent "named" (usually brand name or well established) designers. The designer’s connection to material selection within Tiffany and Co. is limited in that the designer can articulate what material should be used, however, Tiffany and Co. ultimately makes the decision from where the materials specified will be sourced. 54 Pandora employs approximately 27,350 people worldwide (see Pandora 2017 Annual Report). Pandora offers a bit more information as to the design process of their jewelry. In their 2017 Annual Report states, “Our design process begins when our Design, Production, Marketing and Retail teams gather to plan the year…Our Design team then begins to sketch out a vision for the collection that will be realised by our entire value chain on its way to the consumer. The Design team works closely with our Innovation team to create individual designs and incorporate large innovative concepts. This holistic approach enables us to accommodate the latest consumer trends and take advantage of innovative products, materials and production processes” (see Pandora Group. 2017 Annual Report. Report. 2017. 19). While this highlights the process holistically, the specifics of material sourcing are not correctly stated as the report only shows that “sourcing” is the production of their material in their Thailand facilities but makes no reference to the actual sourcing of materials from their suppliers.

materials used in his jewelry and provides an alternative perspective to the issue of material sourcing than larger companies like the aforementioned. In choosing these three examples within the jewelry industry, I am able to compare and contrast standards of the industry as well as the standards of these individual companies, working at very different scales.

Ethics Based on Regulations: How Diamonds Started the Conversation The jewelry industry is a good start as a material sourcing case study because of the media exposure of unethical labor practices of the mining of diamonds. The movie Blood Diamond, brought light to the sale of diamonds mined in war zones and sold to finance conflict.55 This kind of media coverage has had a significant impact on the knowledge controversy surrounding the sourcing of diamonds.56 The film, set during the Sierra Leone Civil War that occurred between 1991 and 2002, exposed much of the struggles between the government and insurgent forces highlighting in particular the blood diamond as a source of conflict funding. The film has had a significant impact on consumer knowledge of material sourcing. This was evident as I was completing research for this thesis. Almost everyone I mentioned the words â&#x20AC;&#x153;conflict mineralâ&#x20AC;? to brought up the blood diamond. It is for this reason that I have decided to open the case studies with 55 Blood Diamond is a 2006 political war filmed co-produced and directed by

Edward Zwick. 56 Professor in the Department of Geology at University College London, Andrew

Barry, writes about knowledge controversies attached to the BP Pipeline. Barryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s view suggests that knowledge controversies are not self-contained and are not determined by any one actor or space but blur lines of things that are public, which make them available for dispute. For more on knowledge controversies see Andrew Barry. Material politics: disputes along the pipeline. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.

an industry that many are at least somewhat familiar with questionable sourcing practices. The diamond is one of the first minerals that called attention to the potentials of consumer demand and design influencing conflict in warring zones. The violent actions of the rebel forces causing conflict the South African government led to the creation of the Kimberly Process, which resulted in the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) implemented in 2003. The KPCS outlines the requirements of legal production and trade of rough diamonds.57 Like the guidelines that are set forth by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for responsible mining, the Kimberly Process is also not a requirement for the global trade of diamonds. However, the 54 members, countries and states that meet the minimum requirements of the KPCS, currently account for 99.8 percent of the international rough diamond production.58 The Kimberley Process has become a standard in the jewelry industry and as such companies like Tiffany and Co. and Pandora follow these guidelines in the sourcing of the diamonds used in their jewelry and accessories. However, since the Kimberley Process is voluntary and countries that choose to join must meet the minimum requirements written out in the guidelines, many critics have claimed that the Kimberley Process is not providing adequate solutions to the issue of conflict diamonds. For

57 The KPCS requires, first, that the participating countries must enact legislation

requiring any diamonds shipped into or out of that country to be certified under the KPCS. Second, the participating countries must make an official commitment to uphold the goals of the KPCS. And third, participating countries must agree to meet annually with other participating countries to monitor the progress of KPCS. 58 "About," About | Kimberley Process, , accessed February 4, 2018, https://www.kimberleyprocess.com/en/about.

instance, Tiffany and Co. has been vocal about the need for strengthening this process as interviews from the former chairman of the board and former CEO of Tiffany and Co., Michael J. Kowalski, and excerpts from their yearly sustainability report show.59 The Tiffany and Co. sustainability report provides as an example the human rights abuses that are occurring in Zimbabwe and Angola, noting that both countries are considered members of the KPCS.60 Likewise, other reports that claim the ineffectiveness of the Kimberley Process use these countries as examples as well. The critique comes from the definition of ‘conflict diamond’ as proposed by the KPCS. According to the KPCS, a conflict diamond: …means rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments, as described in relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions insofar as they remain in effect, or in other similar UNSC resolutions which may be adopted in the future, and as understood and recognised in United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 55/56, or in other similar UNGA resolutions which may be adopted in future.61

59 An interview in Forbes magazine in 2014, Kowalski says, “we believe that the

Kimberley Process, which has had great success in largely eliminating conflict diamonds from the global diamond trade, needs to be strengthened. We believe the definition of conflict diamonds needs to be expanded to enable the Kimberley Process to address diamond related human rights abuses wherever they occur.” (See Rahim Kanani, "CEO Of Tiffany & Co. On Ethical Sourcing, Responsible Mining And Leadership," Forbes, February 08, 2014, , accessed March 1, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/rahimkanani/2014/01/19/ceo-of-tiffany-co-onethical-sourcing-responsible-mining-and-leadership/.) 60 Tiffany and Co., Sustainability Report 2016, report (2016). 61 The definition of conflict as specified by Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act is very similar in its definition of conflict as well, only making it more narrow as to limit it to specific countries. See "KPCS Core Document," KPCS Core Document | Kimberley Process, , accessed March 1, 2018, https://www.kimberleyprocess.com/en/kpcs-core-document.

This highly specific definition does not include human rights abuses imposed in mines controlled by legitimate government organizations. This is exactly what is occurring in Zimbabwe and Angola where human rights abuses are occurring through the loophole in the KPCS.62 Some in the diamond industry believe that it is not the role of the industry to interfere in the processes of legitimate governments, like Ernest Bolm of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses who has stated, “As far as Zimbabwe is concerned, we have supposed human rights abuses which I think is out of the gambit of the diamond industry.”63 In the view of Bolm, the Kimberley Process has been successful in its aim to stop diamond mining that funds wars.64 Statistics suggest the successfulness of the KPCS as conflict diamond sales have dropped from making up 15% of the world diamond trade in 1990s to .4% by 2009.65 While the percentage decrease in the world trade of conflict diamonds is suggestive, the mentality behind Bolm’s statement is 62 Particular instances of human rights abuses can be seen in Angola through

unlicensed miners being beaten and bribed by security guards and soldiers (pg.149) and in Zimbabwe through the use of funds from the Marange diamonds being used to intimidate voters in the 2013 presidential election (pg. 153). See Audrie Howard, "Blood Diamonds: The Successes and Failures of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in Angola, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe," Washington University Global Studies Law Review 15, no. 1 (2015): , https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.goog le.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1565&context=law_globalstudies. 63 James Melik, "Diamonds: Does the Kimberley Process Work?" BBC News, June 28, 2010, accessed March 1, 2018, http://www.bbc.com/news/10307046. 64 Ibid. 65 Audrie Howard, "Blood Diamonds: The Successes and Failures of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in Angola, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe," Washington University Global Studies Law Review 15, no. 1 (2015): , https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.goog le.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1565&context=law_globalstudies. 152-153.

disconcerting. His statement suggests that policy and human rights conditions that are out of reach for not only industry leaders like himself but designers as well cannot be affected by design decisions. However, the system that produces these diamonds and other material goods (conflict or not) is a designed system that was brought about by design decisions that have shaped its current condition. From this view it is easy to see how deeply unethical design in a capitalistic structure is in general. When the production and sale of a commodity is valued more than the labor that produce it, unethical standards are set and thus continue to rule the system. The only way to change such standards would be a shift in the values of production within a capitalist economy. Approximately 65-75 percent of Tiffany diamonds come from known mines in Botswana, Canada, Namibia, Russia, Sierra Leone, and South Africa.66 Tiffanyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to trace these diamonds to the mines comes from the establishment of Laurelton Diamonds, a subsidiary created by Tiffany in 2002 to procure rough diamonds and manage Tiffanyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worldwide supply chain in a vertical integration process.67 The advantage Tiffany has over other jewelry manufacturers is their availability of resources to have full control of their supply chain, something smaller jewelry designers like Ted Muehling does not have, even though Muehling does have the option of at least choosing materials from sources he knows and is confident in their sourcing practices. This shows the 66 Tiffany and Co., Sustainability Report 2016. 13 & 19.

67 A vertical integration approach allows Tiffany and Co. to own every portion of the

supply chain of diamond production within the company. See Tiffany and Co., Sustainability Report 2016.

disadvantage smaller companies and individual designers face when trying to conduct due diligence of material sourcing. While Pandora does not use a vertical integration approach to their supply chains, they have identified Botswana, Canada, and Russia as their primary supplier countries as well.68 The Kimberley Process sets a relatively decent standard in material sourcing even if its implementation and enforcement is flawed. It places a lot of responsibility on the participant countries and other than the basic guidelines mentioned in footnote 60, these countries have the authority to enact individual country legislation so that the trade of diamonds into and out of the country fulfills the requirements stated in the KPCS. Comparably, this aligns with the role of the designer in making ethical material sourcing decisions. It is not the role of the designer to rely solely on what is imposed on them for ethical considerations; doing so would suggest that the designer has no means to conduct ethical decisions as these decisions are already expounded by these imposing sources.

Material and Resource Hierarchies The issue of sourcing conflict diamonds has had a significant impact on sourcing transparency and the conducting of due diligence within a supply chain. However, while it has opened the discussion on such issues, it is clear from research into other common materials used in the jewelry industry that these issues are not fully being recognized at their core. Gold tends to be the number 68 Pandora

Group, Diamonds, report. http://pandoragroup.com/-/media/Files/Corporate/PDF/JewelleryGuide/Diamonds_high.ashx?la=en&hash=99C69D99AA7DCB55A3303F9614EAF42 AEF60E260

one cause of human rights violations because goldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s value allows for profit to be made through the smuggling of small quantities.69 Since gold is on the list of conflict minerals affected by Section 1502, this means companies recognized by the SEC must know the material origins of the mineral in their supply chain. However, for the three companies discussed here , only Tiffany and Co. is SECrecognized to complete Specialized Disclosure forms for conflict minerals. Tiffany consistently ranks toward the top in due diligence reports of conflict minerals conducted by the Enough Project and while Tiffany is credited as being conflict free in the sourcing of tin, tungsten, and tantalum, they have not been credited for being conflict free in their gold sourcing.70 Looking at the gold consumption of Tiffany illustrates a consideration many designers have to face. Tiffany is widely known for its jewelry and for this reason allocates most of its resources to the production of this product. Resource allocation has a significant impact on design decisions. It also has a significant impact on the manufacturing process. When it comes to material selection, designers have to consider how materials will not only affect the function and aesthetics of the designed object but also how much these materials will affect cost and in turn affect the price shown to customers. Unfortunately, it is this kind of cost awareness that has caused the desire for cheap labor that can at times lead human rights abuses. Tiffany, as a luxury company, places a lot of importance in material selection. Luxury in general connotes a different consideration of materials. 69 GAO-17-733 Conflict Minerals Report (2017). 11. 70 The

Enough Project, Demand the Supply Chain, report (2017), 12.

Materials used in luxury products have a sense of quality and purity as has been ascribed to them by the market and for this reason it incentivizes luxury companies to allocate more resources in possessing these materials from known sources. The importance of materials and their origins can be seen through their description of the journey of the Tiffany diamond and how the precious metals and rare gemstones are described on their website in their catalogs. Tiffany is forward facing in informing the consumer of their gold resources in their jewelry. The product webpage of the 18k gold Tiffany T Two Hinged Bracelet shows an sidebar about Tiffany gold saying, “Tiffany gold is 18k gold of uncompromised purity. It comes from a single American mine, which meets the jewelry industry’s highest standards for environmental and social responsibility.”71 This excerpt can be found on almost all gold jewelry pages on the Tiffany website.

71 "Tiffany

& Co. - Tiffany T:Two Hinged Bracelet," Tiffany T Two Hinged Bracelet in 18k Gold, Medium. | Tiffany & Co., , accessed March 1, 2018, http://www.tiffany.com/jewelry/bracelets/tiffany-t-two-hinged-bracelet-GRP10373.

Fig. 1. Tiffany and Co., Tiffany Gold Material Description. http://www.tiffany.com/jewelry/bracelets/tiffany-t-two-hinged-bracelet-GRP10373 The claim that the gold material found in Tiffany jewelry can be traced to one American mine is also reflected in the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sustainability report. The sustainability report shows that 27 percent of the gold used in Tiffany jewelry is sourced from Utahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bingham Canyon Mine and the remaining 73 percent comes from recycled sources.72 The Bingham Canyon Mine produces copper, gold, silver, molybdenum and is also the primary source used for Tiffany silver.73 Sourcing from a U.S. based is at times costly yet can give Tiffany more distinct control over the sourcing practices of the materials used in their products. For designers like Muehling, who have significantly less resources to 72 Tiffany and Co., Sustainability Report 2016. 23. 73 ibid.

dictate specific mining locations for the materials sourced in their products, this type of control in material sourcing is limited. However, Muehling, being the owner of his company, does have the authority to set the ethical standards of sourcing and production he expects his extremely small employee workforce to follow. Resource allocation as well as material connotation means socially- constructed hierarchies are imposed with and on materials. For Tiffany, hierarchy is apparent at multiple levels. First, hierarchy can be seen in the materials themselves. Diamonds are top ranked in the material hierarchy for their rarity and the effort involved in their extraction and Tiffany allocates a lot of resources into sourcing and perfecting diamonds for the luxury market. Rarity implies higher prices for not only jewelry producers but for consumers as well showing the differing distinction exchange value has in relation to the use value of the material. As the top ranked material for Tiffany, information about the diamond is always shown on pages where the diamond is paired with a precious metal. In place of the information about the precious metal as seen in the previous image, information about the Tiffany diamond is displayed, thus solidifying the diamondâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s importance over the precious metal and suggesting that the diamond has a greater connotation of luxury and jewelry than precious metals. However, second in the hierarchy of materials are the precious metals gold, silver, and platinum. It is only down to this second level hierarchy (including first level diamonds) that Tiffany makes any note in their sustainability report on where the materials for their jewelry are sourced. Other metals like Copper, Zinc, and Palladium that may be used in the production of Tiffany jewelry are not mentioned in the

sustainability report nor on the Tiffany website. With the hierarchy in place, these secondary metals become invisible. For instance, the 18k gold Tiffany T Two Hinged Bracelet makes no mention of the other metal(s) used to make the bracelet. 18k gold implies that the bracelet is not made of pure gold, which would have a 24k label. This means another metal was used in the production of this bracelet. 18k gold generally contains 75 percent gold and 25 percent other metals, often of the silver or copper variety.74 Some common examples of the material breakdown of non-pure 24k gold can be seen in figure 2 on page 49. Focusing the consumer on the gold material and not referencing the other materials used strengthens the connotation of purity that Tiffany is trying to accomplish in their marketing materials. However, for designers, complacency in only recognizing and tracing primary materials is not acceptable.

74 "All

About Gold Jewellery | Gold Carats | World Gold Council," World Gold Council Gold Price & Gold Market News, accessed March 1, 2018, https://www.gold.org/aboutgold/gold-jewellery.

Caratage

Gold (Au)

Silver (Ag)

Copper (Cu)

Yellow Gold

37.5%

42.50%

20%

Yellow Gold

10k

41.70%

52%

6.30%

Yellow Gold

14k

58.30%

30%

11.70%

Yellow Gold

18k

75%

15%

10%

Yellow Gold

22k

91.70%

White Gold

37.5%

62.5%

White Gold

10k

41.7%

47.4%

White Gold

14k

58.30%

32.20%

White Gold

18k

75%

White Gold

22k

N/A

Rose Gold

37.5%

20%

42.5%

Rose Gold

10k

41.70%

20%

38.3%

Rose Gold

14k

58.30%

9.2%

32.5%

Rose Gold

18k

75%

9.2%

22.2%

Rose Gold

22k

91.7%

Zinc (Zn)

Palladium (Pd)

1.30%

0.9%

10% 9.50% 25% (or Pt)

N/A

8.40%

Fig. 2. World Gold Council, Gold Jewelry Composition Chart https://www.gold.org/about-gold/gold-jewellery

Tiffany shows more preference in their resource allocation toward their jewelry line than to their other product lines as is evident in the specialized disclosure (SD) form Tiffany submitted to the SEC in 2017. According to the sustainability report, 99.8 percent of the raw metals purchased by Tiffany are traceable either to the mine or to the recycler.75 If this statement were true for all of the raw precious metals used by Tiffany, then the company would be considered conflict free in all of their gold sourcing. Yet, the Enough Projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest research shows that Tiffany is not believed to be conflict free in their gold consumption.76 The SEC Specialized Disclosure filings produced by Tiffany makes the same claim. The SD form filed by Tiffany on May 26, 2017, shows that while the majority of Tiffany product lines are considered conflict free in their sourcing of 3TG, two finished goods categories, eyeware and flatware, did not meet the reasonable qualifications of being conflict free.77 It should be noted that while Tiffany cannot conclude beyond reasonable doubt that the 3TG found in the supply chain of their eyeware and flatware lines, it does not mean for certain that these minerals originate from a conflicted source. In fact, since Tiffany could not prove that their 3TG was conflict free, Section 1502 requires them to conduct further due diligence into their sources. The SD report shows their results (Fig. 3 on page 51).

75 Tiffany and Co., Sustainability Report 2016. 23.

76 The Enough Project, Demand the Supply Chain, report (2017), 12. 77 Tiffany

and Co., Specialized Disclosure Report, report (2017), 6.

Covered Product Eyewear

Metal Smelters or Refiners Facility Name Gold Gold Tin Tin

Flatware Gold Gold Gold Gold Gold Gold Gold Gold Gold Gold Gold Tin Tin Tin Tin Tin Tin Tin Tin Tin

Metalor Technologies S.A*. Umicore Brasil Ltda.* Minsur* PT Timah (Persero) Tbk Mentok* Advanced Chemical Company* Asahi Refining Canada Ltd.* CCR Refinery - Glencore Canada Corporation* Elemetal Refining, LLC* Heraeus Precious Metals GmbH & Co. KG* Kennecott Utah Copper LLC,* Metalor USA Refining Corporation* Metalúrgica Met-Mex Peñoles S.A. De C.V*. Republic Metals Corporation* Royal Canadian Mint* Umicore Brasil Ltda.* Cooperativa Metalurgica de Rondônia Ltda.* EM Vinto* Malaysia Smelting Corporation (MSC)* Metallo-Chemique N.V.* PT Mitra Stania Prima* PT Timah (Persero) Tbk Kundur* PT Timah (Persero) Tbk Mentok* PT Tinindo Inter Nusa* Thaisarco*

Facility Location Switzerland Brazil Peru Indonesia United States Canada Canada United States Germany United States United States Mexico United States Canada Brazil Brazil Bolivia Malaysia Belgium Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia Indonesia Thailand

*Indicates smelters or refiners that have been designated or certified by, or included in, one or more of the Three Conflict-Free Smelter Programs as of January 1, 2017. Fig. 3. Tiffany and Co., 3TG Smelters for Covered Products, Specialized Disclosure Report, report (2017)

Contrasting to the one mine and multiple recycle suppliers for the jewelry supply chain, the SD for eyeware and flatware shows 24 smelters in the supply chain, which is further compounded by the uncertainty of where the gold and tin smelted in these facilities originates. The SD form continues, Based on the information provided by the Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vendors, their direct suppliers, and their underlying smelters and refiners, as well as from the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative [now RMI] and other sources, the Company believes that the countries of origin of the Conflict Minerals in these two product categories may include Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Rwanda, Spain, Thailand, United States of America, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, and may also include recycled or scrap sources.78 The uncertainty of origination makes it difficult for companies to confidently declare truly being free of human rights abuses caused by the sourcing of their materials. Generally, research into raw metal origination often ends at the smelter with a menial attempt to find mine suppliers for the materials coming out of the smelters. Tiffanyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to conduct deeper research comes from the financial and time resources they have available. The SD report created by Tiffany shows the extensiveness of material sourcing, which will be further visited in the next chapter with Cree Lighting Company. The 33 countries listed as possible sources of only two materials used by Tiffany products show the significant impact even the production of one product can have. 78 ibid. 6-7.

Gold and diamonds are not the only materials used in Tiffany products, but since conflict is common with these two minerals, these are the minerals that Tiffany is the most vocal. As a third in the hierarchy of due diligence resource allocation, the origination of the colored gemstones used in Tiffany products are only briefly discussed in Tiffanyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sustainability report and are in no way indicated on their website. The mining and trade of colored gemstones is quite complex, often with the materials exchanging hands multiple times around the world before reaching the retailer. To make the issue of sourcing these gemstones even more complex, almost 80 percent of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s colored gemstones come from artisanal mining operations.79 Tiffany has explicitly stated that they have enhanced the due diligence into the colored gemstones used in their products, however, this information is limited and thus decent research for these colored gemstones is limited as well. As a way to research the complexity of typical supply chains for colored gemstones, I have decided to use Pandora, a company based in Denmark, as a secondary source of information in the jewelry sector. Pandora, unlike Tiffany, does not have to comply with Section of 1502 and therefore does not have to conduct due diligence in the sourcing of 3TG minerals. Also, while the European Union does not have official regulation regarding the sourcing of these minerals, many companies part of the Union follow the guidelines expressed by the OECD. Similarly, Pandora also follows guidelines and/or certification established by the jewelry industry itself through such processes like

79 Tiffany and Co., Sustainability Report 2016. 22.

the Kimberley Process, the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) Chain-of-Custody Standard, and London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) “Good Delivery List.”80 For gemstones, however, many countries do not have specific guidelines though these materials can at times come from questionable sourcing practices. Pandora is slightly more transparent in the sourcing of their gemstones as compared to Tiffany. While Pandora does not specify specific mines, the company does share some insight into what countries their gemstones are being sourced from. Figure 4 (page 55) shows the multiple countries Pandora likely sources from when acquiring gemstones. While the information offered by Pandora is not as specific as it ideally should be, it does at least trace the materials back far enough to understand if there are countries with conflict or known labor issues within. The breakdown of countries listed in the Pandora Group’s gemstone information packet bring to light the vast system in which materials can originate and should be of consideration to designers. Tiffany and Pandora, while both selling high quality jewelry, tend to sale at vastly different price points. Tiffany, who is more concerned about the production of the Tiffany diamond and maintaining their status of a luxury brand, allocates more attention to the rare stones and precious metals that make up the majority of their jewelry. Pandora on the other hand, sells at a significantly lower price point and thus the materials used in the production of its jewelry are not as rare.

80 http://pandoragroup.com/CSR/Product/Sourcing-Jewellery-Materials/Silver-

and-Gold

Gemstones Aquamarine Corundum: Ruby Corundum: Sapphire Feldspar: Amazonite Feldspar: Moonstones Feldspar: Labradorite Garnet Hematite Iolite Lapis lazuli Nephrite-Jade Pink Opal White Opal Peridot Pink Rock Prehnite Pyrite Black Spinel Tanzanite Topaz Pink Tourmaline Turquoise Quartz

Possible Countries of Origin Brazil, Nigeria, Zambia, Madagascar Afghanistan, Kenya, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Vietnam. Australia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Madagascar Russia, Brazil, Madagascar, Peru, USA India and Sri Lanka Canada, Finland, Ukraine, Russia Brazil, India, Madagascar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, USA, Tanzania and Zimbabwe England, Norway, Sweden, USA and Brazil India, Tanzania, Brazil, Sri Lanka Afghanistan (finest quality), Russia, Chile (often much calcite) Canada, China, New Zealand, Russia, Taiwan and USA Peru Australia USA, China and Pakistan China USA, Canada, France, Switzerland and South Africa Many worldwide Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Thailand Tanzania Many worldwide Brazil China, Iran, USA Numerous Worldwide

Fig. 4. Pandora Group, Gemstone Report http://pandoragroup.com/-/media/Files/Corporate/PDF/JewelleryGuide/Gemstones_high.ashx

Pandora provides a way for us to consider the role of alternative materials within material sourcing. For instance, Pandora is known for using cubic zirconia, often as an alternative to diamond, in their jewelry. This man-made product is made from the chemical composition zirconium oxide that can be transformed into varying colors. In addition to cubic zirconia, Pandora also produces black and grey crystal, synthetic ruby, and synthetic spinel. This kind of alternative material production stems from the New Jewellery movement that arose in the 1960s and 1970s in Europe after World War II. Fueled by modernism and the development of technology, jewelers began to reassess the use of precious materials as a standard for jewelry production.81 The reevaluation of the elitist mentality of materialâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s monetary significance led to a shift in ethos in the production of jewelry in the industry.82 For this reason, companies like Pandora have been able to flourish with their alternative materials.

Challenges for Small Scale Designers The difficulties jewelry designers face when trying to understand sourcing comes from the complexity of the supply chain of various materials as well as the availability and access to not only financial resources to conduct due diligence but also to information about the materials within their supply chain. Ted Muehling, jewelry designer, operates a small-scale hand-made jewelry company located in Manhattan, New York. As a designer who experiments with various materials and is passionate about the materials he uses, Muehlingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s practice is not unlike many artisanal, design-educated 81

Michelle Jessop, Contemporary Jewellery Practice: The Role of Display in Addressing Craft Values within the Creative Process, PhD diss., University of Brighton (2013), 17. 82 ibid.

jewelry makers. Material is an important piece of the design process and Muehling has been studying and experimenting with the materials he uses in his jewelry since 1976. Early in my research for this thesis I met with Muehling at his store and studio. Muehling’s deep interest in for materials was evident as I walked up the stairs to start our interview. The tables and cabinets overflowed with various gems, pearls, precious metals, porcelain, and so much more. As he spoke about the materials, he handled them carefully, showing his appreciation for them. The interview started with Muehling telling me a bit about his history and how he learned to design with the materials he uses but as our conversation shifted to how he sources his materials I was able to gain better insight into the jewelry industry than I had been able to gather from the larger jewelry retailers. “God knows where this stuff is originally formed,” Muehling stated during our interview when asked about how far he traced material origins.83 Muehling, being a small individually owned brand, unlike Tiffany and Pandora, does not have to worry about the imposing rules and regulations set forth by governments and the industry. The gold he uses in his jewelry for instance does not have to be traced back to the smelter because Muehling is not recognized by the SEC as a company that must conduct due diligence. Like most other individual jewelry designers, Muehling is fourth down in the supply chain line when buying materials and often has to place a lot of trust in the dealers from whom he’s purchasing his materials.84 Muehling recognizes that the industry and the trade of materials are all political and it is “arduous to try and follow the trail.”85 One can

83 Ted

Muehling, interview by author, November 18, 2017.

84 ibid. 85 ibid.

gather this arduousness in the fact that Section 1502 gave companies three years to conduct due diligence. Muehlingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s situation is one that many designers can relate to. Researching material sources takes time and resources many designers do not have. For Muehling, reliance on dealer information is key. As the owner of his own business, however, Muehling does have an authority over his design choices that designers within the larger companies of Tiffany and Pandora do not have. For instance, Muehling has full control over which sources he chooses to buy his materials, whereas designers that work for Tiffany and Pandora often have to follow the guidelines and processes of the companies. That being said, while I tried to find out the sources Muehling uses for purchasing his materials in our interview, he struggled to clearly define where he specifically sourced material. This in part could be due to the nature of a small business like his. Trade shows and conventions tend to be where he gathers information about materials, which led me to consider how other designers may be lacking the resources in material knowledge as well. The lack of knowledge on resources and the lack of enforcement from legal precedence do not mean jewelry designers like Muehling can minimize the importance of material sourcing, however. While a single piece of jewelry offers an opening to the complexities of material sourcing, looking at the industry in a wider perspective shows the larger impact jewelry production can have. It is evident that unless companies or designers have the proper resources to allocate for due diligence tracing material sources is an almost impossible feat. With no obligation to research deeper into the sourcing of materials, designers have

to place more emphasis on ethical considerations of the materials they choose. Some considerations outweigh others as is seen with Tiffany who places more importance on the due diligence of the materials they use most often for the products from which they have more sales. The following chapter highlights more considerations and limitations faced by designers using an alternative case study of a lighting company who designs and sales LED lights and chips.

THREE Motivations for Ethical Material Choices in the Context of Lighting

The lighting industry is a very competitive environment with strict regulations for many of the components used to make the various products created. One is compliance with the conflict minerals laws of the countries in which the company is located. While these laws are often associated with specific material makeup of certain lighting components, there are many material components that do not make the list of due diligence. These materials at times are mined in places where human rights violations occur similar to what is happening in the DRC. This chapter will focus on Cree, a leading lighting company located in North Carolina in the United States. Cree has been able to provide insight to the working of a very lucrative lighting industry that overlaps with the automotive and other industries. The analysis of the company, materials used, and the policy of compliance will be discussed here to the fullest possible extent without revealing any proprietary information. The purpose of this chapter is to reveal the vastness of material sourcing operations through the varying standards required by the industry. In doing so, this chapter will analyze a typical product produced by this company that contains many of

the material elements that can also be found in the rest of the products sold by the company. I will explore the depth of research done into the sourcing of these materials to discover where limitations prevent full discovery. About Cree For over 20 years Cree has been developing lighting and energy solutions that come in the form of LED lights and chips. As a company that employees only 6,039 people (predominantly in the U.S.),86 Cree is committed to using innovative materials, Cree creates new technologies that are focused on performance improvement, for example energy efficient LEDs. Cree brought its first blue LED light to the market in 1989. Today, their LED lights can be found in retailers like Home Depot stores. This chapter will examine Creeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s popular DPT series product line of LEDs in order to understand the real production impact a single LED light can have. The designers or engineers in Cree are the ones who make the material selection decisions. However, these designers and engineers do not fully conduct research into the sourcing of materials they select. By this I mean, these designers and engineers, while aware of the issue of conflict minerals, do not specify where the materials used in the production of the LED should be sourced. In general, for Cree, this is done by a purchasing agent based on bill of material produced by the designer. The bill of material tells the purchasing agent what materials are needed. The purchasing agent must then make the decision as to where they get the materials. It is at this phase that cost is of primary concern and as such, the role of the purchasing agent is to find the best quality at

86 Cree. 2017 Annual Report. Report. 2017.

an affordable price. Ethical considerations of sourcing really do not come into the process of production until after the product is made and the regulatory compliance specialist conducts supply chain research into where the material was sourced. While seemingly a backwards approach, this is typical for most larger organizations. Making Material Sourcing a Topic of Discussion Before I begin discussing the material breakdown of Creeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most popular selling LED lights, I will first explain the policies and standards Cree faces in terms of compliance and material supply chain due diligence. The practices and ethics of material sourcing can be influenced by government regulations, industry standards and company policies. The conflict mineral law has its limitations in enforcement, thus many companies are not following the specifics of the legislation knowing that enforcement is sporadic. Compliance depends on a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to responsible material sourcing as mentioned by a Cree Product Compliance Manager of LED Components.87 When the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was passed in 2010, it included legislation, Section 1502 that would require companies to determine whether any of the products they manufacture, or contract to be manufactured, contain conflict minerals that originated in the DRC or the nine adjoining countries. After more than a year and half of debate, the SEC issued a final ruling in 2012 that applied to all companies, foreign and domestic, that file with the SEC and manufacture or contract to manufacture any product in which conflict minerals are necessary to the functionality of the product. This meant many companies, including Cree, had to allocate 87 Product

Compliance Manager, LED Components, telephone interview by author, December 15, 2017.

resources into conducting research, completing the Reasonable Country of Origin Inquiry, and doing necessary due diligence on their supply chains. “Company culture has a huge influence on material sourcing” and the conducting of due diligence as the Product Compliance Manager says. 88 The power of company culture suggests the potential influence larger companies can have on the industry. My conversations with several Cree employees show that larger companies that are under greater scrutiny and have a high risk of exposure for non-compliance exert a powerful influence on smaller companies like Cree. With a framework from the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, companies like Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, HP and Intel began leading by example for the responsible sourcing of conflict minerals and transparency in the supply chain, companies like Cree and others follow.89 Retailers like Home Depot that are known for being highly socially responsible, have also influenced Cree’s responsible material sourcing efforts. “It is a small company interfacing with a large company like Home Depot that pushes corporate social responsibility,” says the Product Compliance Manager.90 This comment suggests how important it is for larger companies and more influential designers to set examples to lead the industry in responsible initiatives even if official legislation does not require it.

88 ibid. 89 ibid. 90 ibid.

Policies Beyond Dodd-Frank Cree Follows While conflict minerals are important for the discussion of material sourcing, they contribute a small percent to the total material make up of the components used in Cree products, which will be fully explained in the following section. While the Dodd-Frank Act Section 1502 has had a massive influence on responsible material sourcing and usage, Cree must also follow other regulations that even further impact the production of their products. The first I will discuss is known as the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). This European Union based legislation was implemented in 2006 and restricts the use of hazardous materials found in electrical and electronic products. These banned substances include lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), hexavalent chromium (CrVI), polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), and four different phthalates (DEHP, BBP, BBP, DIBP).91 The restriction of these materials prevents hazardous materials from ending up polluting landfills and also prevents from occupational exposure. Lead is a fraught material and like conflict minerals, has exceptions per its use. The Product Compliance Manager for the LED Components at Cree identified lead as one of the materials that most LED lights contain. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are certain applications of lead use that are exempted from the European Union RoHS legislation,â&#x20AC;? the Product

91 "RoHS

Guide," RoHS Compliance Guide: FAQ on RoHS Compliance, , accessed January 3, 2018, http://www.rohsguide.com/rohs-faq.htm.

Compliance Manager says.92 Through the exemption the European Union essentially admits that certain applications using small amounts of lead in high-temperature solder could not be substituted for another material. However, China does not allow for any exemptions of lead usage, which contradicts the claim that it is impossible to find a substitution. Cree products that contain lead used in solder as per the exemption of the EU RoHS legislation must be marked differently when being shipped to China. However, employees like the Product Compliance Manager of LED components see lead as material that needs to be taken out of production completely. “There are other materials besides lead that can be used, however they are harder to use because solder requires a certain amount temperature and time,” the Product Compliance Manager notes.93 In addition to RoHS, Cree also adheres to the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) EU regulation. This regulation, went into effect in June 2007 and requires companies to identify and manage the risks linked to substances contained in products they manufacture and market in the EU. It works by establishing procedures for collecting and assessing information on the properties and hazards of substances.94 With these regulations as well as Cree’s own policy of conflict mineral sourcing based on Section 1502, the tracing of material sources has to work through various levels compliance.

92 ibid. 93 ibid. 94

"Categories Display," Understanding REACH - ECHA, accessed March 3, 2018, https://echa.europa.eu/regulations/reach/understanding-reach.

Tracing Material Sources The product series explored in this chapter is the standard DPT series LED manufactured by Cree. LED lighting has garnered significance over halogen, filament, incandescent, and compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) for their lower energy and maintenance costs and environmentally friendly makeup. While these lights tend to cost more at initial purchase, they have a higher return on investment due to their energy efficient nature. LED lights can be 80 percent more efficient than fluorescent and incandescent lights because approximately 95 percent of the energy exuded goes to lighting where only five percent is wasted on heat.95 Comparatively, fluorescent lights have the opposite breakdown wasting approximately 95 percent energy on heat and five percent on actual lighting.96 In addition to their energy efficiency, their longevity is also a huge selling point for consumers. The growing popularity of LEDs suggests the growth in environmental sustainability awareness among the consumer market. These lights generally do not contain any harmful or toxic elements, which aid in their ability to protect from further toxic waste into landfills. While a focus is on the positive environmental impact of LEDs over their counterparts, fluorescent and incandescent lights, it should also be noted that the production impact of these LEDs is substantial. This is not to say that the same cannot be said for LED counterparts. However, at times the notion of environmental

"SEPCO-Solar Lighting Blog," The Advantages of LED Lights for the Environment, , accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.sepco-solarlighting.com/blog/bid/145611/TheAdvantages-of-LED-Lights-for-the-Environment. 96 ibid.

sustainability from the act of the consumer purchase of “environmentally improved” product can overshadow the larger impact induced by the production of LEDs. To explain the production and labor impact, the next several pages will break down the materials used in the DPT series LEDs. The purpose of a material breakdown allows for the tracing of specific materials through the supply chain. This method of material tracing will contrast standard supply chain practices that generally trace made components instead of specific materials. The information shown has been gathered from multiple Cree documents and interviews with several Cree employees, as well as some further exploration into Cree’s manufacturers. Generally LEDs have the same basic components with typical materials that make up the components (figure 5 on page 69). As explained by the Director of LED R&D at Cree, the epoxy case is generally made up of epoxy and silicon; the wire bond is gold; the reflective cavity is silver and gold plated, the semiconductor die is either a indium gallium nitride mix (for blue or green LEDs) or a aluminum indium gallium oxide mix (for red LEDs); the phosphor (which is not shown in figure 5) is made up of yttrium, aluminum garnet; and the lead frame is copper plated in silver.97 While the interview with the Director of LED R&D generally discussed the material makeup of LEDs, after requesting a Material Content Declaration, I was able to gain a little more insight to the actual materials used in the DPT series LEDs. This specific product line contains 38

Director LED R&D, telephone interview by author, January 24, 2018.

material and material combinations (figure 6 on page 72) that are found in the 58 components, forming the LED in totality.98 With the official materials known, I was able to begin researching their supply chain. As expected, this was a very difficult process. Much of the information gathered was what I was allowed to see being as an outsider conducting research for a thesis. That being said, conversations with employees and publically available documents allowed me to learn more about certain materialsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; supply chains. It should be noted that the information is not complete and some information is inferred (I will make note of when this occurs), however, the process of trying to conduct research provides me with insight needed to suggest possible actions designers can take in their own material sourcing practices.

98 Material Content Declaration CREE

Fig. 5. Inductive Load, Parts of a Conventional LED, wiki commons • • • • • • • • • • • •

ALUMINUM ALUMINUM HYDROXIDE ALUMINUM LUTETIUM OXIDE ALUMINUM NITRIDE ALUMINUM OXIDE ALUMINUM YTTRIUM OXIDE BARIUM SULFATE BISMUTH BISPHENOL A EPOXY RESIN CALCIUM CERIUM CHROMIUM

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

COBALT COPPER EPOXY RESIN EUROPIUM OXIDE GALLIUM NITRIDE GOLD INDIUM TIN OXIDE IRON LEAD LUTETIUM MANGANESE NICKEL PHOSPHORUS PLATINUM RUTHENIUM SILICA

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • •

SILICON NITRIDE SILVER STRONTIUM TALC TANTALUM TIN TITANIUM TITANIUM OXIDE TITANIUM OXYNITRIDE TRIMETHYLOL PROPANE TRIACRYLATE TUNGSTEN YTTRIUM ZINC ZINC OXIDE

Fig. 6. Cree List of LED Materials

The next step in the tracing of materials led me to Creeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s direct manufacturers. The 58 components of each DPT series LED are produced by 24 different manufacturers located in China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States. The following figure is a map that shows the locations of these manufacturers and the materials that are coming out of these locations (figure 7 on page 73). Tin is the number one material found in every component of the light, with nickel and copper coming in second and third place respectively. While the available information gathered was from 14 of the 38 materials/material combinations, this map begins to show the global impact the production of just one DPT series LED can have. With Cree sourcing components from 24 manufacturers in seven different countries (all of which have different labor standards), it is easy to understand how even at this level conducting research into ethical labor practices can be daunting. And, for the majority of supply chain due diligence, tracing back to the direct manufacturer is sufficient. However, as legislation like Section 1502 suggests, it is apparent that supply chain due diligence is not actually sufficient at only this level. To visualize this, figure 8 (pg.64) shows the smelter locations of the 3TG found in Cree DPT LEDs. Since Cree is not required to trace the other materials back to their original sources, the information collected from the Conflict Mineral Reporting Template submitted by Cree in 2017 will summarize the impact of tracing the materials back a couple of steps farther. Figure 8 shows that Cree and Cree manufacturers source their 3TG materials from 309 different smelters. Of those 309 smelters, 145 are gold smelters,

41 are tantalum smelters, 78 are tin smelters, and 45 are tungsten smelters. These 309 smelters are located in 38 different countries and to break it down further, the gold used in Cree DPT series LEDs is smelted in 41 different countries, tantalum in 12 different countries, tin in 15 and tungsten in 10. This increase in sourcing companies and geographical locations compounds the difficulty of tracing labor practices to the source.

With figure 7 only showing four of the 38 materials and material combinations it is easy to infer how tracing back the other 34 materials would show a significantly larger impact. It is important to realize that the understanding of material sourcing should not only rely on what is predicated by regulations and legislations. While the LEDs produced by this lighting company do contain conflict minerals, these minerals only partially make up the light in whole. Relying on legislation also suggests that materials need only be traced back to the smelters. However, the following figure 9 (pg. 76) shows that the actual sourcing has a grander impact than even the smelters show. The information in this figure is inferred from statistics gathered from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as Cree, like most all other companies, cannot determine the origin of the materials imported into the smelters. These maps suggest the designer’s need to think in scale. As material is traced back, the impact it has scales tremendously. The designer plays a role in a large network and as such must understand their impact on this complex system. The designer’s connection and understanding to scale is imperative in making design decisions like that of material selection. Knowledge about scale and the complex system of production equips the designer with awareness of the “knock-on effect” design choices have on distant ecosystems, lands, and peoples.99 The difficulty with scale and the complex system is that as a nonlinear system, as Jamer Hunt, the Vice Provost for Transdisciplinary Initiatives at The New School, explains, “ …[Designers] encounter behaviors that are neither predictable, nor reproducible. The system scales up to be a 99

Alastair Fuad-Luke, Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World (London: Earthscan, 2009), 72.

level of complexity where it no longer hews to models of predictions of its behavior.”100 Hunt further explains that our relationship to scale needs to be critically understood as the “massive changes to our natural, built, and immaterial environments are compromising [designers’] ability to manage their complexity.”101 These changes are also compromising designers’ ability to easily (as in the designer does not have to conduct significant research into material origins) make material choices. As this chapter has shown, understanding of one product’s materials and the material origins allows the designer to realize the impact a design decision of material selection can have. While the majority tracing in this chapter was based on 3TG, this chapter shows that tracing back only four minerals as required by legislations or policies is not sufficient. The next chapter will explore in detail additional materials that are conflict in nature but are not recognized by any official legislation. This will open up dialog to further show the limiting nature of legislation.

100

Jamer Hunt, "“When We Understand That Slide, We'll Have Won the War”: Systemic Complexity and the Irregularities of Scale," in Design as Future-Making, by Susan Yelavich and Barbara Adams (New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014), 239. 101 ibid. 234.

FOUR Creating Standards of Material Sourcing

Much of this thesis has revolved around the mining of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold (3TG) and the limitations of legislations that dictate what minerals or mined goods may be sourced and what countries meet the criteria for ethical sourcing consideration. The analysis of 3TG as such reveals inconsistencies in enforcement, particularly when hierarchical modes of design material choices come into play with labor deliberations. This chapter seeks to expand ‘conflict’ because when the term is limited to extreme situations, it creates a double standard of material ethics, allowing companies and individuals to forgo detailed supply chain analysis when not required by law. In doing so, this chapter will explore materials that have gained recognition for their unethical sourcing and trace these materials from the mines to the potential manufacturers that use these materials in their products. The goal is to expand the notion of ‘conflict’ so designers can apply the same sourcing standards to all of their materials to avoid inconsistency in ethical material sourcing. Secondly, this chapter describes the methods for which many global companies are aiming to become more transparent in their material use and supply chain operations. These transparent actions are in correspondence with the growing public concern of material origination. With movies like Blood Diamond making these conflicts more

visible, the public has put more pressure on manufacturers to promote clearly stated material sources that at times can have an effect on consumption of manufactured products. Though as one can see throughout this chapter, this effect is minimal and is not causing significant economic harm to the companies that have been knowingly or unknowingly involved in questionable sourcing practices. The last chapters demonstrated the limitations of Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Clearly, reducing due diligence to only four minerals found in a very specific location of the world is not getting to the root of the problem. Ethical concerns of labor do not only lie within these specified countries and are not only limited to these four minerals. For example, less than one percent of all components making up Cree lighting units are considered conflict minerals. Placing ethical considerations solely on these four minerals, as the legislation deems worthy, suggests almost 99% of Cree materials are not chosen through ethical considerations. Labor issues exist and persist beyond the limits of conflict minerals, defined as tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold constrained to the DRC. To put this into perspective, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs maintains a list of goods that are believed to be sourced through the means of child or forced labor and violates international standards Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2005.102 This list includes not only the four conflict minerals found in Section 1502, but also various other

102

United States Department of Labor, List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, September 30, 2016, , accessed February 25, 2018, https://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods/. See Appendix B.

agricultural and mined or quarried goods.103 The list also includes labor issues related to the manufacture of goods including apparel and footwear.104 If the previous chapters did not show the magnitude of the issues surrounding material sourcing, this list should aid in that exposure (see page 80). The latest list aggregation shows that child or forced labor produces 139 goods sourced from 75 countries around the world.105 This is a significantly different outlook on our responsibilities to the issue than one might gather from Section 1502. For example, breaking down the sourcing locations of 3TG alone shows how incomplete the legislation actually is. Gold, the most problematic of the, can be found on the list 22 times, meaning 22 different countries, including the DRC, are believed to have some sort of child or forced labor that mines the gold.106 Tin can also be found on the list coming from Bolivia, Indonesia, as well as the DRC.107 Excluding other countries because their situations are not as prominently covered as the human rights violations occurring in the DRC sheds light on a double standard in material sourcing. The implication is that it takes a certain percent of the labor force to be identified as child or forced labor for there to be an ethical issue, when no percent is what is acceptable.

103 ibid. 104 ibid. 105 ibid. 106 ibid. 107 ibid.

Country

Good

Child Labor

Bolivia

Gold

Burkina Faso

Gold

Colombia

Gold

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Gold

Ecuador

Gold

Ethiopia

Gold

Ghana

Gold

Guinea

Gold

Indonesia

Gold

Mali

Gold

Mongolia

Gold

Nicaragua

Gold

Niger

Gold

Nigeria

Gold

North Korea

Gold

Peru

Gold

Philippines

Gold

Senegal

Gold

Sudan

Gold

Suriname

Gold

Tanzania

Gold

Uganda

Gold

Forced Labor X X

X X

Fig. 10. United States Department of Labor, List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor: Gold (2016)

If one were to consider the “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor” in terms of the mined sources in the DRC, which is the only grouping of countries that are affected by the ethical considerations imposed by the legislation, then one would see that limiting the “ethically sourced” criteria to only four minerals is not getting to the root of the problem. The DRC is shown not only because of 3TG, but also includes the mined goods of cobalt, copper, and diamonds. It is confusing as to why these mined minerals are not included in Section 1502 when the mining of these minerals is falling under the same problematic circumstances outlined by the legislation, specifically the exploitation and violence imposed via forced labor and child labor. Of the minerals coming out of the DRC not mentioned in Section 1502, cobalt is closest to being deemed a conflict mineral due to the similarly of questionable sourcing practices it takes to extract this mineral in relation to 3TG. In preparation for the possibility, the Responsible Mineral Initiative (RMI) has recently added it to their smelter database. While the cobalt smelter information is not currently available to the public, RMI’s shift to include the mineral proclaims the mineral’s importance to the market. Cobalt has been of particular importance recently as large companies like Apple Inc. have been found to be sourcing cobalt from the DRC. Cobalt is a mineral on which most of us have become (unknowingly) reliant. Cobalt is an essential material for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles.108 Cobalt’s value comes from its ability to charge a battery, its energy density,

108

Todd C. Frankel, "This Is Where Your Smartphone Battery Begins," The Washington Post, September 30, 2016, accessed March 3, 2018,

and its stability (by contrast, lithium, another metal used in the battery, is very light and not quite stable, which when used alone can cause the battery to burn).109 Mixing lithium with other metals like cobalt, found primarily in the in the cathode, increases the batteryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stability. Our reliance on this rare metal has become quite evident with the rise of demand and pricing of cobalt.110 The automotive industry is particularly driving this demand as Reuters suggests, stating that Paris, Madrid, Mexico City and Athens plan to ban diesel vehicles from city centers by 2025, Copenhagen wants to ban diesel cars by 2019, and France and Britain will ban any new petrol of diesel vehicles by 2040.111 With the demand for battery powered vehicles on the rise due to environmental and health regulations imposed by country and city governments, the demand for cobalt and like metal resources have created a lucrative market for mining companies who in some cases are looking to mine the minerals in the most cost effective, yet sometimes questionable, ways. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/congo-cobalt-mining-forlithium-ion-battery/. 109 Guest Contributor and Mitch Goldberg, "Apple's Surprising Metals Move Signals It's Time for Controversial Buy on Commodities," CNBC, February 27, 2018, , accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/27/apples-surprising-cobalt-movesignals-its-a-good-time-to-buy-metals.html. 110 Natasha Turak, "Apple's Potential Mining Play Is about More than Money, Industry Experts Say," CNBC, February 22, 2018, , accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/apples-potential-cobalt-mining-play-is-about-morethan-money-experts.html. 111 Markus Wacket, "Diesel Cars Can Be Banned from German Cities, Court Rules," Reuters, February 27, 2018, , accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-emissions/diesel-cars-can-be-banned-fromgerman-cities-court-rules-idUSKCN1GA2XD.

It has already been stated that the DRC produces almost insignificant amounts of 3TG minerals. On the other hand, the DRC produces approximately sixty percent of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s supply of cobalt, making it the largest source for mining.112 With that recognition, much attention has been targeted toward the DRC, not only in terms of the limited availability of cobalt but also because of the circumstances in which cobalt is known to be mined. This recognition and attention has put large electronic companies like Apple Inc. under speculation. In 2016, Amnesty International published a report on the global supply chain of cobalt. Their research focused on one of the largest cobalt producers Congo Dongfang Mining International (CDM), a producer known to provide cobalt to Apple Inc. laptops and phones as well as other like name brand products including Dell, HP Inc., Huawei, Lenovo (Motorola), LG, Microsoft Corporation, Samsung, Sony and Vodafone as well as a few vehicle manufactures.113 CDM has been operating in the DRC since 2006.114 As a subsidiary owned by China-based Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Company LTD (Huayou Cobalt), CDM is not involved in direct mining practices; however, their role is to purchase cobalt from traders, who buy it directly from the miners.115 Through the report, Amnesty International concluded that CDM was not properly conducting due diligence within their supply chain and found that some of the artisanal mines from which cobalt

112 Frankel, "This Is Where Your Smartphone Battery Begins." 113

Amnesty International, This Is What We Die For, report no. INDEX: AFR 62/3183/2016 (2016), 8. 114 ibid. 115 ibid.

was sourced contained very hazardous conditions not only for the adults mining the land but also for the children who can also be found mining for this popular mineral.116 After the exposure by Amnesty International and multiple news articles that were found in the Washington Post as well as other outlets, CDM was forced to consider how their supply chain was being viewed. Chen Hongliang, president of CDM, admitted that the company never questioned how its minerals were obtained.117 This is a recurring theme that seems to come about when materials are purchased. This thesis has also pointed out that many times designers and/or engineers blindly trust their direct sources without bothering to take a deeper look. This feigning ignorance or the ignoring of due diligence has to be more aggressively addressed and stopped; addressing this issue starts with a shift in education that will be discussed in the next chapter. Some companies, like Apple that were bound up with the controversy surrounding CDM and cobalt mining in the DRC, are now looking to buy cobalt directly from miners as a possible way to have more control over ethically sourced goods.118 This situation highlights another possible motivation for conducting due diligence, while not necessarily ethically driven. With the demand of cobalt on the rise due to environmental legislations and the knowledge that cobalt is a limited nonrenewable resource, companies are struggling to ensure they have enough supplies of the mineral for product development. Also, unlike the recyclability of gold, as in the case of jewelry, many 116 ibid. 9.

117 Frankel, "This Is Where Your Smartphone Battery Begins." 118

Jack Farchy and Mark Gurman, "Apple in Talks to Buy Cobalt Directly From Miners," Bloomberg.com, February 21, 2018, , accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-21/apple-is-said-to-negotiate-buyingcobalt-direct-from-miners.

electronic devices use much smaller material quantities for individual components making electronic recycling much more difficult and costly. Therefore, the reclaiming of used cobalt is less likely than the mining of new cobalt making supplies scarcer. Buying directly from the miners ensures Apple will have their share of this rapidly diminishing mineral.119 This capitalist mentality overshadows the importance of material sourcing from ethical labor practices. The material becomes a product in itself and gains value as realized labor.120 For instance, cobalt, cotton (as described in the following section), and all of the previous materials mentioned become products from the labor that has produced them; in the case of 3TG, this labor includes mining, smelting, and commodity assemblage. Karl Marx explains the subordination of labor to capital by suggesting that the labor process has turned into the process by which the capitalist consumes laborpower.121 Because of this the laborer works under control of the capitalist and the product (in the case of this thesis, materials) is the property of the capitalist not the laborer.122 The design and production of a product or commodity is not owned by the designer for their labor but owned by the capitalist consumer who purchased said product or commodity. Apple is a capitalist company and the products of consumption are the materials needed to produce Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commodities, i.e. the end result of the labor-power that has produced it. Designers who are part of this labor-power in the capitalist system should recognize Marxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s point. 119 ibid.

120 Marx. Capital. 129. 121 ibid. 131 122 ibid.

Tensions Among Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability, with the example of Cotton To this point, this thesis has focused primarily on nonrenewable resources and the destruction that is occurring because of our high levels of consumption of these resources, and the tangle of social impacts that design choices can make. But now, I want to shift the attention to a renewable resource that also has its fair share of unethical sourcing issues. On the Bureau of International Labor Affair’s list of “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor” shows cotton as the second largest material involving unethical labor issues.123 Of the nineteen countries listed with violations against TVPRA, the Responsible Sourcing Network has identified Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as the two most problematic areas for cotton production.124 The discussion of cotton sourced from these two countries offers a contrast to the mining of minerals in the DRC. As mentioned, the problem revolving about labor issues in the DRC stems from the illegal practices of groups forcing political conflict onto these countries by control of materials. Cotton production in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan is a completely different scenario. Instead of independent companies or organizations creating human rights violations, it is the government that does. It controls cotton production in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Both countries’ governments “collectively force over one million citizens to labor in each country’s cotton fields every year,” as the

123 United States Department of Labor, List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or

Forced Labor Responsible Sourcing Network, "Cotton," Responsible Sourcing Network, 2018, accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.sourcingnetwork.org/cotton/.

124

Responsible Sourcing Network exclaims.125 Both countries’ governments have been known to shut down schools and public offices for months at a time to make the country’s youth, teachers, nurses, and civil servants harvest cotton in the fields, often requiring daily quotas of which individuals can be expelled, fired, or lose benefits if they do not meet.126 A 2016 report from the Bureau of International Affairs shows children as young as five working in the fields of Uzbekistan, though the amount of forced younger child labor has decreased since the Uzbekistan government has faced international scrutiny.127 This has not decreased the government’s demand of 132 pounds per day per person quota, however, which has caused older children (between 15 and 17) and adults to maintain a larger workload to meet these demands.128 A researcher of Human Rights Watch, Steve Swerdlow, states, “The issue here is forced labor, plain and simple. Forcing more older children and adults to work in the cotton fields to replace some younger children, does not change the fact that Uzbekistan is forcing a million of its people to labor in these fields involuntarily every year at harvest season.”129 It seems, however, that the Uzbekistan government is responding more to the pressure of international criticism,

125 ibid. 126 ibid. 127

United States Department of Labor, Uzbekistan: No Advancement – Efforts Made But Complicit in Force Child Labor, report (2016). 128 Human Rights Watch, "Uzbekistan: Forced Labor Widespread in Cotton Harvest," Human Rights Watch, April 17, 2015, , accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/01/25/uzbekistan-forced-labor-widespread-cottonharvest. 129 ibid.

since the Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov ordered officials to recall students, as well as education and medical workers from the fields in 2017.130 While NGOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like the Human Rights Watchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts make known the issues surrounding the production of cotton, it can at times be so focused that it runs the risk of allowing us to forget the bigger picture that all sourced goods should be under scrutiny from those who purchase or consume them. Like those who have been so focused in their criticism of the DRCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s production of 3TG but who do not following due diligence for cobalt, copper, and diamonds also mined in this area, disparagers of forced cotton picking in Uzbekistan are not taking into account the forced production of silk cocoons, also produced in Uzbekistan, that are also seen in the Bureau of International Affairs 2016 report.131 This type of focused critique creates double standards in the production of goods and allows for companies to place all of their efforts in performing due diligence for a few of the materials used in their products instead of responsibly understanding their material supply chain as a whole. What of the other seventeen countries that are believed to promote child labor and forced labor through their production of cotton?

130

"Uzbekistan: Some Workers Excused from Cotton Fields," Human Rights Watch, October 05, 2017, , accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/05/uzbekistan-some-workers-excused-cotton-fields. While this article is showing some hope for the retraction of forced labor in Uzbekistan, it does not indicate whether there are still quotas that local governments must meet which can caused increased harsh conditions for individuals who are still forced to work in the fields to make up for the lack of other forced labor. 131 United States Department of Labor, "Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor Uzbekistan," United States Department of Labor, December 12, 2017, , accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/uzbekistan.

Of all the industries producing goods for consumers, the fashion industry is more often in the limelight for its wasteful and questionable production practices. This industry operates within tensions among economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Tony Fry recognizes this tension in Design as Politics. He writes, “So, while environmental impacts have to be dealt with, ‘the problem’ will not be solved unless their economic and cultural causes are confronted and resolved.”132 Fry is not wrong in his statement. Economic sustainability is often at odds with fair labor practices and environmental issues surrounding the production of material goods. For countries like Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, economic sustainability revolves around the production and export of cotton, which provides to Uzbekistan over a billion dollars annually.133 The issue between economic and social sustainability often comes down to a conflict between government’s interests and people’s. Economic sustainability almost always seeks financial power for countries and governments through necessary means and social sustainability is focused toward people’s well being. At times, economic sustainability can come at the costs of individuals or groups as seen with the exploitative labor practices of Uzbekistan. Fry is an idealist when it comes to discussing the resolution of economic and cultural issues in the attempt to resolve concerns of environmental sustainability. The likelihood that this could ever fully happen is bleak, which even he admits when he writes, “We have passed a point whereby much that has been put into process can be

132 Fry. Design as Politics. ix. 133

Responsible Sourcing Network, "Cotton," Responsible Sourcing Network, 2018, accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.sourcingnetwork.org/cotton/.

reversed-irreparable damage has already been done.”134 It does not mean, however, that some form of resolution to balance these three sustainability realms is impossible, but it would mean a fundamental change in ourselves. Fry continues his argument by saying, “The fact is that unless we fundamentally change how en masse we dwell within ourselves, the worlds within the world we have created, and the world at large, we will have no future worth having.”135 For designers in the context of this thesis, this would mean critically analyzing how materials are not only understood for their environmental impact but also for their social and economic impact. Designers have a real potential to change the culture of production and norms surrounding material selection. Design in and of itself is a synonym for change and as designers “[w]e either support the status quo (a choice so often made unknowingly) or we choose a path of change (which few do),” as Tony Fry proclaims.136 To make a change so big as to challenge production and material selection norms would be quite a feat and the next chapter intends to suggest a possible resource in aiding this change.

134 Fry. Design as Politics. 3. 135 ibid.

136 ibid. vii.

FIVE Rethinking Material Education

â&#x20AC;&#x153;From the most deprived to the most affluent, changing the nature of our being is not a matter of choice but is becoming an absolute futural necessity. How we act in relation to one another, individually, interculturally and internationally and upon the biophysical world is actually a determination of the nature and possibility of our actually having a viable future,â&#x20AC;? writes Fry in Becoming Human by Design.137 I start this chapter with Fryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s words as they reify the necessity for change, a necessity that is rooted in design. This chapter brings together and reinforces the issues that surround the design process with an emphasis on material selection as an ethical act. In doing so, this chapter assesses the potentials of change and through these potentials suggests routes that designers can explore in order to understand and critique their own design practices. Design Interrogation Starts with Education Design, while structured by a capitalist system has the ability to mitigate these structures through acts of interrogation and negotiation. We have designed the world in which we inhabit; the systems, culture, objects we encounter are here through our own

137 Fry, Becoming human by design. 176.

making.138 These artifices of our own design have brought about ignorance of globally local communities; by this I mean that the local communities that create their own local rules and regulations, and are also actors in global consumption. Interrogation, or questioning, is inherent in design. In fact, as Clive Dilnot suggests, “Design is the recognition of this possibility for change.”139 Dilnot’s claim is the basis for why design exists and, through its existence, the reason it is an ethical act. He cites Giorgio Agamben in his argument that in a predestined world, a world in which the possibility for change is irrelevant thus meaning design’s recognition of change would be insignificant, no ethical experience would be possible.140 In other words, if a structure existed framing the destiny of human existence, choice and ethics would not exist and you would only be judged by how you followed the rules, not question them. However, we do not live in a world that is predestined, though our actions upon it will dictate the future available to others. Dilnot and Fry’s arguments complement each other quite well. Both recognize the impact of the artificial (a.k.a. design) and suggest that is only design that can combat design. Fry claims, “We either support the status quo…or we choose a path of change. Change only occurs in two ways: by accident or by prefigured intent (which is de facto design).”141 It is this recognition that will allow us to critically analyze the situation we have built and the possibilities for changing them.

138 Fry, Design as Politics. 3.

139 Dilnot. Ethics? Design?. 16. 140 ibid. 18.

141 Fry, Design as Politics. viii.

Further, Dilnot’s discussion of actuality makes the claim that actuality is not just the ‘real’ or what we encounter as a given, but also the given’s ability for change.142 That is to say, “’Actuality’ names a comprehension of the real where we understand that the real that we encounter always includes, as an objective moment of its constitution, the possibility of its negotiation, transformation, or re-configuration.”143 This statement thus giving power to design for change. Design works through a series of negotiations as mentioned earlier in this thesis. The particular instances of negotiation relevant to material selection come down to choosing to use one material over another from one source or another. It is through this negotiation that designers have the ability to transform actuality.144 Designers have this “could be” mentality, however, in practice, this mentality can be hard to implement due to the unintentional “sins of omission.” These sins come from ignorance occurring in the material selection process and while material negotiation may seem like a menial task, it affects larger systems of social, economic, and political importance. It is true that what designers face in the pursuit of complete understanding of the factors related to material selection is quite extensive. However, as designers we must first and foremost understand our actualities in order to make informed decisions. It is this kind of mentality that must be at the forefront of every design decision no matter how menial it may seem. The actuality is our frame of existence and it is this frame that must

142 Dilnot. Ethics? Design?. 16. 143 ibid.

144 ibid.

be understood and transformed through design. This is what makes design political and through its choices an ethical practice. If it is said that design is the reason for our state of being, then it is fair to say that the education of designers has led to design being this way. Maybe for real change to occur it is our education of material selection and the culture that surrounds it that needs critique. David Brody’s writings are a good place to start with this critique. Brody’s analysis of labor in the hotel industry opens the discussion of design’s influence over labor. The design of the hotel’s operational system and the design of guest rooms and the objects that housekeepers interact with have an impact on the labor output of the housekeepers themselves.145 Brody’s explanation can also be applied to the labor that produces materials for designed objects and as such the education of materials needs to reflect this notion. Hillary Amster, Senior Program Manager at Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) agrees with this sentiment. Amster, who studied law with a focus on international human rights, understands first hand the difficulty designers face when encountering the magnitude of researching material sources. The understanding of material sourcing is still an emerging conversation shifting away from the normalization of ignorance of labor practices in material production. Shifting the designer’s focus and awareness from selecting materials for product functionality and aesthetics to material selection’s labor impact will make designers to become more conscientious. It is Amster’s role in RMI to help companies and individuals learn and prepare for the research and due diligence

145 Brody, Housekeeping by design.

needed for supply chain management. The process she and her team teach is valuable for designers. The process is a form of risk management of which design education could take note. RMI’s process begins by asking: what are the risks?146 While this thesis ideally suggests that all materials in a supply chain should be traced to their sources in order to fully understand the labor impact the design decision of material selection has, RMI acknowledges that this is something highly improbable. For this reason, RMI’s basis of educational change begins with sensing (which would mean one would need a deep knowledge of the industry and their company in order to identify risks) and prioritizing, which allows the company or individual to analyze their supply chain and identify points of risks.147 Once the risks are identified, Amster suggests analyzing what leverages are available, for example what sources can a company negotiate with more readily, and where the company or individual can have an impact on changing labor practices.148 This process offers designers a way to overcome the imposition of scale and the complexity of supply chain management that support the use of hidden labor through capitalist structures. By changing this mode of thinking, for designers must still work within the frameworks of capitalist structures, the education of designers is taken out of the service of capital where it reduces labor to a ‘use-value’ and reconceptualizes this education so designers stand as powerful vocal actors who are in a position to effectively

146

Hillary Amster, "Interview with Senior Program Manager, Responsible Minerals Initiative," telephone interview by author, March 23, 2018. 147 ibid. 148 ibid.

initiate large systematic mitigation.149 This is the same thing RMI is trying to teach through its risk management education. Design education needs to recognize the value of risk management and should teach designers to think in terms of the larger systems on which they have impact. The limitation of RMIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s process is that it in most instances comes after conflicted materials have passed through the supply chain and have been used in the production of the finished good. Because this retrospective analysis of the supply chain and material sources is a normalized process in the professional realm, it is up to design education to breed a more conscientious designer who is able to negotiate complexity and who is aware of the effect their material decisions have on these larger systems, lands, and people.150 Normalizing the teachings of risk management and designâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s influence on labor in education allows designers to approach the problem of material sourcing in a nonretrospective method, thus shifting the capitalistic paradigm that demotes laborâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s importance in the consumption of the finished good. For this shift to happen, designers need to be taught how to conduct research into material sourcing and the available tools that will aid in their research.

Knowledge Through Community Fully understanding material sourcing is a highly difficult task that takes a lot of time and resource allocation. To put it into perspective, I have gathered information from almost 100 sources in my research that at times can be disparate with the information provided, this does not include the 200 plus more sources that I have visited for 149 Fry, Becoming human by design. 214. 150

Fuad-luke, Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World. 72.

information that are not used in this thesis. This research included visiting several verified databases as well as gathering information from NGO websites and news articles. Even through all of these sources however, it was still difficult to find the information I really needed, information that connected specific materials to the mines or fields. Having experienced first hand what individuals working with material sourcing have to deal with, it is quite obvious that something is missing. For my experience, this missing element came from the question, where do I start? It was not until I received guidance from industry professionals that I was even remotely able to get on a path that led to any valuable information. Once I was on the right path, I was often lead to resources where paid membership was necessary. As an individual who wanted to learn more about material sourcing, I did not, however, have the financial means to do so, therefore joining these communities was out of the question. This led me to ask: if these organizations are truly concerned about material sourcing and want companies and individuals to follow responsible sourcing guidelines, then why is this information not readily available to everyone? If this were the case then more designers, especially those who are just beginning their journeys, would have access to valuable information that actually allows designers to truly make informed decisions about the material they use and source. This of course is a challenging feat, but something that could potentially change the way people think about the materials they use and the ways in which these materials are sourced.

There are knowledge base resources available that will aid in the designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision on material sourcing and while this thesis does not provide a comprehensive list of useful databases for all material sourcing considerations, it aims to at least provide options for starting research into material sourcing. For instance, nonprofits like the Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons have assembled a large amount of information on materials; in the case of the Healthy Materials Lab this information is of the material toxicity of building products for designers and architects to build healthier environments.151 Entities like this provide a means for designers to educate themselves on the toxicity of specific materials. However, this is only one aspect of material selection that needs to be addressed. Other databases have similar limitations, in which their focus is only on one portion of material knowledge. This should be the case, as it allows for more resources to correctly identify the issues the database is trying to research. But, for designers who are looking to become more conscious in their material selection that are unaware of these databasesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; information, making an informed decision becomes much more difficult and often discouraging. The Healthy Materials Lab is a good starting point for this kind of knowledge base. However, while the databases the Healthy Materials Lab have aggregated on their website do not show labor risks involved in sourcing, they contribute to the bigger picture of the ethical implications of material sourcing.

151

"About Us," Healthy Materials Lab, accessed November 3, 2017, https://healthymaterialslab.org/about.

There is no extensive resource that details every instance of labor risk involved in material sourcing. However, through my research I have made use of several helpful resources that can potentially be of assistance for those designers who are more interested in the impact they have on global labor. The first is RMI’s database of smelters that have been flagged as importing conflict minerals from the DRC. At the time of writing this thesis, the smelter database is only limited to the four conflict minerals (tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold – 3TG) mentioned in Section 1502 from the DRC, but RMI’s Senior Program Manager confirms that in June of 2018 the smelter database will extend its definition of high-risk area from only including the DRC to including all global areas of conflict.152 While this is still only limited to 3TG, with the addition of cobalt with this database update, it is showing a shift in the mentality of material sourcing. RMI generally provides a lot of the information gathered through their research to the public, however, there is a paid membership, which companies like Cree are take advantage of. This paid membership provides additional information on smelters and reasonable country of origin data, which allows the member to potentially trace their supply chain back further to its original source. There are several other resources that I have used or that will be available to designers in the future that are worth noting. The first is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) materials handbook with a list of 44 problematic materials that provides information on where you can learn about these materials and their risks. This is currently set to be released in late 2018 but a definitive 152 Amster, "Interview with Senior Program Manager, Responsible Minerals

Initiative."

date is not available. Another is the United States Department of Labor that aggregates a list of goods that are believed to come from forced or child labor sources. It can be a decent starting point for designers using the listed materials. Several nonprofit organizations provide insight into global labor issues as well including Human Rights Watch and the Enough Project. Additional information was gathered from numerous sources including government websites like the US Geological Survey, which is helpful in identifying typical country origins of minerals. The lack of comprehensive material databases shows a void in designersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ability to conduct research into material sources. However, as design education changes, the potentials of these databases could change as well. Tackling the issues of material sourcing, especially in relation to global labor practices, is still far from being accomplished. While these issues continue, designersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; impact on ethical labor practices from responsible material sourcing should not only rely on regulations that dictate what ethical considerations should happen. Instead, designers and design education should reflect a paradigm shift that always includes ethical labor and larger social and environmental considerations.

100

BIBLIOGRAPHY "About Us." Healthy Materials Lab. Accessed March 29, 2018. https://healthymaterialslab.org/about. "About." About | Kimberley Process. Accessed February 4, 2018. https://www.kimberleyprocess.com/en/about. "All About Gold Jewellery | Gold Carats | World Gold Council." World Gold Council - Gold Price & Gold Market News. Accessed March 1, 2018. https://www.gold.org/aboutgold/gold-jewellery. "Categories Display." Understanding REACH - ECHA. Accessed March 3, 2018. https://echa.europa.eu/regulations/reach/understanding-reach. "Conflict Minerals Regulation Explained." Trade - European Commission. Accessed March 15, 2018. http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/conflict-mineralsregulation/regulation-explained/. "Democratic Republic of Congo." The Enough Project. Accessed September 3, 2018. https://enoughproject.org/conflicts/congo. "KPCS Core Document." KPCS Core Document | Kimberley Process. Accessed March 1, 2018. https://www.kimberleyprocess.com/en/kpcs-core-document. "OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from ConflictAffected and High-Risk Areas." OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas - OECD. Accessed March 15, 2018. http://www.oecd.org/corporate/mne/mining.htm. "RoHS Guide." RoHS Compliance Guide: FAQ on RoHS Compliance. Accessed January 3, 2018. http://www.rohsguide.com/rohs-faq.htm. "SEPCO-Solar Lighting Blog." The Advantages of LED Lights for the Environment. Accessed March 3, 2018. https://www.sepco-solarlighting.com/blog/bid/145611/TheAdvantages-of-LED-Lights-for-the-Environment. "Tiffany & Co. - Tiffany T:Two Hinged Bracelet." Tiffany T Two Hinged Bracelet in 18k Gold, Medium. | Tiffany & Co. Accessed March 1, 2018. http://www.tiffany.com/jewelry/bracelets/tiffany-t-two-hinged-bracelet-GRP10373. "Uzbekistan: Some Workers Excused from Cotton Fields." Human Rights Watch. October 05, 2017. Accessed March 3, 2018. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/05/uzbekistansome-workers-excused-cotton-fields. Amnesty International. This Is What We Die For. Report no. INDEX: AFR 62/3183/2016. 2016. Amster, Hillary. "Interview with Senior Program Manager, Responsible Minerals Initiative." Telephone interview by author. March 23, 2018. Arendt, Hannah, and Margaret Canovan. The Human Condition. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Barry, Andrew. Material politics: disputes along the pipeline. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/apples-potential-cobalt-mining-play-is-about-morethan-money-experts.html. U.S. G.P.O. (2010) (enacted). United States Department of Labor. "Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor Uzbekistan." United States Department of Labor. December 12, 2017. Accessed March 3, 2018. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/uzbekistan. United States Department of Labor. List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor. September 30, 2016. Accessed February 25, 2018. https://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods/. United States Department of Labor. Uzbekistan: No Advancement – Efforts Made But Complicit in Force Child Labor. Report. 2016. United States Government Accountability Office. “Conflict Minerals: Information on Artisanal Mined Gold and Efforts to Encourage Responsible Sourcing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Report to Congressional Committees. (August, 2017). http://www.gao.gov/assets/690/686745.pdf. Wacket, Markus. "Diesel Cars Can Be Banned from German Cities, Court Rules." Reuters. February 27, 2018. Accessed March 3, 2018. https://www.reuters.com/article/usgermany-emissions/diesel-cars-can-be-banned-from-german-cities-court-rulesidUSKCN1GA2XD. Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, § 1502 (2010).

104

APPENDIX Appendix A: How the Congo Became a Portrait of Conflict To pinpoint an exact starting point for the problems of human rights abuses in the DRC would be nearly impossible. The DRC has faced a seemingly never-ending state of war since the early 1990s with the Ugandan army, the Hema people, and the Lendu people battling for control over the land.153 The Congoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s natural wealth of an estimated $24 trillion USD, a figure stated by the Enough Project, has created some of the determination for control.154 While the majority of the artisanal mines where 3T minerals can be found are largely outside of the control of armed forces, gold mines remain an issue with armed groups, militia, and the Congolese army retaining control. The northeastern corner of the DRC is where its richest gold fields lie.155 Since 1998, the start of the second Congolese war, the battle of control over gold mines and trade has caused significant fatality. The first gold was discovered in the Anglo River in 1903 by two Australian prospectors and it has been estimated that more than 400 tons of gold have been extracted from the area and still a significant amount remains.156 Peter H. Eichstaedt writes about one particular mine in his book Consuming the Congo that provides insight to the recent history faced by miners in the DRC. AngloGold

153

Eichstaedt, Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the Worlds Deadliest Place. 32. 154 "Democratic Republic of Congo," The Enough Project, , accessed September 3, 2017, https://enoughproject.org/conflicts/congo. 155 Democratic republic of Congo the curse of gold. New York, NY .: Human rights watch (HRW), 2005. 1. 156 ibid. 13-14.

105

Ashanti, a firm which still currently owns ten permits spanning an area of 1836km² in the Moto goldfields of the north east DRC in a shared venture with Randgold and the Congolese parastatal Société des Mines d'Or de Kilo-Moto (SOKIMO), is one of the largest gold producers in the world.157 Prior to the 1998 Congo war, AngloGold Ashanti also managed the Ashanti Goldfields Kilo, located in Kinshasa that at that time had been abandoned for the company’s inability to protect the mine from the Ugandan army that used the ethnic Lendu and Hema people (at varying times) to control the place.158 It was not until 2003 that the Ugandan army withdrew from the area and so called “political developments” made the area safe again.159 However, in 2004-2005 when AngloGold Ashanti tried to take command over the mine once more, the multitudes of artisanal small scale miners that roamed the mountains in the void of the company’s presence made it difficult.160 These artisanal miners had methods of refining the gold ore they found and these methods are still used by those in some mines located in Mongbwalu and Durba, also in the DRC. The whole mining and refining process is done by hand and as discovered from a Human Rights Watch researcher, these mines use mercury to make this process possible.161 Gold is refined by pounding the gold ore into grit using an iron bar. The grit is mixed with water and mercury that attracts the gold particles separating it from the 157 "Kibali Gold Mine," Randgoldresources, April 03, 2017, accessed December 09,

2017, http://www.randgoldresources.com/kibali-gold-mine.

158 Eichstaedt, Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the Worlds

Deadliest Place. 32. 159 ibid.

160 ibid. 32-33. 161 Democratic republic of Congo the curse of gold. New York, NY .: Human rights

watch (HRW), 2005. 54.

106

rock particles. Once the gold is separated from the rock particles then the gold and mercury are heated and the mercury evaporates leaving only gold in its stead. Elemental mercury is toxic to the central and peripheral nervous systems. Handling it with no type of safety precautions as found in these mines can be very harmful to the people who use it. Goldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s value at is mostly the reason it continues to be a big problem for the DRC. Even in small quantities, gold usually is a good candidate for illicit smuggling efforts, which can find their way into global supply chains in ways that cannot be feasibly traced back to the source.

107

Appendix B: U.S. Department of Labor List of Good Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor Country

Good

Exploitation Type

Afghanistan

Bricks

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Afghanistan

Carpets

Child Labor

Afghanistan

Coal

Child Labor

Afghanistan

Flowers (poppies)

Child Labor

Angola

Diamonds

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Argentina

Blueberries

Child Labor

Argentina

Bricks

Child Labor

Argentina

Cotton

Child Labor

Argentina

Garlic

Child Labor

Argentina

Garments

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Argentina

Grapes

Child Labor

Argentina

Olives

Child Labor

Argentina

Strawberries

Child Labor

Argentina

Tobacco

Child Labor

Argentina

Tomatoes

Child Labor

Argentina

Yerba Mate (stimulant plant) Child Labor

Azerbaijan

Cotton

Bangladesh

Bidis (hand-rolled cigarettes) Child Labor

Bangladesh

Bricks

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Dried Fish

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Bangladesh

Footwear

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Furniture (steel)

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Garments

Child Labor

108

Bangladesh

Glass

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Leather

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Matches

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Poultry

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Salt

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Shrimp

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Soap

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Textiles

Child Labor

Bangladesh

Textiles (jute)

Child Labor

Belize

Bananas

Child Labor

Belize

Citrus Fruits

Child Labor

Belize

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Benin

Cotton

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Benin

Granite (crushed)

Child Labor

Bolivia

Brazil Nuts/Chestnuts

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Bolivia

Bricks

Child Labor

Bolivia

Cattle

Forced Labor

Bolivia

Corn

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Bolivia

Gold

Child Labor

Bolivia

Peanuts

Forced Labor

Bolivia

Silver

Child Labor

Bolivia

Sugarcane

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Bolivia

Tin

Child Labor

Bolivia

Zinc

Child Labor

Brazil

Beef

Child Labor

Brazil

Bricks

Child Labor

109

Brazil

Cashews

Child Labor

Brazil

Cattle

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Brazil

Ceramics

Child Labor

Brazil

Charcoal

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Brazil

Cotton

Child Labor

Brazil

Footwear

Child Labor

Brazil

Garments

Forced Labor

Brazil

Manioc/Cassava

Child Labor

Brazil

Pineapples

Child Labor

Brazil

Rice

Child Labor

Brazil

Sisal

Child Labor

Brazil

Sugarcane

Forced Labor

Brazil

Timber

Forced Labor

Brazil

Tobacco

Child Labor

Burkina Faso

Cotton

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Burkina Faso

Gold

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Burkina Faso

Granite

Child Labor

Burma

Bamboo

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Burma

Beans (green, soy, yellow)

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Burma

Bricks

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Burma

Jade

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Burma

Palm Thatch

Forced Labor

Burma

Physic Nuts/Castor Beans

Forced Labor

Burma

Rice

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Burma

Rubber

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Burma

Rubies

Child Labor, Forced Labor

110

Burma

Sesame

Forced Labor

Burma

Shrimp

Forced Labor

Burma

Sugarcane

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Burma

Sunflowers

Forced Labor

Burma

Teak

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Cambodia

Alcoholic Beverages

Child Labor

Cambodia

Bricks

Child Labor

Cambodia

Cassava

Child Labor

Cambodia

Fish

Child Labor

Cambodia

Meat

Child Labor

Cambodia

Rubber

Child Labor

Cambodia

Salt

Child Labor

Cambodia

Shrimp

Child Labor

Cambodia

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Cambodia

Textiles

Child Labor

Cambodia

Timber

Child Labor

Cambodia

Tobacco

Child Labor

Cameroon

Cocoa

Child Labor

Central African Republic

Diamonds

Child Labor

Chad

Cattle

Child Labor

China

Artificial Flowers

Forced Labor

China

Bricks

Child Labor, Forced Labor

China

Christmas Decorations

Forced Labor

China

Coal

Forced Labor

China

Cotton

Child Labor, Forced Labor

China

Electronics

Child Labor, Forced Labor

111

China

Fireworks

Child Labor, Forced Labor

China

Footwear

Forced Labor

China

Garments

Forced Labor

China

Nails

Forced Labor

China

Textiles

Child Labor

China

Toys

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Colombia

Bricks (clay)

Child Labor

Colombia

Coal

Child Labor

Colombia

Coca (stimulant plant)

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Colombia

Coffee

Child Labor

Colombia

Emeralds

Child Labor

Colombia

Gold

Child Labor

Colombia

Pornography

Child Labor

Colombia

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Costa Rica

Cattle

Child Labor

Costa Rica

Coffee

Child Labor

Cote d'Ivoire

Cocoa

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Cote d'Ivoire

Coffee

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Democratic Republic of the Congo Tin ore (cassiterite)

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Democratic Republic of the Congo Tantalum ore (coltan)

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Democratic Republic of the Congo Copper

Child Labor

Democratic Republic of the Congo Diamonds

Child Labor

Democratic Republic of the Congo Cobalt ore (heterogenite)

Child Labor

Democratic Republic of the Congo Gold

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Democratic Republic of the Congo Tungsten ore (wolframite)

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Dominican Republic

Child Labor

Baked Goods

112

Dominican Republic

Coffee

Child Labor

Dominican Republic

Rice

Child Labor

Dominican Republic

Sugarcane

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Dominican Republic

Tomatoes

Child Labor

Ecuador

Bananas

Child Labor

Ecuador

Bricks

Child Labor

Ecuador

Flowers

Child Labor

Ecuador

Gold

Child Labor

Egypt

Cotton

Child Labor

Egypt

Stones (limestone)

Child Labor

El Salvador

Coffee

Child Labor

El Salvador

Fireworks

Child Labor

El Salvador

Shellfish

Child Labor

El Salvador

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Ethiopia

Cattle

Child Labor

Ethiopia

Gold

Child Labor

Ethiopia

Textiles (hand-woven)

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Ghana

Cocoa

Child Labor

Ghana

Fish

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Ghana

Gold

Child Labor

Ghana

Tilapia (fish)

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Guatemala

Broccoli

Child Labor

Guatemala

Coffee

Child Labor

Guatemala

Corn

Child Labor

Guatemala

Fireworks

Child Labor

Guatemala

Gravel (crushed stones)

Child Labor

113

Guatemala

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Guinea

Cashews

Child Labor

Guinea

Cocoa

Child Labor

Guinea

Coffee

Child Labor

Guinea

Diamonds

Child Labor

Guinea

Gold

Child Labor

Honduras

Coffee

Child Labor

Honduras

Lobsters

Child Labor

Honduras

Melons

Child Labor

India

Bidis (hand-rolled cigarettes) Child Labor

India

Brassware

Child Labor

India

Bricks

Child Labor, Forced Labor

India

Carpets

Child Labor, Forced Labor

India

Cotton

Child Labor

India

Cottonseed (hybrid)

Child Labor, Forced Labor

India

Embellished Textiles

Child Labor, Forced Labor

India

Fireworks

Child Labor

India

Footwear

Child Labor

India

Garments

Child Labor, Forced Labor

India

Gems

Child Labor

India

Glass Bangles

Child Labor

India

Incense (agarbatti)

Child Labor

India

Leather Goods/Accessories

Child Labor

India

Locks

Child Labor

India

Matches

Child Labor

India

Rice

Child Labor, Forced Labor

114

India

Silk Fabric

Child Labor

India

Silk Thread

Child Labor

India

Soccer Balls

Child Labor

India

Stones

Child Labor, Forced Labor

India

Sugarcane

Child Labor

India

Thread/Yarn

Child Labor

Indonesia

Fish

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Indonesia

Footwear (sandals)

Child Labor

Indonesia

Gold

Child Labor

Indonesia

Oil (palm)

Child Labor

Indonesia

Rubber

Child Labor

Indonesia

Tin

Child Labor

Indonesia

Tobacco

Child Labor

Iran

Bricks

Child Labor

Iran

Carpets

Child Labor

Kazakhstan

Cotton

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Kenya

Coffee

Child Labor

Kenya

Fish

Child Labor

Kenya

Miraa (stimulant plant)

Child Labor

Kenya

Rice

Child Labor

Kenya

Sisal

Child Labor

Kenya

Sand

Child Labor

Kenya

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Kenya

Tea

Child Labor

Kenya

Tobacco

Child Labor

Kyrgyz Republic

Cotton

Child Labor

115

Kyrgyz Republic

Tobacco

Child Labor

Lebanon

Potatoes

Child Labor

Lebanon

Tobacco

Child Labor

Lesotho

Cattle

Child Labor

Liberia

Diamonds

Child Labor

Liberia

Rubber

Child Labor

Madagascar

Sapphires

Child Labor

Madagascar

Stones

Child Labor

Madagascar

Vanilla

Child Labor

Malawi

Tea

Child Labor

Malawi

Tobacco

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Malaysia

Electronics

Forced Labor

Malaysia

Garments

Forced Labor

Malaysia

Oil (palm)

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Mali

Cotton

Child Labor

Mali

Gold

Child Labor

Mali

Rice

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Mauritania

Cattle

Child Labor

Mauritania

Goats

Child Labor

Mexico

Beans (green beans)

Child Labor

Mexico

Chile Peppers

Child Labor

Mexico

Coffee

Child Labor

Mexico

Cucumbers

Child Labor

Mexico

Eggplants

Child Labor

Mexico

Melons

Child Labor

Mexico

Onions

Child Labor

116

Mexico

Pornography

Child Labor

Mexico

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Mexico

Tobacco

Child Labor

Mexico

Tomatoes

Child Labor

Mongolia

Coal

Child Labor

Mongolia

Fluorspar (mineral)

Child Labor

Mongolia

Gold

Child Labor

Mozambique

Tobacco

Child Labor

Namibia

Cattle

Child Labor

Nepal

Bricks

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Nepal

Carpets

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Nepal

Embellished Textiles

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Nepal

Stones

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Nicaragua

Bananas

Child Labor

Nicaragua

Coffee

Child Labor

Nicaragua

Gold

Child Labor

Nicaragua

Gravel (crushed stones)

Child Labor

Nicaragua

Shellfish

Child Labor

Nicaragua

Stones (pumice)

Child Labor

Nicaragua

Tobacco

Child Labor

Niger

Cattle

Forced Labor

Niger

Gold

Child Labor

Niger

Gypsum (mineral)

Child Labor

Niger

Salt

Child Labor

Niger

Trona (mineral)

Child Labor

Nigeria

Cocoa

Child Labor, Forced Labor

117

Nigeria

Gold

Child Labor

Nigeria

Granite

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Nigeria

Gravel (crushed stones)

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Nigeria

Manioc/Cassava

Child Labor

Nigeria

Sand

Child Labor

North Korea

Bricks

Forced Labor

North Korea

Cement

Forced Labor

North Korea

Coal

Forced Labor

North Korea

Gold

Forced Labor

North Korea

Iron

Forced Labor

North Korea

Textiles

Forced Labor

North Korea

Timber

Forced Labor

Pakistan

Bricks

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Pakistan

Carpets

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Pakistan

Coal

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Pakistan

Cotton

Forced Labor

Pakistan

Glass Bangles

Child Labor

Pakistan

Leather

Child Labor

Pakistan

Sugarcane

Forced Labor

Pakistan

Surgical Instruments

Child Labor

Pakistan

Wheat

Forced Labor

Panama

Coffee

Child Labor

Panama

Melons

Child Labor

Panama

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Paraguay

Bricks

Child Labor

Paraguay

Cattle

Forced Labor

118

Paraguay

Cotton

Child Labor

Paraguay

Pornography

Child Labor

Paraguay

Stones (limestone)

Child Labor

Paraguay

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Peru

Brazil Nuts/Chestnuts

Forced Labor

Peru

Bricks

Child Labor

Peru

Coca (stimulant plant)

Child Labor

Peru

Fireworks

Child Labor

Peru

Fish

Child Labor

Peru

Gold

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Peru

Timber

Forced Labor

Philippines

Bananas

Child Labor

Philippines

Coconuts

Child Labor

Philippines

Corn

Child Labor

Philippines

Fashion Accessories

Child Labor

Philippines

Fish

Child Labor

Philippines

Gold

Child Labor

Philippines

Hogs

Child Labor

Philippines

Pornography

Child Labor

Philippines

Pyrotechnics

Child Labor

Philippines

Rice

Child Labor

Philippines

Rubber

Child Labor

Philippines

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Philippines

Tobacco

Child Labor

Russia

Pornography

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Rwanda

Tea

Child Labor

119

Senegal

Gold

Child Labor

Sierra Leone

Cocoa

Child Labor

Sierra Leone

Coffee

Child Labor

Sierra Leone

Diamonds

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Sierra Leone

Granite

Child Labor

Sierra Leone

Oil (Palm)

Child Labor

South Sudan

Cattle

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Sudan

Gold

Child Labor

Suriname

Gold

Child Labor

Tajikistan

Cotton

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Tanzania

Cloves

Child Labor

Tanzania

Coffee

Child Labor

Tanzania

Gold

Child Labor

Tanzania

Nile Perch (fish)

Child Labor

Tanzania

Sisal

Child Labor

Tanzania

Tanzanite (gems)

Child Labor

Tanzania

Tea

Child Labor

Tanzania

Tobacco

Child Labor

Thailand

Fish

Forced Labor

Thailand

Garments

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Thailand

Pornography

Child Labor

Thailand

Shrimp

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Thailand

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Turkey

Citrus Fruits

Child Labor

Turkey

Cotton

Child Labor

Turkey

Cumin

Child Labor

120

Turkey

Furniture

Child Labor

Turkey

Hazelnuts

Child Labor

Turkey

Peanuts

Child Labor

Turkey

Pulses (legumes)

Child Labor

Turkey

Sugar Beets

Child Labor

Turkmenistan

Cotton

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Uganda

Bricks

Child Labor

Uganda

Cattle

Child Labor

Uganda

Charcoal

Child Labor

Uganda

Coffee

Child Labor

Uganda

Fish

Child Labor

Uganda

Gold

Child Labor

Uganda

Rice

Child Labor

Uganda

Stones

Child Labor

Uganda

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Uganda

Tea

Child Labor

Uganda

Tobacco

Child Labor

Uganda

Vanilla

Child Labor

Ukraine

Coal

Child Labor

Ukraine

Pornography

Child Labor

Uzbekistan

Cotton

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Uzbekistan

Silk Cocoons

Forced Labor

Vietnam

Bricks

Child Labor

Vietnam

Cashews

Child Labor

Vietnam

Coffee

Child Labor

Vietnam

Fish

Child Labor

121

Vietnam

Footwear

Child Labor

Vietnam

Furniture

Child Labor

Vietnam

Garments

Child Labor, Forced Labor

Vietnam

Leather

Child Labor

Vietnam

Pepper

Child Labor

Vietnam

Rice

Child Labor

Vietnam

Rubber

Child Labor

Vietnam

Sugarcane

Child Labor

Vietnam

Tea

Child Labor

Vietnam

Textiles

Child Labor

Vietnam

Timber

Child Labor

Vietnam

Tobacco

Child Labor

Yemen

Fish

Child Labor

Zambia

Cattle

Child Labor

Zambia

Cotton

Child Labor

Zambia

Gems

Child Labor

Zambia

Stones

Child Labor

Zambia

Tobacco

Child Labor

122