Sony’s Vision: More Than Just Profits?

Companies in this day and age take more than just profits to run. Now business is a forever-evolving landscape to which all firms need to adapt to, in order to survive and thrive. Today I will be looking at Sony and how they are a shining example of Corporate Social Responsibility within the tech industry. Sony has broken down the CSR into multiple categories, and those being: product responsibility, responsible sourcing, and human resources.

In product responsibility, Sony has a “Sony Pledge of Quality.” Within this pledge they have set forth a “commitment to ‘respect our customers’ viewpoints in striving to deliver product quality and customer service that exceed their expectations.'” (read more about their Sony Pledge of Quality) Sony makes an active effort to control the quality of all their products so their consumers will buy their products because they trust Sony, and in turn the shareholders are happy because the company is showing success and they make more money. Also their suppliers are positively effected by this because Sony is willing to go out of their way to have a better product. To accompany their continuing efforts to improve product quality, Sony is striving to improve how responsive it is when it comes to their customer service capabilities. You can personally see this as a consumer when you attempt to contact them personally here. Sony also makes an effort to make sure they source their products responsibly.

When it comes to Supply Chain Management, Sony approaches it from two perspectives. In the words of Sony, “One relates to materials procurement procedures and involves creating and maintaining sound business partnerships with suppliers, regarded as Sony’s stakeholders, in line not only with relevant laws and regulations but also with internal policies. The other relates to production processes and involves providing the necessary support to realize CSR from such standpoints as the environment, human rights and labor conditions.” (read more here) Besides the raw material needed for their products, Sony also addresses the issues related to the environment, labor, and human rights. Since this is such an expansive topic that Sony, as a firm, has a lot to say about I will link this here, and if you want to find out more feel free to read it there. When you read around the report they put out for their firm, it is quite detailed and mostly detailed around the procurement of raw materials and how important it is that they are not from conflict zones (where Apple fell by the wayside when reporting last weeks post).

When it comes to Sony’s employees they make strides to make sure they provide a corporate environment that all would like to work. Most importantly they begin the discussion with “diversity.” Here is what Sony has to say about that,
“Diversity refers to a variety of characteristics that encompass race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, beliefs, disabilities, gender, age, birthplace, sexual orientation, viewpoints and work style, and activities that foster an inclusive workplace. Sony promotes diversity across the Sony Group as a key management strategy by ensuring an inclusive work environment and by recruiting, hiring, training and promoting employees from diverse backgrounds.” (find out more here) Not only that but Sony allows for room to grow and hire within their firm by allowing for training and development of their own employees.

Sony has made great efforts to make sure that profits are not their only factor when it comes to making a decision. Hopefully this post has shed some more light on the corporation.

Stay tuned to hear more about the tech industry with Technological Responsibilities.

Google’s Impact Around the World

Today’s post will take a look at a technology company that understands the importance of CSR and is utilizing it every day in their corporate strategy.  Google has been a worldwide leader in technology since its founding in 1998, but the company was also recently named the number one CSR company in world by Forbes. This ranking came about because of their continued focus on improving the world around them while also providing a product that we all use. This is the statement that Google published on their website about why they feel CSR is so important.

“We hope that by leveraging our own strengths and resources in-country, we will raise awareness of the importance of corporate philanthropy, and encourage society to participate in and contribute to the development of social responsibility.” – (Google)

Google implements three campaigns to help them reach this goal and they each focus on a different area of philanthropy.

The first is Google China Social Innovation Cup for College Students a program that is aimed at empowering China’s Youth through a CSR competition. Each yeah Google receives thousands of applications from schools throughout the world pitching ideas on how to solve social problems within China. The top 36 proposals are selected and Google provides the capital and resources needed to make the projects come to life. This competition has helped to correct Social issues including education, poverty alleviation, disability aid, healthcare, women and children, arts and culture, and community development. It is now in its 5^th year and the program has already made an impact within China.

In addition to the China Social Innovation Cup, Google is also a large donor to the earthquake relief efforts around the world. Their biggest effort was focused on the 8.0 magnitude that hit China in 2008 and destroyed thousands of buildings. In order to help with the recovery efforts Google and its employees raised over $18 million and donated another $7 million in free services to China. The majority of this money was used to rebuild 15 schools throughout the country that allowed 18,000+ students to return to school.

Finally in addition to the other two programs outlined above Google is known for their grant program in which they donate money to organizations around the world. The full list of grants and Google’s other CSR activities can be found here.

Stay tuned for more posts, and if you liked what you read, follow Technological Responsibility on Facebook and on Twitter!

Cisco’s responsibility to its employees

In tech industry, Cisco is another great corporation that is socially responsible and consider CSR as the core of their business.

Cisco Systems Inc. is an American multinational corporation founded in 1984. It’s headquarter is in San Jose, California. Cisco’s main business is designing, manufacturing and selling network equipment. Their most popular products are wifi routers. If you have never heard of Cisco, check out your wifi router at home, it might be from this company!

Just like most companies in IT industry, Cisco took its time to grow and develop in about first 20 years of it’ life. Only after becoming a large corporation in providing network equipment, that it decided to focus more on it’s own social responsibility.

According to Cisco’s CSR report, Cisco recognizes that creating vale for customers, society and environment strengthens their business. “We believe that Cisco has a responsibility to conduct our business in ways that benefit global communities and the environment, and we believe that our technology is a powerful enabler in transforming lives”, as Cisco’s CEO states.

Cisco’s CSR strategy focus on four large sections:

• Supply chain: working with their partners on ethics in production and labor
• People: focusing on ethics issues in a working place and create chances of development for their employees.
• Society: bringing back to society through campaigns in education, healthcare and other human needs.
• Environment: improving production system to reduce the impact on the environment.

In this article, I would like to focus more on “Our people” section of the Cisco CSR strategy, because in previous posts we didn’t mention much about how companies are being responsible to  their own employees.

Cisco understands that one of the keys to a success in business is taking care of their own employees and workers. For a long time, they have been focusing on creating a great place to work, to provide development opportunities as well as a “comprehensive portfolio of employee offerings and differentiated benefits”.

“Our values represent how our employees work together. When we all focus on our values, we’re able to make them come to life for Cisco. That influences out ability to provide great customer service, deliver on out brand promise, and make Cisco a great place to work”. Kanthleen Weslock, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer.

Below are the main key points behind Cisco’s “Our people” campaign:

• Working together: Cisco is encouraging employees to communicate and be collaborative with each other to achieve best working results.
• A Safe and Healthy Work Environment: Company is providing a safe working environment with focus on health and wellbeing of employees.
• An inclusive and diverse culture: As a corporation with diverse workforce, Cisco tries its best to create a valued and respectful working place for everybody.
• Providing Training and development opportunities: Cisco offers many opportunities in training and development, helping employees in building their career with Cisco.
• Rewarding our people: To encourage and motivate employees, Cisco created the rewarding system with wide-ranging benefits and rewarding packages.

Being constant with the 5 keys above, Cisco reached many remarkable achievements. With Cisco’s efforts in creating a respected working environment, 86% of employees felt that their teams value diversity. By 2013, 89% of employees are proud to work at Cisco. It also ranked number 42 on the Fortune “100 best companies to work for” list.

Those are just a few specific things Cisco achieved by being responsible with their employees, not mentioning the uncountable benefits they had directly on business operations. Good employees has been proven to lead to a successful business, and that is the reason for the growth of Cisco in the last decades.

You can check Cisco’s CSR report here for more information about their “Our people” campaign.

Stay tuned for more posts, and remember to follow Technological Responsibility on Facebook and on Twitter.

A New Business Model

Here at Technological Responsibility it is our mission to share with you not only all of the up to date stories on social responsible technology companies but also some of the companies that are continuously taking responsible actions.  Today’s post will dive into the later. We will look at a firm with a business model built around improving the local and global communities through a wide range of responsible actions.

Namaste Solar a turn-key solar power company engineering, designing, and installing solar panels for homes, businesses & governments, does exactly that. Namaste Solar’s mission “is to propagate the responsible use of solar energy, pioneer conscientious business practices, and create holistic wealth for ourselves and our community.” This mission statement makes it clear that their goal is not to be the most profitable company; instead they are focused on the betterment of the community. Namaste Solar works to better the stakeholders and not just the shareholders.

So how does Namaste Solar accomplish this goal? One of the largest influences of this mission comes from their Employee-Ownership Model. This model makes employees more than just staff members.  It allows employees to become co-owners of the business. Co-Ownership gives these employees a vote in executive decisions and a greater sense of pride in the company. By having an equal say in the company operations and decisions, the employees feel as if the company is their own and work harder to deliver a quality product that will benefit the customer as well as the company.  Another way Namaste Solar gives back is through donations. Each year Namaste donates 20% of its solar profits to local nonprofits. This report shows just how committed they are to this goal and outlays how much they have given to each of these nonprofits.

When you thought Namaste couldn’t be any more sustainable and socially responsible, you are wrong. Namaste Solar also works tirelessly to improve their sustainability. Based on their Zero-Waste Initiatives, Namaste Solar recycles or reuses 90% of their office supplies. They have bins in their warehouses and offices for:

• scrap wood and pallets
• scrap metals
• bare and insulated wire scraps
• bubble-wrap and Styrofoam peanuts
• plastic shrink-wrap
• paper and plastic grocery bags
• plastic hardware bags
• computers
• electronics
• IT equipment
• hard-block foam
• durable plastics
• batteries
• fluorescent light tubes.

They recycle and reuse pretty much anything that comes through their building.

 

Check out the video and links below to learn more about Namaste Solar and their efforts to be socially responsible and sustainable. If you found this story interesting follow our blog for similar stories.

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on all of Technological Responsibility’s stories.

 

 

Providing Sight to Everyone Regardless of Income

Smartcane is a technology firm based in New Dehli, India that is looking to give back to people who struggle with sight. The video posted below demonstrates the new innovative technology that uses a sonar stick to help the blind “see” what they could never with a normal cane. The new Smartcane will be able to help provide information about objects above the knee! At first glance it seems that this is just a normal breakthrough in science that will come at a high price, but Technological Responsibility wouldn’t be covering such an exciting story if there wasn’t some corporate social responsibility behind it. Smartcane will be retailing for the extraordinary price of 3,000 rupees, or $50! To give some comparison, there is another company based out of South Korea that has developed a similar product known as Ultracane, but that product retails for $1,000, placing “it firmly out of reach of many in developing countries” (Senthilingam 1). Smartcane is looking to help those who are not only financially elite, but also those less fortunate as well. “The goal for Balakrishnan and his team, however, had been a low-cost technology to provide independence to the 15 million people estimated to be blind in India, where blindness is a national health priority” (Senthilingam 1). It is amazing to see a company looking to help a country in desperate need for a health issue that has been noted as a national health crisis in India.

According to Professor M. Balakrishnan from the Indian Institute of Technology, the mind behind the company, “there are 5 million people estimated to be blind who are of productive age and need independent mobility to work or go to school and be part of the mainstream” (1). The above video was made to show that a college student shouldn’t suffer just because they cannot see. Currently, Smartcane is only in production for the Indian public, but it is the plan of the company to gain 50 partners and “bring independence to all the visually impaired people not only in India, but eventually beyond the country to benefit other low-income populations” (Senthilingam 1).

My personal opinion is that more companies should act like Smartcane. They are not profit focused at all, and are solely looking to benefit the public. If more companies addressed national crisis with the mindset of Smartcane, less people would be suffering, and many doors of potential would be unlocked. It almost seems selfless what Smartcane is doing, and that is more than commendable. This is clearly a company that is focused on giving back with CSR firmly apart of their business plan.

For more information about Smartcane, visit their website here. Special thanks to Meera Senthilingam, a writer from CNN who provided a great article about Smartcane’s plan. Look to CNN to see the full article about Smartcane.

Stay tuned for more posts, and if you liked what you read, follow Technological Responsibility on Facebook and on Twitter!

Eco friendly phone by Nokia

Eco friendly phone by Nokia

Nowadays, most of people use mobile phones. It is not only a calling device anymore, it is becoming smarter, more convenient, and a powerful tool that everybody needs in their daily life. As phone industry grow, more people start using phones, and many of them start to change their phones more frequently. According to Gartner, in Q3 of 2013, 456 million phones were sold and 55% of them were smartphones. And that is just for a quarter alone! This proves how phone industry is rising during recent years, and it does not seem like this increasing trend will stop anytime soon.

However along with the growth of phone industry, another problem grows as well: the environmental problem. As report shows, most of the phones are made of chemical that are bad for environment. What is worse is that on average, each phone contains 4.5 pounds of toxic material, including copper, beryllium, lithium, lead, mercury… and other types. In addition to that, most cell phones consumed are harder disassemble and are not recycled properly. Through time, this can cause enormous effects on environment including climate change and global warming. Moreover, as more people use mobile phones, more energy is consumed, and that leads to potential environmental problems as well.

Cell phone producers realized that they can make a change, become more responsible by fixing the environmental issue of cell phones. And that is when the concept of eco-friendly phone, a phone that is environmentally friendly, came up. As a one of the biggest cell phone producer of all times, Nokia was one of the very first corporations to embrace and develop this concept.

 

 

Sustainability, and being socially responsible have always been the core of Nokia’s business. Nokia really put efforts on the trying to make a “green” phone, and below are some strategies that they used:

• Changes in material: An average phone contains 4,5 pounds of toxic and other bad chemicals, so the 1^st thing to think about when you are trying to make a green phone is to solve this issue. In many cell phones, Nokia replaced those chemicals with other material that can be recycled or better for environment like bio plastic, recycled plastic or recycled metal. For example, its Nokia 700 doesn’t contains substances like PVC, brominated flame retardants or other brominated compounds.
• Making better charges: many people has a bad a habit, that is leaving phone on charge even if it is fully charged, which can lead to energy waste. Over the last decade, Nokia made phones with charges that bleep after the phone is fully charged, and this helped reducing no – load power consumption of charges by over 80%, saving a huge amount of energy.
• Screens: Nokia, and many other producers, is trying to improve screen technology so it can become brighter and as energy efficient as possible. Nokia was also one of the 1^st corporations to add a light sensor to their screen, so the screen can adjust the brightness based on the light condition, which of course saves a lot of energy as well.
• Packaging: Packing products with 100% recyclable material become the priority for many corporations all over the world, including Nokia. Moreover, companies also try to reduce the material required for packing their products. By 2005 and 2010, Nokia have reduced the paper consumption by 240.000 tons just by changing the way they pack the product.
• Recycling old phones: along with making phones with mostly recyclable material, Nokia also had many programs that encourage people to recycle their old phones. One of them giving a discount by a point system if you give your old Nokia phone for a recycling.

 

By strongly following the strategies above, Nokia produced many phones that were in the list of most eco-friendly phones in the world.

Maybe Nokia’s effort were not known by most people, but silently, it really made a big difference. Nowadays, more and more companies are following this trend, and mobile phones are becoming friendlier to the environment. Next time you buy a new phone, be wise and choose a phone that is eco – friendly, so you can support the responsible producer and make this world a better place yourself.

 

 

A Slippery Slope

We have a commitment at Technological Responsibility to shed light on current Tech CSR news, but also to explore the career landscape for individuals who prioritize their social values. Today’s post, unfortunately, is not an article full of sharp answers and gleaming insight. We would like to open a discussion and will likely have more questions than answers.

When looking at a tech company you are interested in working for, it is always good to look at the companies values, look at their social track record, and see if they are a morally responsible company. Problematically though, it will always be a slippery slope for reasons I would like to outline for you: child labor, civil rights atrocities, and other terrible corporate acts are overwhelmingly seen in commodities and manufacturing. Given that, it follows that almost every companies’ product will have touch points and manufacturing processes that are tainted by the injustices of the commodities markets that are the lifeblood of industry. How far down the list of manufacturing, independent contracting, outsourced parts and processes, etc can we go down and say that a company is knowingly and intentionally engaging in immoral practices?

This question is exemplified in today’s tech industry especially with the recent allegations towards Samsung. Following a third party audit that found no child labor violations, a watch group has accused Samsung of violations regarding a supplier that employed children using fake ID’s as part of a manufacturing process. While Samsung has shown assertiveness in responding the allegations in a responsible manner, the question is still raised of whether Samsung can be held responsible for violations pertaining to third party suppliers and manufacturers?

The Department of Labor released a list of 128 products that most commonly use child labor and some of the worst cases are in Gold, Tabaco, Cocoa, Coal, and almost 60% coming from agriculture. It is easy to relate child labor to Nike, but do you think about it when you buy groceries or fill up your gas tank? Chevron, an oil and gas company, has been not only accused of child labor, but assassination and intentional toxic waste dumping.

This graph shows the percentage of the labor force that is between the age of 5 and 14 throughout different areas of the world. I choose to insert this graph because it brings home how severe this issue is. It is something to keep in mind as you consider working for or purchasing from companies that do business in these geographic areas.

A lot of the ambiguity surrounding this issue stems from the problem that poor practices in commodities are not in the public spotlight and are lacking awareness. We all remember the uproar around Nike and their use of sweat shops. Boycotts and public outrage had a very real effect on the company’s brand. Besides Nike, a long list of tech corporations like Apple, IBM, Sony, and more have been shown to engage in things like exploitative child labor. The unfortunate trend is that the only companies that really feel the burn are the ones that are exposed to the wrath of consumer and activist group scrutiny. What we see is that companies with consumer products like Apple are held to a higher standard due to their public visibility. If we pull back the veil of consumer products, we see a dark treasure chest of horrendous labor offenses in commodities and manufacturing that are sheltered from every day public scrutiny.

For values minded employees in the job market, we must all ask ourselves how we measure and evaluate the companies we engage with on a daily basis. Where is the line drawn for you?

A look at the Impact of CSR in Kenya

At Technological Responsibility we strive to educate existing and future technology professionals about the impact that corporate social responsibility has on society and the industry as a whole. In order to accomplish this goal, today’s blog will look at the impact that Microsoft and Digital Data Divide’s CSR campaign had on the community of Nairobi Kenya.  We believe that understanding the effects of this campaign is important because according to a report by Neilson, “CSR speaks to who the company is, what it believes in and how it is doing business.  Companies that are able to get recognition for the softer sides of their business are on the right path to building a sustainable business for the future” (Forbes). Microsoft was recently ranked number one in the world for their corporate social responsibility efforts and the work they are doing to improve their community has helped them grow their business as well.

At the end of 2011 Microsoft provided Digital Data Divide with a $250,000 software grant in order for them to start operations. Digital Data Divide is a Kenya based social enterprise that trains and employs underprivileged high school graduates with hopes of training them to move out of poverty into higher paying technology jobs. Microsoft provided them with this grant in order to give back to the community and help create a new group of technology minded students within Africa. The graph below show the impact that Microsoft’s software grant had on the local community in Kenya.

Their efforts helped to eliminate 13% of the youth unemployment in the area because they were able to train Kenyan high school students and provide them with technology jobs. Additionally the funding that was provided by Microsoft allowed an additional 11% of the youth population to receive scholarships to attend secondary schools. Ultimately Microsoft was able to make a significant impact in the daily lives of Kenyan Youth with a relatively small software grant. To learn more about the grant and how it impacted Kenya read the study here.

This was just one example of how Microsoft is making an impact through CSR around the world. If you would like to read more about their efforts and how CSR could benefit your business read Microsoft’s annual Citizenship Report.

The Tech Industry is Booming! Job Openings Put the Employee in the Driver’s Seat

The technology industry is one of the hottest and fastest growing industries of this decade. Everyday new jobs are opening with high paying salaries. So the question you should be asking yourself is why? Not surprisingly, the answer is CSR!

Gabrielle Nicolet’s article notes that, “according to Universum’s latest global rankings, Google and Apple are the most appealing places to work by undergraduates with a business or engineering degree on their resume” (Nicoelt 1). It is apparent that companies that focus on their employees are the ones with the most recent graduate applications. A company that is willing to enrich its employees is the company that people want to work for now. As Kyle Ewing said, “students are interested in making an impact and tackling big problems, and they want an environment that empowers them to do that” (Nicoelt 1). With these tech giants allowing for employees to flourish in their environment, they attract multiple candidates. They are clearly focused on the employee, a sign of their commitment to CSR campaigns. To read more about Ms. Nicolet’s article, click here.

Job	Salary	Unemployment	Job Openings
Software Developer	$90,060	2.80%	139,000
Computer Systems Analyst	$79,680	3.60%	127,700
Web Developer	$62,500	4.20%	28,500
Information Security Analyst	$86,170	0.90%	27,400
Database Administrator	$77,080	3.60%	17,900
Mechanical Engineer	$80,580	3.10%	11,600

I created the above table from information provided by Evan Taylor’s piece in US News. The Tech industry is booming and currently has unemployment rates south of 5% in most job categories. This applies to all companies and is an indicator that the employee is now in control. With thousands of jobs opening each year, companies have had to try harder to appeal to potential employees with CSR related actions. This includes more intrinsic awards instead of extrinsic. Although the higher salary figure is nice, it is not what employees care about. They are more concerned about the environment the company provides and the reputation that goes along with their brand. Employees have the power to drive this action due to the need for them. To read more about Evan Taylor’s piece click here.

According to a study done by TMP, “The Information Technology Industry Employment Trend reports on Indeed.com reveals since August 2010, the volume of technology jobs has steadily increased by 60% from one year ago — and this has held month over month through October 2010” (Jappel 1). The constant growth of the industry has resulted in companies needing to focus more on retaining their employees. They need to act in responsible ways to appeal to keeping the employees happy. “The attraction strategy for Technology candidates will need to step up for employers to successfully fill those growing openings, with quality candidates soon to have many options to choose from. On the flip side, retention is another focus to employ before your talent walks out the door – to prove to them why they should stay” (Jappel 1). In order to “prove” to them to stay, companies have acted by bettering their corporate image and focusing more on CSR. Check out the article here.

Make sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Apple Does CSR… Well?

The technology industry is faced with many questionable decisions, and Apple is no different from any other corporation in this industry. Apple has built a reputation  upon their beloved products. They range from beautiful laptops crafted from a single block of aluminum, Macbooks, all the way to their widely-loved iPhones. Since people love Apple and their product most of their negative decisions that effect CSR gets swept under the rug, and not everything is, as it seems. Technological Responsibilities goal here is to supply, you, the consumer/potential employee with information to arm you with the knowledge you will need in this day and age. We want to provide the consumer with unbiased and effective information.

Now before we dive into the negative decisions let us look at Apple’s positive CSR. Like their environmental efforts are almost second to none when it comes to the technology industry. Here are some examples of their environmental efforts in CSR:

• The iCloud is powered exclusively on renewable energy. (Find out more here)
• Apple on Wednesday published an Environmental Responsibility Report covering fiscal 2014, outlining steps the company has taken to reduce impact on climate change, use green materials in its products and conserve resources. (Find out more here)

This is all wonderful and fine and dandy; however, Technological Responsibilities’ goals are “to educate existing and future professionals in multiple technology sectors on the impact that corporate social responsibility has on society and the technology industry as a whole. The goal of our blog is to provide these professionals with information about which corporations are making a splash due to their corporate social responsibility efforts.”(From our blog mission statement) To stay unbiased we can’t just report on companies’ like Apple’s positive CSR efforts, we also have to see where they fell by the wayside.

To begin this discussion on where Apple fell by the wayside, they have been coming under fire for their material acquisition and their suppliers’ treatment of their employees. Now to see what Apple has to say “officially” about their suppliers, I have linked it here. However when you look into their CSR almost 90% of the links show up as “Environmental Responsibility.” Go ahead, Google, Apple Corporate Responsibility (or click the link).

Foxconn is one of Apple’s suppliers based out of China; however, most people will remember them from the news being the company that experiences surges of employee suicides. The picture below is of anti-suicide nets they have installed all around their facility.

 

After much criticism Apple has started a program to put their suppliers under investigation to reduce these questionable practices:

“Apple discovered three facilities that had previously hired 15-year-old workers in countries where the minimum age for employment is 16.  Across the three facilities, our auditors found records of 11 workers who had been hired prior to reaching the legal age, although the workers were no longer underage or no longer in active employment at the time of our audit.  One facility attempted to conceal evidence of historical cases of underage labor.  Two other facilities presented falsified records that concealed evidence of violations of Apple’s Code regarding working hours and days of rest.” – See more at: DailyTech

Also I mentioned material acquisition as being one of Apple’s weak points in CSR. Apple published a report in 2012 talking about their acquisition of conflict minerals to help make some of their products:

“The consumer electronics giant, one of many companies subject to a June 2 deadline to file reports on what are called “conflict minerals,” reported that 21 smelters and refiners were identified as sources of minerals that originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or adjoining countries. Most of the fighting has taken place in the DRC.

Of those 21 suppliers, Apple said, 17 were found to have gone through third-party audits to track the sources of their materials. The remaining four haven’t yet undertaken an audit.” (WSJ 2012)

Now that I have talked about what Apple has done well with CSR in the tech industry as well as what has fell by the wayside for them. I hope if you are seeking employment with Apple or are thinking about the consumer electronics sector of the tech industry, keep all these things in mind. Because not everything is, as it seems.