(Ecns.cn) – U.S. technology giant Apple has been accused by a Chinese environmental group of turning a blind eye to rampant pollution created by factories contracted to make Apple products in China. The company has also not disclosed the names and locations of its local suppliers.
When Tim Cook replaced Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple Inc, he received a special "present" from China: a 46-page report. That report, delivered last Wednesday, listed the results of the investigations made by five non-governmental organizations under the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPEA), documenting pollution from dozens of "suspected" Apple suppliers throughout China.
It was the second such report from China, in which 22 enterprises believed to make Apple products had failed to properly dispose of hazardous waste. The combined reports bring the total number of Apple suppliers with environmental problems to 27.
As a digital empire with the world's largest market capitalization, a shadow now looms over Apple, which has avoided taking responsibility for pollution and a dangerous supply chain abroad.
Protecting business, not people
In Kunshan, a city in east China's Jiangsu Province, air pollution from two electronics factories has prompted nearby residents to send their children to faraway schools. Most of the area's inhabitants are migrant workers who bought apartments there after years of saving. Several years ago, they could only be called villagers, but gradually 24 households in Kunshan earned the official status of "residents."
But according to these "lucky" residents, cancer rates have increased since two factories were established there, namely Kaedar Electronics (Kunshan) and Unimicron Electronics. Analysts say that Unimicron and Pegatron, the parent company of Kaedar, are suppliers to Apple, but could not confirm if Kaedar was.
Apple would not say whether the individual companies were its suppliers or not.
Since 2007, the IPEA has proposed and advocated green production to many leading enterprises in different fields, including the IT industry. Most brands have cooperated in a positive manner, but Apple's action has been notably minimal. In one of its responses to the institute, Apple said that its long-term policy was protecting the information of its suppliers.
Meanwhile, Apple products have become increasingly popular, causing the company to expand its supply chain in China. This had led to the creation of yet more pollution and accidents, including the explosion at Foxconn's Hongfujin Chengdu iPad2 manufacturing plant on May 20, which killed three workers and injured 15.
It was subsequently revealed that the plant's eight buildings, covering 250 mu (more than 166,000 square meters), had been constructed in only 76 days. According to the analysis in the report, controlling pollution and ensuring safety would've been a huge challenge when working at such a rapid pace. There were also questions about how the company could have cleared Apple's auditing process.
After Apple refused to make its supplier information public, the IPEA began trying to determine Apple's suppliers through news reports and the company's annual reports as a listed company. After about half a year's work, the institute uncovered Kaedar's dirty secret in Kunshan, and also happened to discover that Unimicron was an Apple factory.
