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It seems as if high-profile privacy breaches are everywhere in the news these days. Snapchat made headlines earlier this year when hackers downloaded the phone numbers and usernames for as many as 4.6 million users, and the most recent data suggests that Target's December security lapse could affect up to one-third of the U.S. population.

With privacy issues still fresh in our minds, Deb Levine - founder and president of YTH, (which stands for youth+tech+health), the partner of choice for developing, evaluating and refining technology solutions that advance youth health and wellness, is bringing the conversation into another arena: mobile technology in the social good space. YTH has piloted dozens of mobile apps and text messaging services since its inception more than a decade ago - each tailored to the needs of specific groups of young people.

Its first endeavor in the mobile arena, SexINFO, was the first text messaging service ever created in the U.S. Originally developed to help the city of San Francisco quell a gonorrhea outbreak in local public schools, the service served its purpose and served it well. During the pilot phase, the organization observed a significant drop in gonorrhea rates, indicating that students used the service to obtain necessary information and get tested for the disease. As mobile technology advanced, YTH advised on two more modern services - Crisis Text Line and PPInfo - that provide similar information to young people across the country.

When handling such sensitive data, it's no surprise that privacy is a top concern for Levine. YTH entered the mobile space just as cell phones were starting to become ubiquitous, so their experience gives them a pretty good grasp on best practices when it comes to security, she told TriplePundit. But many nonprofits and social good organizations that aren't as familiar with security may be unknowingly putting users' data at risk.

"We really realized that a lot of startups and entrepreneurs and social good organizations have been venturing into the mobile app space," Levine said. "A lot of times they're dealing with very sensitive information and are not as savvy or thoughtful preemptively about the users of their technology, their privacy and their rights."

To boost security awareness in the mobile for good space, YTH is teaming up with the Vodafone Americas Foundation, Ford Foundation and ACLU of Northern California to compile research-based resources for nonprofits and social good organizations that are interested in developing mobile apps, text messaging services and mobile-first websites. The organizations already published a one-pager on mobile apps specifically for nonprofits, but Levine notes that privacy is equally important with something as seemingly simple as a text message line - calling text messaging "the universal app."

Maintaining security while doing good

If you're curious about what privacy best practices look like in the mobile space, take a look at the award-winning Circle of 6 app. Developed by YTH and recently transferred to the nonprofit Tech for Good, the app allows college students to select six people from their contact lists who will come to their aid in uncomfortable or potentially dangerous situations. After a user selects their "circle," he or she can reach out to chosen friends and relatives with one click in a perilous situation related to sexual assault or domestic violence.

The app clearly performs a crucial service and even won awards from the White House for its role in preventing sexual assault and domestic violence among young people, but privacy remained a key component in every step of the development process. When downloading the app, users are presented with a privacy policy in clear English - a refreshing departure from 10-page terms of service written in legalese - that tells them exactly when the app will access their contact list and GPS location. The app only accesses and retains the minimum user information necessary to function, and it does not share, sell or otherwise use that information except in performance of the app.

"Apps leave digital footprints for sure," Levine explained. "We were very careful to make sure that when you download the app, each user has to opt-in and consent to access their contact book, or their contact list, and also to access their GPS location."

Other YTH mobile services, such as Unete Latina - a text messaging service that connects Latina immigrants of all ages to Spanish-friendly health care and domestic violence services - also contain key privacy provisions to keep users' data safe.

Advice for social good organizations

Every app and mobile service requires some access to users' data to function properly, but notifying users in clear and direct language about how this data will be used can go a long way, Levine said. One simple thing nonprofits and social good agencies can do is to reduce long and wordy privacy statements - which are almost always ignored by users - to a simple text message detailing how and when personal information will be used, Levine advised.

"It's just being really clear and upfront about use of the data," Levine said. "Obviously we all have to have privacy statements on our websites and as part of our apps, but for the user interface [it's important] to really be clear up front."

After data use is made clear to users, it's then up to the organization to follow up with developers and make sure privacy guidelines are being strictly adhered to.

"You have to check with your developers and be sure that they're not checking off boxes that say that the data can be saved or the data can be used, let's say, by Android or by Apple for other purposes," she explained.

YTH will continue to work with Vodafone Americas Foundation this year to develop additional fact sheets around text messaging services, mobile websites and apps for nonprofits, startups and social good organizations. The organization will also disseminate findings on privacy at its annual conference, YTH Live, April 6–8 at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco.

Ed note: Vodafone Americas Foundation’s annual Wireless Innovation Project is now accepting grant applications from top innovators in the mobile technology field that have the potential to make a decisive change in the world. Applications for 2014 are due February 3rd!

Image of mobile phone courtesy of Vodafone

Image of youth at YTH Live 2013 courtesy of YTH

Based in Philadelphia, Mary Mazzoni is an editor at TriplePundit. She is also a  freelance journalist who frequently writes about sustainability, corporate social responsibility and clean tech. Her work has appeared on the Huffington Post, Sustainable Brands, Earth911 and The Daily Meal. You can follow her on Twitter @mary_mazzoni.

ExxonMobil is not the kind of company that throws money away. There’s always a plan behind its largesse.

When the oil giant stepped into a small Brooklyn library’s crowd-funding campaign in a big way, suspicions immediately arose about the motives of both sides—including whether Mellow Pages should accept the donation, and even whether it was real—and a somewhat complicated view of life in 2014 ensued.

Mellow Pages is an independently-run library and reading room located in Brooklyn, NY; it focuses on providing limited-print fiction and poetry to the neighborhoods of Bushwick, East Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
The story of how this unlikely pair found each other was told in a recent article in The Awl.

Mellow Pages, which was founded less than a year ago, has some 200 members who pay a small membership fee to help support its operation. Last fall the library held a $20,000 Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign aiming to raise rent and carrying costs for one year, but the campaign came up well short at about $5,200. Then in December ExxonMobil suddenly appeared with a “strange email.” The company offered to support Mellow Pages for 10 times the amount of funding raised by Indiegogo, according to the library’s founders.

The article continues: “That inconceivable bequest of $50,000 would fund the library’s rent for three years. And the best part: there were no strings attached. The offer was that the corporation would pay rent directly to the building’s landlord and nothing more.”

Was this a prank? Should Mellow Pages accept oil money? And there has to be a catch involved somewhere, right? The Lady or the Tiger? Door A or Door B? If it sounds too good to be true, it’s usually not true, right? The question was opened to the membership and the readership community; many recommended the library should take the money and run, while others said to just run because there are always strings attached to corporate money.

Last Wednesday, Mellow Pages said they wouldn’t be accepting the money, according to a report in International Business Times.

“The truth would be that we were afforded freedom at the cost of something else: ideas,” library co-founders Jacob Perkins and Matt Nelson wrote in a letter. “The amount of people within the community who want to figure out ways that this can be sidestepped or avoided is immense. We basically turn it inside-out by saying no.”

End of a weird encounter? Well no, it turns out that it gets even weirder: Exxon never offered the money.

"We have no record of any interaction whatsoever with this library," ExxonMobil spokesman Richard D. Keil was quoted in an email to IBT. "We first heard of this through media inquiries." He added, "The funding scenario the library describes in no way comports with the open and transparent way in which we make charitable and philanthropic donations."

Last Friday, the library finally fessed up: Perkins admitted the whole thing was a publicity stunt to a Brokelyn reporter, and "compared it to a rolling work of fiction that everyone was a part of."

It’s hard if not impossible to pull off a successful hoax when ExxonMobil is the target—after all, it is the expert at that sort of thing.

Image: Mellow Pages, from its website

A chemical spill in West Virginia last week cut off access to safe tap water across nine counties, and although it involved a chemical used by the coal industry, state officials have been pushing back strongly against suggestions by reporters that the disaster had anything to do with the state's dominant industry -- coal.

However, the fact is that the chemical industry is also very important to the West Virginia economy, and it is heavily entwined with the coal industry, which requires a substantial quantity of chemicals at various stages before it gets from the mine to its point of use.

Clearly, the spill -- which affected 300,000 people and shut down restaurants, schools, hospitals and hundreds of other businesses and institutions -- is closely related to the state's dependency on the coal industry, despite protestations to the contrary.

That, in turn, undermines the coal industry's insistent positioning of coal as a "clean" fuel. While new technology has reduced pollutants from burning coal, everything around the burn point is still status quo, from destructive mining to fly ash disposal.

With that scenario in mind, let's take a look at how the disaster is playing out in the local paper, the Charleston Gazette (highly recommended: follow reporter Ken Ward, Jr. on Twitter, @Kenwardjr).

The West Virginia chemical spill and the Koch connection

The industrialist Koch brothers have become notorious for their holdings in coal and other fossil fuels, their aggressive promotion of global warming denial and their efforts to monkeywrench environmental progress.

What hasn't garnered as much attention is their involvement in secondary industries on which the coal industry depends.

Charleston Gazette reporter David Gutman tracked down the Koch connection to the chemical spill in an article over the weekend titled "Freedom executive Kennedy had felonies."

The full article is worth a read for the insights it provides about the top executives for Freedom Industries, the company responsible for the spill, but the relevant detail involves the source of the company's chemicals.

The spill involved Crude MCHM, a foaming agent used to clean coal. According to Gutman, that's not the only coal-related chemical stored at Freedom Industries. The company is also a distributor for a line of coal processing chemicals called Talon, which is a product of the Koch company Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC.

Update 1:30PST 1/23: In 2008, GP selected Freedom Industries to distribute its Talon line of coal processing products, but Talon was not one of the products involved in the spill.

Update 8:40PST 1/23: Georgia Pacific has contacted us and many members of the media to let us know that none of their products were stored by Freedom Industries.

Nine counties, one water company

Another interesting coal-related point that has surfaced thanks to the Charleston Gazette is the trend toward greater reliance on a centralized, privately-owned water company in areas that traditionally relied on individual wells.

 

Reporter Ken Ward, Jr. provides a statement from the organization Appalachian Voices for some insight on that:

An increasing number of private wells in southwestern and central West Virginia, where the spill occurred, have been contaminated by decades of coal mining and processing. One result has been an ongoing expansion of municipal water systems to rural communities that would otherwise rely on well water.

A missed opportunity

Another key item unearthed by Ward occurred back in 2010, when the federally-managed U.S. Chemical Safety Board issued a set of urgent recommendations for state officials to improve the prevention of chemical accidents in the Kanawha Valley region, where Freedom Industries is located.

 

Here was the response, as reported by Ward:

...the proposal has gone nowhere. The state Department of Health and Human Resources hasn't stepped in to provide the legal authority the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department needs to start such a program. And Kanawha County officials never funded the plan, and seldom mention that the CSB recommendation was even made.

In terms of national news, the spill is already winding down, to the extent that Jason Linkins of The Huffington Post could find not one mention of it on the important Sunday morning news shows, although Bao-Bao, the new panda cub at the Smithsonian National Zoo, merited a mention.

 

However, the next time you see the words "clean coal," keep the West Virginia spill in mind.

Image (cropped): Georgia Pacific logo by dsearls

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As a lead-up to Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, Jan. 18-25, Masdar sponsored a blogging contest called “Engage: Cities and Sustainable Development.” The following post, a fictional piece set in 2050, was the winner.

By Tyler Caine

Associated Press – October 17th, 2050 – New York, NY
Yesterday afternoon, New York City’s administrators reported that the city has reached its goal of resource neutrality. This is a culmination of a multi-decade effort marred by numerous setbacks, including the Hurricane Katie in 2017 and Superstorm Heather in 2032. With less than two months before the end-of-the-year deadline, New York joins several international urban centers in completing the challenge set forth during the 2016 Sochi Accord. The Accord countered the once widely accepted practice of structuring cities as dense sinks of resources, requiring outlying rural and suburban land to survive.

​The Big Apple was not the first city to achieve its dynamic equilibrium with the biosphere, but it is the largest in the United States. Contrary to early 21st century beliefs, post-industrial cities provided the flexibility necessary to become resource neutral. Several cities have already surpassed the goals of the Sochi Accord and achieved the coveted “Net Positive” rating from the USGBC’s LEED "Mid-Millennium" rating system.

New York’s Mayor, Sasha Rodriguez, commented on the city’s long road. "The beginnings of success came from acknowledging the city as a system of systems. There was no silver bullet, but the exponential leaps in efficiency came from helping multiple systems evolve together and letting them benefit from each other’s progress."

Several technological advances also spurned advancement. The city migrated from exporting food waste to using it to produce energy that now powers hundreds of thousands of homes in the five boroughs. Additionally, the growth of 3-D printing now allows massive amounts of “resources” to never leave the island, with old products and packaging easily broken down and printed into new ones.

The mayor was quick to point out, "Hanging our hat on technology alone would never have gotten us here." From the beginning of the century, the city has returned 35 percent of its vehicular street grid (which once comprised 25 percent of the city’s acreage) back to its citizens in the form of pedestrian plazas, alternative transit and green space. "[That] alone helped reduce heat island temperatures, deplete stormwater runoff and reduce emissions – all of which had positive energy repercussions."

City Council Speaker Richard Kennedy was quick to admit that regulation played a subdued role. "We never wanted regulation to act as a ceiling, but rather as a foundation supporting innovation. Whether it was LED lighting, next-gen appliances, recycling, or standards of building envelopes, I think the times we used the regulatory path were more empowering than restrictive."

So when asked whether laws or technology was the most important to the city’s progress, Mayor Rodriguez smiled and shook her head. “Neither actually. The biggest challenge was a cultural understanding of what we were trying to achieve and deciding to do it. Recycling laws don’t make people recycle. Bike lanes don’t make people ride. This administration, and previous administrations, merely facilitated options for urban evolution and the citizens of New York responded. Realizing that 'sustainability' was not a technological fix for a wasteful lifestyle was a conscious cultural choice. The results, well, they speak for themselves."

Leaving with some encouraging words towards the prospects of future progress, Deputy Mayor Wesley Chang said, “Oh, we’re not at the end. The smaller cities started with a leg up, but there is still a lot out there to accomplish.” According to the administration, future efforts include more space for urban farming, completing the “Street CONNECT” renovation of the subway system and adding to the city’s coastline resiliency storm measures.

Tyler Caine is a LEED-accredited architect practicing in New York City as part of COOKFOX Architects. In addition to his own blog, InterconGreen.com, Caine’s writings have been featured on ArchDaily, Green Economy Post and the Sustainable Cities Collective.

Ford is taking another huge leap toward filling the void created by our lack of a national energy policy with the launch of its new F-150 pickup truck. Ford is stealing the spotlight at the North American International Auto Show by engineering a full-size pickup truck with an aluminum body. This is a bet-the-company move by Ford. The F-150 is both America's and Ford's vehicle sales leader. It has been the U.S. truck sales leader for 37 consecutive years. Losing this bet will rank with the Edsel. Winning it will be comparable to the success of the iconic Mustang.

Easing America's heartland into sustainability

The new F-150 delivers everything America's heartland loves about pickup trucks. This is a full-size truck. It screams tough. Ford's technology innovations underpin this visual impression. Its use of aluminum delivers "military grade" metal toughness. They claim their truck beds are now more dent-resistant than past steel trucks.

What an aluminum-alloy body also delivers is lighter weight. Ford claims cutting 700 pounds from last year's F-150 without sacrificing size. Reduced vehicle weight means increased carrying and towing capacity. It also means higher fuel economy.

Ford's new Eco-boost 2.7 liter V6 will further push up fuel savings. This engine has the horsepower and torque of a mid-sized V-8. While MPG performance has not been released, the combination of less weight and a more efficient engine should catapult the F-150 into fuel efficiency levels that previously could only be achieved by small pickups.

And the new F-150 delivers American jobs. The F-150 will be manufactured in Ford's Dearborn Truck Plant and its Kansas City Assembly Plant.

Can the F-150 bring America together?

America's pickup trucks are one of our cultural icons that embody the "don't trend on me" American spirit. The top three selling vehicles in the U.S. were pickup trucks last year. It has become the American technology path for making a personal statement, raising a family, and enjoying our love for hunting, fishing and boating. If the U.S. is going to embrace any form of a national energy policy to achieve energy independence and craft climate change solutions, it will require a solution to America's love of full-size pickup trucks. Ford has opened the door to this potential with the F-150.

The F-150 delivers on consumers' expectation of wanting it all. They want big trucks. They want fuel economy. They demand strong performance. Ford promotes the F-150 as their toughest, smartest and most capable truck. It also might become a symbol that we can come together on sustainability through technology innovation and vision, as demonstrated by Ford's big bet on the new F-150.

Image credit: Bill Roth

Bill Roth is an economist and the founder of Earth 2017 He coaches business owners and leaders on proven best practices in pricing, marketing and operations that make money and create a positive difference. His book, The Secret Green Sauce, profiles business case studies of pioneering best practices that are proven to win customers and grow product revenues. Follow him on Twitter: @earth2017.

In the second of our series Can Beauty be Benign, writer Holly Dawson talks to Carry Somers, founder and M.D. of Pachacuti, about what it means to run a truly ethical business.

There’s ethical fashion – and then there’s Pachacuti. The Derby, England-based label was one of the original Fair Trade trailblazers back in 1992 and remains the only ethical producer of genuine Panama hats. Since then, it has continued, as its name translates, to turn the "world upside down." It was the first company globally to have its entire supply chain audited and approved by the World Fair Trade Organization's SFTMS certification.

This is all due to founder and M.D., Carry Somers, whose determination and vision has seen the company thrive through recessions, death threats, armed robbery and Ecuador’s changing socioeconomic landscape.

Somers’ next groundbreaking project is Fashion Revolution Day, launched to mark the anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster on April 14. To find out more, visit Fashion Revolution or follow @Fash_Rev on Twitter - where you can ask the question, "Who made my clothes?"

We caught up with her at Estethica at London Fashion Week, where Pachacuti was showcasing its new collection, including Panamas influenced by utilitarian servicewear and a new line of ethical fascinators.

Holly Dawson: Carry, you have been in the industry for so long. What advice do you have for upcoming ethical businesses and fashion companies?

Carry Somers: Firstly, I think it’s really important to show other designers that it is economically viable to have an ethical business. We have been going for 21 years, and we have always been profitable. Secondly, when it comes to Fair Trade or similar approaches, you must remember it is not a destination – it’s a process. We are constantly working to make our process more robust, beyond criteria or ticking boxes.

HD: Do you have an example of that?

CS: We recently plotted the GPS coordinates of every weaver, so you can actually see on the map where each hat was made. This was no mean feat, especially considering only 45 percent of the homes are accessible by boat. People talk about traceability – that’s what it meant to us.

HD: What’s most critical for your ethos – people or planet?

CS: People or planet? You can’t separate them! Although there is a common perception that Fair Trade is just social, not environmental. It has been stigmatized through some of the more well-known examples of Fair Trade, such as Fair Price coffee. There’s a real lack of understanding that Fair Trade actually covers 10 principles, of which environment is one.

HD: How does that influence the design process, compared with mainstream fashion companies?

CS: We have to be very much producer- and production-led, whereas other designers can be more fashion-focused. We have long lead times and can’t be so responsive to trends. It’s an advantage that we specialize in a classic item, but there are things we want to try sometimes, like the new fascinator collection, where we just have to be more patient than other designers.

HD: So how much of what you do is decided by the producers themselves?

CS: Almost everything. We do regular surveys with all our weavers to find out their time and expertise level, and that influences what we can make. For instance, we know from speaking to the women that they can weave coloured hats faster than plain ones, because of their poor eyesight and because they are often working at night. This also means it is easier for them to produce lower-grade hats. We are led by their capacity.

HD: Does this ever cause difficulties?

CS: The women are getting older – the average age of our weavers is now 56. Volume is also limited by the number of people in the association – an increasing issue, because fewer people have, or want to use, these traditional skills.

HD: How do you deal with that?

CS: We need to bring in more young people to keep the industry alive, but young people dream of migrating to America. They pay extortionate loans to coyotes believing they will get to the U.S. We are working with communities to create more incentives to stay, especially now [that] UNESCO has designated the craft of Panama hat-making an Intangible Cultural Heritage.

HD: What are your other main challenges?

CS: The challenge of Fair Trade is really the management aspect of our producers. The women's organizations are democratic, which results in a lot of change of management, meaning we lose all our orders and have to start from scratch. You know it’ll happen every year, sometimes less. It’s hard to put plans in place.

HD: How do you tackle that?

CS: We are trying to teach about the importance of continuity. We know a new administration is starting in January, so we have developed a manual with pictures, which shows you where to go for everything. For example, new hat blocks, this is the taxi driver that will take you to this place, etc.

HD: How do you handle the 'profit' part of the triple bottom line?

CS: I am just very careful about how to spend money. Starting in a recession [in 1992] makes you very conscious of money. I do all the accounting myself. I keep our costs to a minimum – we use public transport, for instance – but all our employees are paid really well and are happy in their work. Ultimately, all the money goes back into production.

Holly Dawson is editorial director of Ethical SEO, a digital communications consultancy based in the heart of the English countryside.  She spends her days supporting good people to do interesting things online and thrive in the connection economy.

Global investment manager BlackRock has launched the BlackRock Developed World ex Tobacco Index Fund to meet demand from organisations in the healthcare sector, charities, medical foundations and pension schemes.

The fund assists investors seeking to tailor their socially responsible investment strategies by providing a low cost exposure to global equity markets whilst also excluding stocks in the tobacco and controversial weapons sectors from their portfolios.

Doug Shaw, head of BlackRock’s Charities Business, said: “Many investors, not least UK charities, want to invest in a way which is consistent with their own ethos and values. BlackRock’s indexing expertise and long history of working with charities, health and life insurers have come together to provide this new low-cost fund designed to meet the demands of investors to gain global equity market exposure whilst screening out certain sectors".

The fund’s benchmark is the MSCI World ex Tobacco ex Controversial Weapons Index. The exclusion of tobacco and controversial weapons sectors in the fund will lead to small changes in country allocations, performance and dividend yield compared to the MSCI World Index.

The fund is part of BlackRock’s range of index solutions, which has £1.1 trillion of assets under management globally. BlackRock’s charities business is one of the largest investors of ethical active and passive funds in the UK and has over 5,000 clients. It offers a range of investment funds which follow socially responsible strategies and an individual portfolio management service for larger charities.

 Picture credit: © Royen0822 | Dreamstime Stock Photos

Lawsuits are piling up against the Cambodian trade unions that called garment workers out on strike over low wages.

Tens of thousands of union members had downed tools on 24 December 2013. When they returned to work on 10 January 2014, demonstrations of support were staged at embassies and other locations worldwide.

The employers have reacted with lawsuits accusing the unions of inciting strikes, damaging property and assets and coercing and threatening employees who wished to work. More than 150 factories are already taking action and more cases are being prepared, said Khieu Sambo, a lawyer for the employers.

Cambodia’s garment industry employs more than 500,000 and is worth €3.38bn ($4.62bn, £2.8bn) a year, representing about 95% of the country’s exports. One reason for the legal action is that the Garment Manufacturers’ Association calculates the strike cost the industry $200m (£121m, €146m) and fears it could lose Western customers, including Adidas, Gap, H&M Hennes & Mauritz, Nike and Puma, through lack of competitiveness.

Chea Mony, president of one of the defendant unions, insisted the cases would be contested. He said: “They sued us because they want to intimidate us so that we won’t strike any more and we won’t help the workers. We are not afraid.”

The unions’ demonstrations backing demands for a doubling of the $80 monthly minimum wage had been crushed violently by the police and the military. Estimates of the number killed ranged from three to five, and up to 40 were hurt. At least 23 demonstrators were reported detained in an isolated prison.

This month the minimum wage was raised to $100 – and the government has banned workers’ demonstrations.
The regime’s crackdown on the demonstrations has been met with protest from labour rights groups, unions and the fashion industry worldwide.

Sam Rainsy, the opposition leader in Cambodia’s parliament, urged Western clothing companies to be responsible when buying. He said: “Check if there is any drop of blood in the garment they intend to buy.”

Gap responded: “We strongly oppose any form of violence and urge the government of Cambodia to drive negotiations among stakeholders to peacefully resolve this dispute.”

Jeroen Merk, an official of the Clean Clothes Campaign, the Netherlands-based alliance working for responsible conduct in the garment sector, said: “Whilst our primary concern is the safety and well-being of those workers who have been detained, we are also calling on brands to look at the long-term implications of their purchasing practices.

“Until brands recognise that these practices contribute to the poverty wages received by workers in Cambodia, and in turn the demonstrations we are witnessing, then no brand sourcing from Cambodia can claim to be acting fairly or decently.”

Seven Western companies have voiced their condemnation of the violence in an open letter to the Cambodian government, but the Clean Clothes Campaign has urged them to add demands for the detainees’ release, the restoration of workers’ rights and substantial wage rises, and to pay fair prices for goods.

However, Douglas Clayton, founder and chief executive of Leopard Capital, a private equity company that invests in frontier markets, said pessimistically: “There will always be another low-cost labour source somewhere.

“Western brands will do the minimum response required to avoid negative publicity. They know that most Western shoppers care more about value than values.”

 

Picture credit: © Maxsaf | Dreamstime.com

 

Intel, the world’s largest electronic chip maker, is now excluding all minerals mined in conflict zones from its products.

Much of the gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum used in electronic devices is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring sub-Saharan countries where production and trading are controlled by armed groups and human rights are abused.

Intel’s decision comes ahead of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which becomes effective in May and compels companies to confirm in their filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that their supply chains are free of conflict minerals.

The new policy was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month by Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich. “We felt an obligation to implement changes in our supply chain to ensure that our business and our products were not inadvertently funding human atrocities,” said Krzanich.

The decision is in line with Intel’s membership of the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative run by the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, which encourages environmental and ethical responsibility.

Mark Morley, director of industry marketing for manufacturing at the GXS global supply chain consultancy, said: “Intel’s pledge … to make chips free of conflict minerals serves as an inspiration to the industry.  

“An effective community management platform will be vital to ensure that companies can adhere to government legislation like the Dodd-Frank law.”

At the same time Intel has decided to replace the McAfee anti-virus brand name with Intel Security, thus severing the connection with the software founder John McAfee, who is having legal problems and has admitted extensive drug use.

McAfee’s response: “I am now everlastingly grateful to Intel for freeing me from this terrible association with the worst software on the planet.”
 

Think of it as another practice run for local and federal crisis management. The chemical spill into the Elk River that breached the containment walls of one of Charleston, W.Va’s largest industries last week has closed schools, stopped commercial flights and converted the state capitol’s downtown core to a “ghost town.” It’s also painted an unnervingly clear picture of what can happen to a city’s infrastructure when a chemical spill shuts down its main commercial facilities.

After evidence of 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol (MCHM), a foaming agent that is used to clean coal of impurities, was picked up by local water distribution plant West Virginia American Water last Thursday, state and county officials went into high drive to alert some 300,0000 residents of the pollution and to close access to drinking water. Hotels shut off water and warned residents not to use tap water to drink, bathe or wash their clothes until the alert was lifted. Restaurants closed, unable to wash dishes or supply coffee. WiFi-equipped facilities, stores and commercial services lost business.

A state of emergency was declared Thursday by Gov. Earl Ray Tomlin, and the National Guard was called in immediately to assist with distributing bottled water. Following assessment by state and county authorities, President Obama issued an emergency declaration on Friday. The declaration will free up a variety of federal programs and resources to help with local needs.

But what neither the state nor federal authorities have been able to do is to return business to Charleston’s otherwise active commercial core. Dining is at the heart of Charleston’s tourism business, with more than a dozen restaurants centered in and around the affected area. The spill has also cut short much of the travel opportunities to the city, with hotels and bed and breakfast inns unable to provide any safe washing facilities. After the tap water ban went into effect, commercial flights were suspended temporarily due to an agreement between airlines and a flight crew union that requires certain levels of service to be available at travel destinations. Some flights have not been reinstated.

According to Charleston’s Convention and Visitor Bureau, approximately 66 percent of the state’s population lies within 500 miles of the city, which is a tourism destination due to its year-round outdoor activities. It is also near popular fly-fishing locations on the Elk River.

The tap water ban affects nine counties in a widespread area west of the spill. Authorities aren’t saying how long the water ban will last, but while daily measurements show the chemical is decreasing in the water source, there is still a concern of toxic leaching from the shoreline. Readings must be consistently below one part-per-million. State officials haven’t released the current levels, but said as of this weekend that they may still have a ways to go before the ban could be lifted.

MCHM is toxic if inhaled, ingested or exposed to the skin. According to information released to the public by Eastman, which manufactures and sells the product, no information was available about acute symptoms of ingestion. However, information supplied by the National Institutes of Health website Toxnet contradicts this.  According to federal law, Freedom Industries was required to file a report with the state’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management on the status of the toxic chemical. At the present time, there has been no official comment issued on the status of that report, but the MCHM was found to be leaking from a container. The company did not have a permit to discharge the chemical into the river.

Local agencies and media outlets have been publishing a number of advisories to help residents cope with the water ban, including facilities outside the nine counties that have laundromats, restaurants and other facilities to use. The average drive is about 35 miles. Television station WOWK-TV has been publishing a list of places to obtain drinking water both in the state capitol and other municipalities in the nine counties, and businesses outside the affected area have opened their doors to assist with showers and water access.

While authorities are confident that levels of MCHM will decrease in the drinking source and the water ban will be lifted, there has been no statement yet on the environmental effects of the leak, which officials estimate at more than 7,000 gallons.

Photo credits: With gratitude to Foo Conner, Charleston, W.Va.