Corporate Responsibility

We believe lasting improvements in supply chain standards can best be achieved through a combined industry effort.

We participate in the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and co-lead the organization's supply chain working group that is developing tools to assess and improve supply chain corporate responsibility practices. We have designed and implemented our program around the best practices identified by GeSI in collaboration with the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC).

In 2008, together with other GeSI and EICC members, we commissioned a study into environmental and labor issues associated with extraction of metals used in electronics products:

Social and environmental responsibility in metals supply to the electronic industry (116 pages; 1.66 MB)

Common industry tools
In 2008, suppliers began using e-TASC, the self-assessment tool developed by GeSI. Forty-seven suppliers completed self-assessment questionnaires for more than 65 facilities. This system enabled us to view the responses online and use the e-TASC risk assessment tool. Participating companies in the future will be able to view their suppliers' on-site audit results and corrective actions. Companies control who can view their information.

We participated in the GeSI / EICC pilot to develop common methods for joint auditing and selecting auditors. This initiative aims to reduce the audit burden on suppliers and customers by enabling sharing of assessment results. For example, a company that supplies five customers participating in the program would be audited once rather than five times. During phase one of the pilot, Motorola volunteered its manufacturing facility in Tianjin, China, for an assessment to test the joint audit process. Approximately 16 companies are participating in phase two, and several Motorola suppliers that supply the other participating companies also volunteered to be audited.