In the past few years, a company has taken on a very ambitious mission: producing and selling a phone that is made from materials acquired under good conditions in order to promote a fairer world economy. Fairphone describes itself as a “social enterprise with the goal of creating a fairer economy.” Driven more by ethics than by profit, the Fairphone may be of a lot of interest to people who care about the social values the company is fighting for. Learn more about the product and the company below.
The origin of Fairphone
The Fairphone company began by opening up supply chains to learn how things were made and build connections between people and the products they purchase. The goal of the Fairphone is to take on challenging issues involving the production of technology and foster discussion about what is good and right and fair. The business wishes to, more than make a few dollars, change how products are commonly made. The Fairphone’s website outlines what it describes as the road to a fairer phone. Here are a few of the steps.- The Conflict-Free Tin Initiative kicked off in 2012
- The Fairphone partnered with Closing the Loop to address recycling
- The Fairphone participated in the responsible sourcing of minerals
- The first Fairphone cost breakdown was conducted
- The first Fairphones with tin were officially certified conflict-free
- Training Guohong factory to introduce the concept of Worker Welfare was completed
- The first Design A Day challenge kicked off for Fairphone 3D-printed cases in July 2014
- 3D-printed cases became available for local printing
- The newest model of the Fairphone readies for a Summer 2015 release
How a Fairphone is “fair"
Fairphone has five main areas in which it will try to instigate social impact. Those are:- Mining: Fairphone wants to source materials from local economies rather than from armed militias. That effort started with acquisition conflict-free minerals from the DR Congo.
- Design: The Fairphone is meant to last longer than the average smartphone so that buyers don’t have to keep buying new ones that might lead to extra harm to the environment.
- Manufacturing: Factory workers receive safe conditions, fair wages and worker representation.
- Life Cycle: Similar to the design efforts, the company is determined for the Fairphone to be reusable and recyclable to not cause any unnecessary damage to the environment.
- Social Entrepreneurship: The transparency of the business ensures that it won’t turn into a company fueled by big payouts, but rather be held extremely accountable by its customers in case they ever stray from the mission they were born out of.
