Responsible Production & Consumption

Conflict Minerals SEC Filings Benchmarking Insights Released

Jul 21, 2016 2:35 PM ET

Yesterday, Source Intelligence released a benchmarking analysis Conflict Minerals Reporting. A Deeper Look Into RY2015 SEC Filings.

Analysts at Source Intelligence aggregated and benchmarked data year-over-year to provide key trends and insights on conflict minerals reporting.

In addition, Source Intelligence analyzed a sample of conflict mineral reports submitted by top-revenue firms across industries. The industry categories are as follows: Apparel, Retail, Manufacturing, Electronics, Oil & Gas, Business Services, Telecommunications, and Bio-Medical.

Of the sample group of companies analyzed, Source Intelligence discovered the following key findings:

  • 35% of companies described having an ethical sourcing grievance mechanism in place, such as anonymous hotlines or reporting websites. Employees along the supply chain have access to such mechanisms 24/7 and are enabled to report any issues such as non-compliance.

  • 35% of companies have implemented a training or education program, either for suppliers or compliance staff. Such training provides information such as the company’s compliance and reporting requirements, and how to implement the steps of fulfilling such requirements.

  • Roughly 33% of companies provided detailed, extensive tables listing all smelters utilized along the supply chain, including detailed descriptions such as smelter names, addresses, country, OECD risk level, and conflict-free certification.

  • Many companies reported experiencing difficulty in performing thorough reporting of conflict minerals status due to unresponsiveness of suppliers. 20% of companies reported having a reactionary program for unresponsive entities, such as spot audits, reconsidering of business relationships, or implementing specific reporting clauses in business contracts.

To read the full SEC Filings Benchmarking Analysis, visit here.