2021 January 29

Nordic Cities Demand Fair, Circular Smartphones

Major consumers of smartphones, the cities of Malmö, Oslo, Copenhagen, and Helsinki, with the support of Electronics Watch, ICLEI and the Procura+ European Sustainable Procurement Network, have launched a challenge to companies to provide fair and circular smartphones by 2025. The demand calls for fair and safe working conditions across the supply chain, from raw materials through manufacturing and disposal, improved transparency, and verification through certification and worker-driven monitoring.

Among other goals, the cities aspire to:

  • Use harmonised criteria and clauses to demand fair and safe working conditions and environmental sustainability across the entire supply chain including raw materials extraction, manufacturing and delivery stages as well as at repairing, reuse, recycling and disposal stages of smartphones and its components.
  • Increase of transparency of the supply chain and end-of-life, including locations and conditions of production.
  • Apply certification and worker-driven monitoring to contribute to circularity, environmental and social responsibility supported by regular dialogue for continuous improvement.
  • Use 2nd-life devices, which meet their needs for quantity, quality, and security.

The joint statement has been developed as part of the Make ICT Fair project over a period of six months in dialogue with suppliers, resellers and relevant third-party organisations, which emphasised that the ambitions of the statement can be achieved only through collaboration. If you are interested in learning more and to support the statement, please contact Josefine Hintz josefine.hintz@iclei.org.