The Movement to Ban Conflict Metals: It Can and Will Impact the Electronics Industry
Friday, October 8, 2010, 10:00 am-11:00 am (Central time)

Tony Hilvers and Fern Abrams, IPC
Kay Nimmo, ITRI

This presentation will provide you with an overview of the initiatives to boycott conflict metals, and industry and government efforts to address the problem. Whether it is through customer requirements or compliance with new legislative requirements, it is a sure bet that these initiatives will impact every level of the electronics supply chain.

Electronics manufacturers and their customers are increasingly under pressure from human rights groups and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to stop using “conflict metals.” They are brought to market through illegal mining of tin, cobalt, gold and tantalum ores by militias and criminals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to finance violence and atrocities. Placing restrictions on these key product ingredients will present tremendous challenges to the industry.

What You Will Learn

• Examples of how legislation will require SEC reporting for all products containing tin, gold, colbalt and tantalum
• OEM initiatives being organized by the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition and the Global eSustainability Initiative whose members include industry leaders Apple, Cisco, Celestica, Dell, Ericson, Foxconn, Flextronics, HP, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Jabil, Motorola, Nokia, Phillips, RIM, Samsung, Sanmina-SCI, Sony, and Sun
• Plans for the International Tin Research Institute (ITRI) Tin Supply Chain Initiative to provide transparency and accountability concerning the supply of raw materials coming from the conflict zones of the DRC
  
  

About the Instructors

Anthony (Tony) Hilvers is vice president of industry programs for IPC. He is responsible for market research, government relations and environmental policy, trade shows and events, PCB and electronics assembly management councils, the PCB suppliers council and the Surface Mount Equipment Manufacturers Council. He has a master's degree from the University of Iowa, attended Northwestern University’s School of Business, and is also a registered lobbyist.

Fern Abrams is the director of government relations and environmental policy for IPC. She is responsible for advocating member positions in the areas of environment, health and safety, as well as tax, trade, intellectual property and other regulatory issues.  Current activities focus on lead-free and other materials restrictions, hazardous waste and environmental reporting and record keeping.

Kay Nimmo is the Environmental Affairs Manager at ITRI, with responsibilities covering legislative, environmental and toxicological matters surrounding the support of tin as a sustainable metal for the future: the ITRI Sustainability program, the REACH Consortia and the ITRI Supply Chain Initiative. Kay graduated from the University of Birmingham, England with a BSc in Metallurgy and Materials Science and joined the metallurgy department of the Cookson Technology Centre, where she gained invaluable experience in a variety of projects related to electronics materials and substitution of hazardous materials. Kay joined ITRI in 1995 as Manager of the Solder and Metallurgy Group.