Actor Robin Wright produces film about conflict minerals in tech industry

Actor Robin Wright has produced a film in support of the #StandWithCongo campaign that aims to stop technology companies in the US taking mineral resources from the African country and fueling conflict in the area. “Conflict minerals” such as cobalt, coltain and tin from Congo are purchased from companies that often use child labour and whose profits can fund local militias. The film, called “When Elephants Fight,” will be shown on 50 university campuses in the US. Apple and Microsoft both claim they have put measures in place, including auditing their suppliers, to avoid the use of conflict minerals. Microsoft recently received an almost perfect score on a test relating to the use of such minerals.

A pink My Little Pony balloon does not usually evoke images of rifle-toting warlords in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Still, Party City Holdings, the decorations and costumes retailer, recently disclosed a possible link to securities regulators, helping to put it near the bottom of a list ranking companies on their compliance with laws against using minerals mined in war-torn regions across Africa.

Party City is just one of 1,262 companies that filed the required disclosures on their use of so-called conflict minerals. Ninety percent of those companies, including Microsoft, Apple, General Electric and Ford Motor, said they also might be using tainted supplies. Yet Party City landed near the bottom of a list compiled by Tulane University researchers that ranked the companies’ compliance records in this area, while giants like Microsoft achieved perfect scores.

“Anybody with a relative interest in ethical sourcing would be interested in this list,” said Matthew Whitteker, the marketing director for Assent Compliance, a software and services firm in Ottawa that commissioned the Tulane study. “For any company that manages this well, both Wall Street and Main Street will look at their brand favorably.”

The Tulane study is just one example of a growing business opportunity for consultants, auditors, lawyers and software firms looking to cash in on a complex provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that requires companies to disclose their use of conflict minerals “necessary to the functionality or production” of products they make or contract out for manufacturing.