The Value of Alignment Toward Zero Exposure

A safe, healthy work environment is a basic human right.

Protecting workers from exposure to toxic chemicals requires collective action.

The complexity of electronics manufacturing supply chains means no single company can solve these problems alone. Suppliers serve multiple customers; brands share multiple suppliers. Only by working together can these companies move toward zero exposure of workers to toxic chemicals.

It’s the right thing to do.

And it is the right way to do business.

As we embark on a new decade of instant global transparency, companies are compelled to focus more than ever before on protecting workers in their own facilities and throughout complex, often multinational supply chains.

Aligning the practices, tools and priorities not only makes protecting workers more achievable, such coordination also stands to boost efficiency and ease documentation, strengthening the credibility of progress being made to protect workers.

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Workplace Rights are Human Rights

·        Toward Zero Exposure is guided by the principle that workers deserve to actively participate in protecting their health.

·        Workers are among the groups considered “especially at risk,” of exposure to toxic and hazardous substances, according to the United Nations. The UN Office of the High Commissioner has identified businesses’ poisoning of workers with toxic substances as a human rights abuse.

·        The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights asks enterprises to gauge human rights risks in their own businesses as well as among their business relationships.

·        The program fosters systems and culture where all workers are knowledgeable about potential hazards and are empowered to speak up for their own and others’ safety.

·        Protect workers from exposure to priority chemicals in the electronics supply chain, prioritizing elimination or substitution with safer alternatives and protecting workers until that is achieved.

·        At least one worker dies at least every 30 seconds from exposure to toxic substances, according to the International Labour Organization, the UN agency which sets labor standards and promotes decent work for all women and men. The financial cost of occupational disease may be as much as 4 percent of global GDP.  

Credibility Through Commitment and Accountability

·        By making the commitment, companies publicly indicate that they value worker safety.

·        Company actions are guided in a structured program with researched and pragmatic activities backed by the credibility of industry leaders and NGOs.

·        The Toward Zero Exposure program includes clear documentation on progress including benchmarks, milestones and deadlines for program activities.

·        Participating in the commitment program provides a forum and a structure to communicate and receive recognition for the work companies do to protect workers from hazardous process chemicals.

·        Consumers and investors increasingly see worker health and safety as an imperative.

The Power of Alignment

- ·        By joining this group of leaders, companies proactively move the electronics industry to a safer supply chain, a shift that no single company could achieve alone. Acting together lowers the risk, expense and operational complexity of this journey.

·        The benefits of protecting workers from hazardous process chemicals are broad and systemic, so a unified approach is appropriate and beneficial.

·        Sending a unified market signal to chemical suppliers will incentivize them to offer more products that meet evolving requirements.

Superior Safety Unlocks Superior Operations

 ·        The Toward Zero Exposure program’s tools were developed to optimize and streamline the complex and time-consuming tasks of monitoring, documenting and communicating process chemicals data.

·        Operationally, supply-chain participants will realize efficiencies in their processes by working within a unified playbook of preferred chemicals and practices shared among their counterparts up and downstream.

·        Companies with excellent health and safety practices see advantages in day-to-day operations and recruitment and retention.

·        The program equips companies to be proactive about intensifying regulatory and purchasing requirements on process chemicals.