Alliance seeks to ensure that minerals used in electronics manufacturing do not come from suppliers who violate human rights.

The Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) is the world’s largest industry coalition dedicated to corporate social responsibility in global supply chains. Members of the alliance, like Zilia, commit to meet all the requirements of its code, which has 5 pillars: Ethics, Labor, Health and Safety, Environment and Management System.

The management of mineral conflicts falls within the Ethics pillar, under the Responsible Management of Minerals requirement. The policy was set to ensure that minerals such as tantalum, tin, tungsten, gold, cobalt and mica, which are raw materials used in the manufacture of electronic components, do not directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups that commit serious human rights violations. 

“The violence and human rights violations that unfortunately happen in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and bordering countries is sustained in part by financing the trade in these certain minerals,” explains Laércio Sanches, Zilia’s ESG manager.

Responsible Minerals Initiative

Founded in 2008, by members of the RBA and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), the Responsible Minerals Initiative audits management systems and sourcing practices to validate compliance with standards set by the RMI and current global standards. 

The audit ensures a seal of compliance for so-called smelters, companies also known as refineries or smelters, who process ores and recycle and scrap these refined metals or metals containing intermediates. It is these companies that supply pure metals, bars, grains, oxides, or salts to electronics manufacturers around the world. 

In addition to the seal, RMI has a Conflict Minerals Notification Template (CMRT and EMRT), designed to provide accurate information to its customers about the mineral’s country of origin and the smelters and refiners they use.

“One of Zilia’s values is to act with purpose. Attending to these practices, we are, constantly, strengthening our due diligence capabilities and processes, through RMI, to identify the source of minerals used in the company’s products, committed to improving over time our ability to track conflict minerals in our supply chain, following the strictest global compliance policies on the subject,” explains Laércio.

The dissemination of ESG practices by Zilia 

Since 2016, Zilia has been applying RMI certification to its suppliers as a requirement, strengthening the company’s commitment to the supply chain. 

This commitment covers not only environmental issues, but also goes towards social responsibility and ethics, points that are part of the values embedded in Zilia, such as acting with purpose and promoting progress. 
Raising consumers’ awareness is essential to support this action that needs to gain more and more space within companies, making employees part of this fight.

Training held by Zilia at SENAI Bragança Paulista.

With this objective, Zilia holds awareness lectures for young people who are part of institutions associated to the company, such as SENAI and CIEE, approaching this important theme that provides the visualization of a worrisome scenario but that is heading towards a more favorable position.

Zilia understands that the participation of these young people of learning age is of fundamental importance, since they are the ones who will assume a decision making position in the future and continue these management activities, acting in the different work fronts in their lives, thus collaborating for a better world.