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Case Study

Product stewardship in the ICT industry: The use of coltan in mobile phones

By Ulrich Steger, Alexander Nick and Aileen Ionescu-Somers

5 pages

December 2006

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Reference: IMD-2-0121

The ICT industry is using tantalum from Congo, namely Coltan, in its mobile phones. Public attention has lost momentum in the last years, yet the problem is still very much on the table: How to ensure that mobile phones are not connected to the bloody war and environmental destruction in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And further: Should global business address political sensitive questions and aim for a regulated coltan mining and export?

Keywords

Corporate Sustainability Management, Coltan, Information Technology, Communication Technology

Settings

Western Europe, Democratic Republic of Congo
2005

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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