Hewlett Packard's Global Citizenship site analyzes conflict minerals within the global supply chain for ICT gear. "The minerals supply chain is long, complex, and involves several layers: from mining, through in-country traders and exporters, to smelters, refiners/metal exchanges/alloy producers, and finally to component and other manufacturers (see graphic). The smelter is a critical control point, because it is the stage where minerals from many sources are processed to produce a refined metal."

HP's response: "We are setting clear expectations with our suppliers regarding DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] conflict-free mineral sourcing…Our approach to establishing validated DRC conflict-free sources of these metals has four components:

Tracing the metal to the source
Developing a conflict-free smelter validation program
Establishing an in-region mineral certification system
Influencing policy and legislation."

The company offers this look into product content. "HP has taken steps to research and better understand the locations and quantities of these metals used in our products. We estimate that the average HP 2 kg notebook contains approximately 0.6g of tantalum, 10g of tin, 0.00009g tungsten, and 0.3g of gold. "

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HP and Green ICT

Image courtesy HP