Fairphone: Do you care about the "path" of the mobile you hold in your hands, the materials used to build it and the working conditions of the people who assembled it?
"Every now and then you are reading something about Africa's" bloodless metals "or suicide at the Foxconn factory," Nassos Katsamanis says for the Taiwanese group that assembles products for electronics giants such as Apple, Sony and Nokia in China employing 1,2 million workers .
From the verdant balcony in Mets, you can see the city's apartment blocks climb to the feet of Hymettus. The apartment floor is scattered by his son's wooden toys, which, before closing 2, already knows how to distinguish the waste from recycling.
"It's important to know that whatever you consume, the way you live in the final analysis does not burden anyone else or the environment," says 34ear-old electrical engineer-engineer at the NTUA. On his palm he holds a Fairphone, the first "moral" smartphone in the market, which came into his hands a few days ago from the Netherlands.
Fairphone was born in response to the fact that the minerals used to manufacture mobile and other electronic devices come from conflicting or warring zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), while their assembly is done in factories with controversial labor and environmental specifications. The company of the same name assures that the tin and tantalum used in the device come from non-conflict-controlled mines.
"By seeing such an effort I have been identified to some extent, although it is still in the first steps," says Katsamanis for Fairphone, which started as a public awareness campaign 2010 before it became a social enterprise 3 years later.
Fairphone, which also manufactures its mobile phone in China, has created a fund to improve working conditions and employee wages. For each device produced there, the company and factory invest from 2,5 euros to the cashier. At the same time, the company is trying to keep as much transparency as possible by publishing regular plant assessments.
The phone adopts the most common standards, such as Android OS and a micro-USB port (o charger μάλιστα δεν περιλαμβάνεται στο πακέτο με τη λογική πως κάθε νοικοκυριό έχει από ένα σε κάποιο συρτάρι), ενώ διαθέτει υποδοχή για 2 κάρτες SIM και αποσπώμενη μπαταρία. Μπορεί να αναβαθμιστεί, να επισκευαστεί (πρόβλημα: πρέπει να σταλεί στην Ολλανδία) και, όταν έρθει η ώρα, να ανακυκλωθεί αφού ταχυδρομηθεί δωρεάν στην εταιρεία. Τα πάντα είναι σχεδιασμένα με γνώμονα τον περιορισμό των απορριμμάτων. Υπολογίζεται πως περίπου 140 εκατομμύρια Appliances end up in landfills each year in the US alone.
"I like this logic. Like on the old desktop, you opened it, you changed your motherboard, you upgraded them, or you put them on your own, "says Katsamanis.
Fair economy
From the company's offices in Amsterdam, communications manager Daria Koreniushkina does not hide her enthusiasm for the project. Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, the company has now distributed more than 55.000 devices within 1,5 time. But mobile is not the end in itself, says the Russian, one of the 31 staff of 14-based countries.
“The phone is more of a medium to tell a story. He's talking about the big one picture, about what happens inside a device, the complicated process partreatmentand the problems related to it", he says.
"Our ultimate goal is to create a fairer economy and our example to inspire the entire industry to make changes in the supply chain."
A law signed by the Obama administration of 2010 obliges US companies to report the origin of the minerals they use in their products, while a traceability system has come into force by the United Nations. Companies like Apple and Samsung have taken some steps in this direction, but claim that certification of origin is not always feasible due to the many intermediaries in the production process.
"We realize that at the moment we are very young and that we can not reverse the situation on our own. I wish other companies to help in the effort. It would mean we have completed our mission, "says Koreniushkina.
Does not Fairphone also, in some ways, be superfluous?
"When other companies start to build their own" moral "mobile then we will compete with them in terms of" moral "specifications and not in terms of market share," he says, adding that the construction of an 100% moral mobile is virtually impossible, as there are thousands specifications that can be improved.
Is Fairphone a luxury choice for wealthy Westerns without essential survival issues?
"One of the things we want to prove is that" moral "production is not necessarily more accurate.
Fairphone is not more expensive than other mid-range mobiles, "says Koreniushkina. The price of the phone, available only in Europe, is 325 Euro. Back in Athens, Katsamanis believes the financial crisis is not a barrier to mobile success.
"I do not think things would be different if the world was more comfortable. Conversely, the crisis could be a cause for concern to some, to think that the real cost is not the price of the mobile. The point is to think things in a chain, in a global context. "
Looking at the numbers, few seem to be doing it. Once 21 orders have been made from Greece to date.
www.fairphone.com #WeAreFairphone
Source: kathimerini.gr
