The slick exterior of your smartphone gives few clues to the chaotic supply chains that make up its innards. Some 30 to 40 minerals make it tick, including tantalum, derived from the ore coltan, typically from Congolese mines. As the 2010 documentary Blood in the Mobile lays plain, our phones are inextricably linked to war in the DRC.
Our fate as bad consumers seemed sealed in 1997, when mining corporation America Mineral Fields signed an agreement with the Liberation of Congo Defence League to supply funds – which were ultimately used to buy weapons – in return for future mining rights. The rest, as they say, is history.
Or would have been if Dutch designer Bas Van Abel hadn’t founded Fairphone. Initially it was an NGO campaigning against conflict gadgets, but he quickly decided that the real opportunity lay in showing that the supply chain in the DRC could be changed. The best way to do this was to produce a phone as ethical and sustainable as possible. So, despite zero experience, in 2013 he launched the crowd-funded Fairphone. It featured an easy-to-repair modular design built for longevity and containing fair tin and tantalum sourced from Congolese mines.
In November the second generation Fairphone, with conflict-free tungsten and gold (as well as tantalum and tin), will arrive. This isn’t just about getting your hands on a guilt-free gadget – even the Fairphone’s not perfect. But by paying its £300-plus price tag, you also fund change that affects the whole industry.
Through Solutions for Hope (solutions-network.org), a Fairphone partner, 12 out of 28 mines in DRC are now validated conflict-free. That’s what I call an upgrade.
The big picture: wildlife in the frame
Six years ago photographer Maggie Gowan founded the British Wildlife Photography Awards partly to prove you don’t have to be on safari to get a brilliant wildlife shot. Now they’re a highlight of the UK natural history calendar and feature in a book as well as a touring exhibition. This year’s crop of 13 category winners includes a Studland seahorse, a blue-tailed damselfly and a group of starlings (above). Go to bwpawards.co.uk
Well dressed: Clarks x Christopher Raeburn
Of course the ethical wardrobe is about loving and using what you already have and not just about acquisition. That said, I will be having these sandals. From London-based designer Christopher Raeburn and Clarks, the Salek Sun design features in Raeburn’s London Fashion Week catwalk show on 22 September and are on sale next season.
Raeburn is well known for his cool reappropriation of military fabrics and an intelligent approach to sustainability. For this collection he has mixed recycled EVA foam (a favourite with eco vegan brands) with cork and woven detailing. I love that the 11 designs are inspired by the great British adventurer Tom Harrisson. He was always known as the ‘barefoot anthropologist’, but I think he would approve.
Salek Sun sandals £70, clarks.co.uk (on sale from February 2016)
Follow Lucy on Twitter @lucysiegle
