Our annual assessment process helps the IT industry address complex supply chain sustainability issues and guides brand owners and their suppliers to more sustainable ways of working. The results from 2019-2021 show that brand owners see the value of being transparent as it helps them make faster progress.
Thousands of workers are engaged in the manufacture of a single IT product model, from material sourcing and component manufacturing to final product assembly. Much of it occurs in low-cost and low-wage countries, where worker protection is often inadequate, and social sustainability is a continuing challenge. Examples of areas that need improvement include living wages, worker representation and working hours.
Socially responsible manufacturing criteria were added to TCO Certified in 2009 and have since been updated and made stricter every third year. With TCO Certified, all criteria are mandatory, and compliance is independently verified. To get their products certified, brand owners must ensure that products and factories meet all criteria in TCO Certified. As the number of committed brand owners grows, more factories are covered by the criteria, and workers’ lives and health can improve. TCO Certified now affects over 200,000 workers on the way to more sustainable working conditions.