Nintendo Proves Tech Materials Are Ethically Sourced With a Near-Perfect Audit Score
Posted on August 31 2024 by Nicole Scott
Video game hardware requires an exceptional amount of metals and minerals to craft. Consumers have increasingly higher standards for companies to consider their environmental impact, and the video game industry is no exception. Additionally, legislation and regulatory agencies seek to standardize practices to make sure corporations source materials from ethical sites. Alongside this, businesses are expected to practice just labor practices.
This year, Nintendo, alongside Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and Meta were some of the major tech companies audited for their use of “conflict zones minerals.” Journalist Brendan Sinclair, formerly at GamesIndustry.biz and now at Unlosing Writer, outlined the most critical insights from 2024.
Video game companies work with countless suppliers to source the materials to manufacture their games and systems. Those suppliers work with even more smelters, refiners, and other workers who mine, process, and transport minerals. These make up a monumentally complex supply chain, which has varying degrees of environmental impact throughout the process. Each step can also have drastically different labor practices, including working conditions and wages.
Supply chain transparency is critical in the age of ecological impact and disclosure. It is fairly common for all manufacturers, including those that make your car and cell phone, to never know how their suppliers and partners operate. They didn’t need to know; they just need to get their hands on the minerals to make video games, consoles, and peripherals. Now, wider awareness of the process from start to finish is necessary, which is a win for laborers and the planet.
Conflict minerals come from conflict zones, which are places deemed high-risk because they are affected by strife. Tech companies relying on conflict zones for minerals may be consciously or inadvertently supporting human rights violations and funding unjust causes. Some examples include Colombia, Bolivia, India, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The DRC has been a pivotal example of why conflict-free minerals should become the standard.
The conflict minerals video game manufactures need to document are the 3TGs — tantalum, tungsten, tin, and gold. However, many hope this expands in the future to require materials like zinc, coal, cobalt, and more. Hopefully, future revisions to these requirements will make them more comprehensive.
The European Union instituted the Conflict Minerals Regulation in 2021, which required corporations importing materials to document supply chain transparency, but only for the 3TGs. The U.S. has the Dodd-Frank Act, which operates similarly. So, companies have to submit conflict mineral disclosures to track how well they’re doing.
What’s the word on Nintendo? This is what Sinclair discovered from Nintendo’s 257 audits:
Like many of its peers, Nintendo slipped a little last year… Happily, this year the company rebounded with 256 of the 257 smelters and refiners in its chain having passed a conflict-free audit, good enough for a 100% conformant rate since we’re rounding the figures.
Thankfully, fans can rest knowing nearly all its partners are conflict-free with the 3TGs. Hopefully, next year will make it a true 100%.
Sinclair also wrote a report in 2023; so did Nintendo improve? The short answer: yes. This is what Sinclair noted about its relationships with smelters and refiners (SORs):
Nintendo reported 318 successfully audited SORs in its supply chain out of 335, a nearly 95% conformant rate.
This implies Nintendo streamlined its SORs and boosted overall quality. For comparison’s sake, Microsoft received an 87%, Sony clocked in at 69%, and Meta had a 95%. The only comparable entity to Nintendo was Apple with the only other 100% success rate.
No tech company is perfect in their business practices, but they should strive to be. This includes Nintendo, despite its high score, because there is always more it could be doing. Not all auditing procedures and regulations are in their final form, either. There are definite oversights and improvements everyone can make to ensure environmental and human safety so people can play video games guilt-free. While the audits are revealing, and hopeful, for Nintendo fans, it doesn’t mean there isn’t more work to be done to make the sector more conscious.
What do you think of these findings? Discuss your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Unlosing Writer (via Eurogamer, Nintendo Everything)
Nicole Scott is writer for Zelda Dungeon from suburban Appalachia. She loves drinking espresso, seeing live music, building LEGO sets, being a completionist, and snuggling her two probably-alien cats, Tizo and Alarielle.
