Apple Addresses Risk and Puts Biodiversity-Positive Gold in its Products with RESOLVE
Salmon Gold is in Apple’s technology products and Tiffany & Co.’s jewelry because they were willing to take a risk on this question: could we couple re-mining of tailings with stream restoration, in partnership with placer miners, to produce gold and improve habitat for fish species in Alaska, the Yukon, and BC? We pitched the idea in a conference room a few years ago. We weren’t sure it would work. Today, Apple featured the Salmon Gold project in its Supplier Responsibility 2020 Progress Report.
Salmon Gold is RESOLVE’s innovative partnership to produce gold that has a net-positive impact on biodiversity. Salmon Gold restores habitat for native fish populations like salmon and grayling, working with local mining partners using sustainable mining and restoration techniques. You can read more about Salmon Gold on pages 51-53 of Apple’s report, or on our project site. The model can be scaled to restore streams and other habitat, and create jobs in rural communities.
In 2009, a group of technology companies began working with RESOLVE to assess and respond to the risk associated with conflict minerals in their supply chains. The Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade (PPA), a multi-sector initiative that seeks to improve the due diligence and governance systems needed for ethical supply chains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the surrounding Great Lakes Region of Central Africa, was born out of this early effort. Since its inception the PPA has raised over $2 million in private sector contributions; with this funding, the PPA has tested tools for enhanced upstream due diligence and reporting, made grants to assess models for collecting and disseminating due diligence data, and supported civil society training and mechanisms to monitor and report fraud and smuggling. Apple serves on the PPA’s Governance Committee. To learn more about the PPA, please see page 94 of the report or the project site.
We’re excited to continue to work with Apple and our other partners to realize positive impacts for people, ecosystems, and communities.
Stephen D’Esposito | RESOLVE | May 14, 2020
At RESOLVE, we’re here to tackle the toughest global challenges. The ones nobody else wants to touch. Where people are in conflict and planet problems are stuck. We’re here to unstick them. It’s not easy. It takes grit and ingenuity. And finding and working with the right partners. But we’re not called RESOLVE for nothing.
