In July of 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act came into force in the USA. This is primarily aimed at reforming American financial market legislation but Section 1502 obliges companies listed on the American stock exchange to disclose any use of, and the origin of, any “conflict minerals”. The law defines “conflict minerals” as the raw materials tantalum, gold, tungsten and tin originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) or neighbouring countries.
Under the Dodd-Frank Act, US companies must establish, once a year, whether any conflict minerals have been used in their products and if any of these originated from the Democratic Republic of Congo or neighbouring countries. If so, then the companies are obliged to produce a “Conflict Minerals Report” that has been independently audited.
As a German privately held company, REHAU is not directly affected by this obligation to disclose and report. However, we wish to live up to our responsibilities as a globally active company and disclose any inclusion of conflict minerals in our products.
We have long ensured that our business objectives are long-term and responsible. In this way, REHAU not only plays its part in conserving resources by means of a sustainable value chain, it also makes a major contribution to environmental protection with its innovative system solutions. Our suppliers have an important role in this. For this reason, we have collaborated with our suppliers of production materials, investment goods and transport services on a common basis of values since 2013. This Supplier Code of Conduct is to ensure that environmental protection and labour law are conveyed and complied with all along the supply chain.
The EU commission has issued ordinance (EU) 2017/821 as part of the ratification of the Dodd-Frank Act in order to create an equivalent regulation on a European level. The ordinance applies to conflict minerals and metals obtained from so-called “conflict and high risk areas”. The disclosure obligation will came into force on 1st January 2021.
REHAU obliges their suppliers to issue a sustainability declaration not to use any minerals from conflict and high risk areas.
