The connector and cable products produced by GSN typically consist of plastics (insulator body & overmoulding) and metals (terminals & shielding incl. plating) with a ratio of 10:1. While gold and tin are essential raw materials and sourced indirectly as part of bought-in semi-finished products, the actual portion of these metals used in our connectors and cables is extremely small (< 1% of total weight).
Gold and tin are defined as 'conflict minerals' in the Dodd-Frank Act (USA) as they may have been mined and sold under the control of armed groups to finance conflicts and violence, especially when originating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and adjoining countries. Based on that, to us the concept of 'conflict-free' sourcing as a broader term refers to products, practices or purposes that directly or indirectly contribute to not negatively exploiting people and the planet.
At GSN, we are trying our best to establish a conflict-free supply chain that goes beyond the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act in order to avoid any negative impact of our day-to-day business. It covers not only raw materials but also labour conditions and the final impact of our business activity.
Conflict-free copper and conflict-free gold are delivered to our suppliers, the producers of drawn wires and of gold-salt (a pre-product for the gold related electro-plating process). A similar process applies to tin. Due to technical limitations in the production process of drawn wires as well as gold-salt, minerals from different sources are being mixed together, so that GSN cannot fully trace the sourced conflict-free copper and gold down to a specific end-product anymore. By applying the mass balance method, however, the proportion of conflict-free minerals contributed to the total quantity of raw materials processed by our supplier still qualifies to get fair-mined certified.
With systems and processes in place we are able to exclude raw materials from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries. Moreover, based on customer requirements, we may adapt our sourcing process to include fair-mining and fair-trade options to ensure full physical traceability throughout the supply chain. Alternatively, GSN considers the use of recycled metals and plastics where feasible. In the future, we will strongly interact with manufacturers of plastics granulate as well as fair metals. For plastics, there are certain new materials that do involve less or no raw oil and are better bio-degradable. For metals, we are still awaiting the first certified 'fair' metal mine within China.
Our sourcing is ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 certified and we engage in supplier development to safeguard the social compliance of our supplier. In addition, we try to distinguish ourselves by best-in-class social and labour practices not only with regard to sourcing, but also in R&D, manual or automated assembly, quality inspection, order and logistics handling and administration.
By 2025, we hope to succeed in creating 1,000 new and socially secure jobs at GSN manufacturing facilities.
We strongly invite all our customers to join us in making business BETTER. It is up to us.