Corporate Responsibility | HTC Middle East

Corporate Responsibility

At HTC®, we are committed to making innovative products in a responsible manner – respecting people, the communities in which we operate and the environment. Our global corporate responsibility standards and sustainability goals are designed to:

Create a sustainable, rewarding work environment where employees thrive.
Minimize our environmental impact as we bring products to market.
Sustain a responsible supply chain that has minimal environmental impact and a manufacturing supplier base that supports and adheres to our expected corporate and social standards.

People

Our business success and ability to innovate is directly tied to the well-being of our most valuable asset, our employees. The character of our company and ability to create a sustainable, rewarding work environment is defined by personal integrity and honesty of our employees, as we endeavor to adhere to responsible, honest and ethical business practices.

Human Rights

We are committed to upholding the fundamental principles of human rights for all of our workers. Specifically, with regard to our factory workers, our respect for the protection and preservation of human rights is guided by the principles set forth in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our relationship with our employees, customers and suppliers, and with the countries and communities in which we operate, reflect the principles set forth and referred to herein. Additionally, we promote freely chosen employment, and prohibit harassment and discrimination.

Working Hours

We endeavor to provide a balanced work schedule consistent with local labor practices for our employees. With regard to our factory workers, we follow standards established by the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) to limit excessive overtime. Manufacturing suppliers are required to follow our Supplier Code of Conduct and implement at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in every seven-day period.

Health and Safety

We strive to create a healthy and safe working environment for our employees. For example, our factory employees receive ongoing health and safety training as required for their jobs and our manufacturing facilities are closely managed through proper design, engineering and administrative controls, preventative maintenance, and establishing safe work procedures. Inspections are performed on a regular basis.

Our Health and Safety guidelines are updated on an annual basis to reflect current health and safety conditions. The guidelines include managing hazardous materials, and reducing workplace injuries and hazardous materials. Certified under OHSAS18001:2007 for occupational health and safety management system, we have also implemented automation in certain parts of the assembly process in our own factories to reduce risk of repetitive strain injuries.

Key components of our Health and Safety guidelines:
- Providing appropriate controls, safe work procedures, preentative maintenance, safety equipment, and other protective measures to mitigate health and safety risks in the workplace.
- Developing an emergency response policy to train, notify and evacuate employees in the event of an emergency.
- Encouraging factory employees to participate in company-sponsored wellness programs. At our manufacturing facilities in Taiwan and China we currently offer gym membership, onsite health consultations and wellness screening services.
Non-discrimination and Harassment

Diversity is a core value of our global corporate culture and it helps us meet the changing needs of our customers, communities and partners. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate in employment and personnel practices on the basis of race, sex, age, physical or mental disability, religion, national origin or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws.

No Child Labor

Child labor is a very serious issue and we take proactive measures to prevent the use of under-aged labor in our own manufacturing facilities as well as those of our manufacturing suppliers. We mandate proof of age for employment to ensure we meet all local labor laws and requirements. Our Supplier Code of Conduct for manufacturing suppliers restricts any form of unfair labor practices and clearly articulates our expectation that all factory workers are of the legal working age. In addition, we regularly conduct labor audits and communicate our expectations on fair labor practices to our manufacturing suppliers.

Environment

We aim to continuously find innovative ways to reduce energy consumption, eliminate waste, and reuse materials to minimize our impact on the environment and develop a sustainable footprint.

Energy Use and Emissions

To reduce our emissions and lower our carbon footprint, we have designed a very short supply chain and most of our suppliers’ factories are located close to our main manufacturing sites in Taoyuan, Taiwan, and Shanghai, China. Our engineers and designers are focused on designing devices that are more energy efficient. In addition, we enforce the standards in our Supplier Code of Conduct with our manufacturing suppliers and review environmental practices during audits of such suppliers. We also monitor our greenhouse gas sources and emissions in compliance with ISO 14064-1 standards.

In addition, the design, construction and operations of our new global headquarters in Taipei were developed with environmental impact and sustainability in mind. The 900,000-square-foot office complex employs energy efficient solutions for all building equipment, including air conditioning systems, lighting units and electrical systems. The building also meets the ASHRAE 90.1-2007 energy-efficient design requirements. Click here to learn more about HTC’s green headquarters.

Management of Harmful Substances and Materials

The proper management of waste, chemicals and other materials is critical to the protection of the environment and the health and safety of our factory employees. We require our manufacturing suppliers to comply with applicable laws and industry standards, such as the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS). We have several programs dedicated to assuring proper management and control of waste materials, including supplier compliance audits, factory inspections, and the safe handling and storage of chemicals and waste materials. We have also implemented an inspection system employing chemical and physical analysis and document collection throughout our supply chain to reduce or eliminate substances of environmental concern.

Reuse and Recycling

For us, waste reduction begins with reducing waste production at the source. We are committed to reducing the volume of industrial waste from our manufacturing processes and increasing resource recycling. This commitment has resulted in us maintaining an average annual recycling rate of 60 percent of production waste. In HTC’s main offices, all packaging and waste materials such as cardboard boxes, containers and plastic packaging material are collected and separated for recycling. Further, we look for ways to reduce waste, such as by implementing a take-back program in the U.S. which enables consumers to return used electronic devices at no cost for reuse or recycling and introducing a pilot program to remove device chargers from our sales packaging.

Environmental Management and Reporting

We have obtained the ISO 14000 series of certifications for environmental management to continually minimize our environmental impact and comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmental standards. Our certifications include:
- ISO 14001:2004 to set out the criteria for an environmental management system, which includes reducing cost of waste management and saving in consumption of energy and materials.
- ISO 14064-1:2006 to report greenhouse gas emissions and removals, which includes requirements for the design, development, management, reporting and verification of our greenhouse gas inventory.
- ISO 50001:2011 to promote continual improvement for energy saving, which includes legal and regulatory requirements compliance and best practices for energy efficiency measures.
- IECQ QC 080000 HSPM to maintain hazardous substance-free product design and manufacturing processes, which includes compliance with laws and industry standards and minimal impact on the environment.

Supply Chain

As a condition of working with us, we require our manufacturing suppliers to adhere to the principles and standards of HTC’s Supplier Code of Conduct with respect to people, health and safety and the environment. Download our Supplier Code of Conduct for more details. We conduct regular audits of our manufacturing suppliers to ensure compliance and closely monitor any supplier that is deemed to be at risk of breaching our Code of Conduct.

Supplier Code of Conduct

HTC’s Supplier Code of Conduct (Code) describes our corporate and social responsibility requirements for manufacturing suppliers. As a condition of doing business with HTC, we expect our manufacturing suppliers (and their suppliers) to acknowledge and implement these requirements and ensure responsible business practices. We regularly assess compliance to these requirements and factor adherence to these requirements when making partnership selections.

The labor, environment, health and safety, and ethics requirements outlined in the Code are consistent with internationally-recognized standards established by the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) , the United Nations, and the International Labor Organization (ILO) . Our Code covers:
- Labor and human rights, including the prevention of child and involuntary labor, fair treatment, freedom of association and regulatory compliance.
- Health and Safety practices, including emergency preparedness planning and occupational safety policies.
- Environmental policies, including pollution prevention, waste management and regulatory compliance.
- Ethics and integrity, including conflict-free mineral sourcing policy, privacy and fair business practices.
- Management system, including legal and regulatory compliance, audits and assessment and documentation.
Supplier Audit Program

Manufacturing supplier audits are a critical component of ensuring the integrity of our supply chain. Therefore, we actively manage the auditing process and have a dedicated supplier audit team that travels to manufacturing suppliers’ sites to ensure they are meeting local regulatory requirements and adhering to our Supplier Code of Conduct . Our supplier audit team is responsible for auditing our manufacturing suppliers on a regular basis, including labor, environment and health and safety compliance. We follow industry-recognized and internationally-accepted standards such as the guidelines established for electronic companies by the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) . Suppliers that are identified as having compliance issues are informed and are immediately tasked to create remediation plans that address the identified issues.

Responsible Sourcing

Our sourcing policy requires raw materials used in our products to be extracted, processed and produced in a responsible manner consistent with our environmental and ethical policies. The use of conflict minerals in the electronics industry is a significant issue. We subscribe to the EICC Code of Conduct , which requires participants to adopt a sourcing policy that will ensure that the tantalum (also known as coltan), tin, tungsten and gold minerals used in their products do not benefit armed groups that perpetrate human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding area. Since traceability remains difficult, HTC has stopped sourcing minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African region altogether. As a condition of doing business with HTC, our suppliers must acknowledge and agree to our responsible sourcing policy. We review our suppliers’ mineral sourcing practices through our supplier audit program.

Community

Being a good global citizen starts with being a good local citizen. We support a range of programs in our communities that include academics and education, environmental protection, culture and arts and volunteer services. For example:

In Taiwan, through the HTC Foundation, our headquarters’ employees promote character-building programs and classes for children and young adults, as part of an effort to encourage civic participation. Since 2008, the foundation’s Pan Shi (translation “Bedrock”) Education Project has provided a total of NT$ 24 million in funding, training and scholarships for 100 different schools, and 68,000 teachers and students throughout Taiwan.
We partner with World Vision Taiwan to provide education funding for children from low-income households in Central America and Africa.
In North America, our US headquarters sponsors the Bellevue Boys and Girls Club and contributes to the TXL (Teen Excellence) Center which provides middle and high school students with technology-related skills and creativity.
We also provide a number of scholarships for students from low-income households in China's remote northwest regions, Sichuan Province, Liaoning Province and Qinghai Province, and have done so since 2007.