Wandering into an American Eagle Outfitters store, a customer is more likely to wonder if a denim jacket will look good with a purple V-neck T-shirt than whether that jacket’s metal buttons contributed to the war chests of armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The South Side teen clothing retailer and hundreds of other U.S. public companies have been studying their supply chains for the past year or more trying to figure out whether their suppliers — or their suppliers’ suppliers — might be using minerals mined in a part of the world where armed conflict has created a humanitarian crisis.
This is not just an exercise in good corporate citizenship.
In 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a rule requiring public disclosure of the use of “conflict minerals” — specifically tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold, nicknamed “3TG.” The rule was mandated by the Dodd-Frank securities overhaul legislation that Congress approved after the 2008 financial meltdown.
A rush of Form SDs came in as the May 31 deadline arrived for the first filings.
For the most part, companies don’t think they’re selling goods that contain metals from suspect sources, but most admit they’re still chasing down information from suppliers and setting up systems to get the subject on the radar of their vendors.
