EICC becomes the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA)

Historical article about the renaming announcement of 17 October 2017. Roles, membership, revenue and workforce figures refer to that period. Version 6.0 and older document links are retained for reference; check the applicable edition before use.

From EICC to RBA

EICC was established in 2004 by a group of forward-looking electronics companies under the name Electronics Industry Code of Conduct. As its scope, programmes and tools expanded, it became the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition. Its influence, capabilities, focus areas and membership subsequently grew considerably. The change to the Responsible Business Alliance marked the next stage of the organisation’s development.

In the announcement, Rob Lederer, then Executive Director of the Responsible Business Alliance, described the change as an important milestone and expressed enthusiasm about continuing the journey with members. He explained that the new identity represented the organisation’s development, its leadership on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in supply chains, and its plans to engage more industries, governments and stakeholders worldwide.

Broader scope and membership

In 2016, EICC revised its membership eligibility criteria. Alongside businesses manufacturing or contracting the manufacture of electronics, it opened membership to companies whose products depend on electronics as a primary and essential function. This enabled participation by automotive, toy, aerospace and wearable-technology companies, among others.

The transition from EICC to RBA recognised that electronics were increasingly present in diverse products and that these companies shared similar supply chains and responsible-business objectives. The new identity was intended to strengthen the organisation’s support for good practices, collaboration across industries and collective action by members.

Initiatives and the new identity

Alongside the RBA rebranding, the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI), a cross-industry initiative with more than 360 member companies at the time, became the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI). The new identity reflected its broader direction beyond conflict and security issues in supply chains for tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold (3TG) from Africa’s Great Lakes region. RMI would continue CFSI’s mission and vision, providing programmes, services and tools to encourage responsible minerals supply chains worldwide and support regulatory compliance.

The new logos for RBA and its initiatives, including RMI, the Responsible Labor Initiative (RLI) and the Responsible Factory Initiative (RFI), took the form of a compass. The design represented RBA’s role in guiding companies along their social-responsibility journey.

About RBA at the time of the announcement

The Responsible Business Alliance, formerly the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, was described as a nonprofit organisation of leading electronics companies working to improve social, environmental and ethical conditions in global supply chains. Members committed to a common Code of Conduct and used training and assessment tools to support continual improvement. The announcement reported more than 110 member companies, combined annual revenue exceeding US$4.75 trillion and direct employment of more than six million workers. These figures describe the historical announcement. Further information is available at:

RBA

Documents introduced in the original article

Following this development, RBA introduced the following Code editions and guidance to support implementation:

RBA Code of Conduct 6.0

• RBA Code of Conduct 6.0 — English (effective 1 January 2018)
• RBA Code of Conduct 6.0 — Vietnamese (effective 1 January 2018)
  

VAP Guidance Documents

• Auditee Preparation
• Auditee Corrective Action Plan Management
• Code Interpretation Guidance
• Working Hours Guidance
• Definition of Fees
• Worker-Type Decision Tree

Assessment Resources

• Approved Audit Firms for VAP
  
• Auditor Guidebook
• VAP 3rd-Party Payer Process
  
• AQM-Managed CAP Process
  
• Grievance Mechanism

RBA — Organisational history

RBA — Current Code of Conduct