For our ENP-310 Environmental Justice class project, our group will be exploring Champlain College’s commitment to conflict-free minerals in our electronics and technology equipment on campus. Conflict minerals contribute to environmental injustice in various communities around the world. The mining of conflict minerals, like gold, tin, tungsten, and tantalum, is often linked with funding killings, violence, rape, and other human rights abuses in communities where these resources are harvested.

Many countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, that supply and source many of the minerals that are used in our everyday electronics are inundated with violence and armed conflicts due to the global demand for these goods. The conflicts that arise from the mining of these minerals are funded by our everyday purchasing of smartphones, batteries, and more. This mining process is not only environmentally destructive by stripping land resources, but it is also unjust through the experiences of the suffering of the communities living in these mining areas.

We must commit ourselves, as an institution, to a campus-wide resolution against purchasing conflict minerals whenever possible. Not only is it important for Champlain College to take action for the sake of standing against the support of conflict minerals, but to also be an example for other colleges and institutions that should be doing the same. If Champlain College was to pass this Resolution, we would be the first institution in the state of Vermont to state our opposition to the purchasing of conflict minerals.

Please sign our petition to show Champlain College that our campus community is passionate about protecting human and environmental rights, as well as the sustainable and ethical purchasing of our electronics and technological equipment.

To read and learn more about the Conflict Minerals Resolution: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PVX4FvzJOfCkkAoUbeLGofRz8RzNPdEx/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=113628861617153469965&rtpof=true&sd=true