Supply Chain Risk Management - It sounds like a compilation of business buzzwords, but it’s now more important than ever. Is that really true? No, it has always been important, however 2020 was the year that showed us once again why that is the case. Unlike other supply chain risks, COVID-19 brought these issues into forefront of the minds of practitioners and the general public alike. From consumer products like toilet paper and masks to commercial goods like shipping containers and semiconductors, many global supply chains (GSC) have been disrupted.

If your first reaction is “Of course earth is rare, we only have one!”, you are a little confused, but you got the spirit. A “rare earth” (rare earth element to be more precise) is one of seventeen metallic elements. These elements include the fifteen lanthanides, scandium, and yttrium. If you have no idea what those are, a look on the periodic table might do the trick.

One big part of sustainable energy that is often overlooked, is that we also need sustainable ways to store said energy. Current batteries contain significant amounts of cobalt, which is often mined using child labor in dangerous working environments. Additionally, only a very small percentage of li-ion batteries are recycled, increasing the demand for cobalt and other strategic elements.

GreenChips is a platform for buying and selling excess semiconductors, therefore our contribution to nature conservation is the reduction of e-waste and the sustainable use of resources. But that was not enough for us, so we decided to use 10% of our profit to conserve and restore forests. It would be easy to think that this is due to branding and having a “greener image”, especially since the semiconductor industry has a low dependency on forests and their resources. Nevertheless, forest conservation has many beneficial aspects, aside from branding, which most companies have never considered. What those benefits are and how they can be useful for your business is the topic of this article.