When Bas van Abel picks up a call, he feels the weight of a suffering planet. But at least the reception’s good. The 41-year-old founded social enterprise Fairphone in 2013, with a clear vision but not much else. He had learned of the tragic conflict in eastern Congo, fuelled by money from mining in the area, and that most of those minerals were used to make electrical goods. Computers, toasters, lightbulbs. Phones.
Van Abel had already been concerned that we, as consumers, had become alienated from technology and the process behind the products we rely on. So, for van Abel, Fairphone started as a campaign. Manufacturing mobile phones was only to make people pay attention.
Based in Amsterdam, van Abel’s background is in technology, art and non-profits – threads which,…
