Die Faire Maus
One can tell at first glance what makes our mouse different from any other office mice since it has a wooden scroll wheel. But what really makes it unique is its sustainability: the mouse is being manufactured in a regional ‘Integrationswerkstatt’ (a repair and assembling shop that includes disabled people) in Regensburg under very fair conditions, meaning without involving any kind of exploitation or even child labour. When choosing our suppliers for the individual components, the social aspect is of particular importance for us. By publishing the entire supply chain on the internet, this is easily comprehensible for everyone.
When it comes to choosing our material, we are also always looking for new and different ways. Not just by using our scroll wheel made from local wood: the housing derives from sugar cane instead of the usual mineral oil. Details (German)
Our recycled solder wire is being provided by Fairloetet. Details (German)
Furthermore, our mouse is easy to repair; all components and individual parts are available directly from us. Which makes Nager IT the absolute pioneer in terms of sustainability within the IT industry.
This part of the supply chain is completely fair, meaning that major problems, criticised in a variety of reports on working conditions in IT facotries are solved here. Taking into account the entire supply chain, our mouse can in good conscience be labelled 2/3 fair (which may sound kind of modest, but still is by far the fairest product currently available in the whole area of electronics):
- Equipment of circuit board*
- Final assembly
- Scroll wheel (made from local wood)
- Housing manufacturing
- Screws
- Packaging, labelling, etc.
- Soldering tin by Fairlötet as of November 2015
- 5 Resistors
- 3 Capacitors
- 2 SMD capacitors
- 2 Elkos
- LED
- Chip
- Lense
- Scrollwheel
- Cable*
- Encoder, Switches
- Housing material
These work steps and components are completely fair. * One of the raw materials of the circuit board comes from an unknown source. However, we still listed the circuit board under "fair" since the components and pre-components do come from a fair production.
The following components are being manufactured under fair conditions, partly by using fair components. The raw materials come from sources that are unknown to us. However, at least some of the manufacturers have confirmed that they do not purchase any conflict metals from Congo. We don’t use any coltan within our mouse.
With these components, we don’t know for sure what the production conditions look like. Thus, we have labelled them "unknown". We assume that they most probably would have to be labelled "unfair" though.
However, there are variations here as well: s. implementation
Another special feature of our mouse is its transparent ‘ancestral chart’. Anyone who is interested can take a look at it here and see for themselves to what extent the fairness idea has already been implemented (please click to enlarge).
The illustration shows the status quo of 2015. Our ultimate goal remains to create a completely fair mouse. How we are planning to reach this goal as we go along plus some more details regarding the concept and the development process up to this point can be found under implementation. For any details concerning the production sites, please see production.
Even with the social aspect of the Fair Mouse being our clear focus, we are also trying to consider any environmental concerns as best as possible. Only then are we actually entitled to call our mouse sustainable as well. (Details)
Disposal: our mouse is registered with the ‘Elektro-Altgeräte Register’ (ear) foundation (the German foundation for the registration of waste electronic equipment).
The technical state of play of the mouse is the following:
An optic mouse with a scroll wheel and two keys (a third key can be assembled if required). Due to its flat shape, it is easy on the joints, the symmetry allows for both left-handed and right-handed handling. With a sampling rate of 1000 dpi, no particular pad is required. The keys have a durability of 10 million clicks and are thus especially resilient.
Fact sheet and other legal documents regarding the mouse:
Fact Sheet
WEEE Registration
Konformitätserklärung zur CE Kennzeichnung (EMV)
Vereinsregister Eintragung