Woburn, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/29/2013 --Seven months from now, companies that report to the SEC are required to comply with Section 1502 of Dodd-Frank for the first time. “The vast majority of companies are taking the requirements of Dodd-Frank Section 1502 seriously: they are grousing but moving forward, and showing support for the humanitarian goals of Conflict Minerals,” according to Rob Kasameyer, President of Green Status Pro, the leader in Conflict Minerals reporting.

Numerous filing companies are utilizing the industry-standard EICC-GeSI worksheet as the standard for their suppliers to document their sources of Conflict Minerals. Standardizing data sheets is one thing; documenting, validating, and consolidating the data are major challenges for Compliance Officers.

“Many corporate officers signing the SEC’s required filing, will be alarmed by the lack of RCOI due diligence records,” stated John Logan, Founder of Green Status Pro. “While numerous filers will report their sources of Conflict Minerals as ‘undeterminable’ in this first year, they still will be subject to the ‘court of public opinion,’ since the SEC requires the filing companies to present their Conflict Minerals Report on their website as well as to the SEC, and NGOs are preparing to attack laggards.”

Suppliers of the filing companies also face serious business risks. “If a Supplier does not support its Customer’s RCOI requirements, the Customer must put in place plans to replace the Supplier according to the OECD Guidance,” observed Rob Kasameyer, President of Green Status Pro. “While filing companies are not subject to external compliance audits in the first year, filers concerned about their public image are putting in place diligence systems that will stand up to public scrutiny.

Best practices for both SEC Filers and their suppliers to efficiently manage the risks associated with Conflict Minerals Reporting are reviewed in the white paper "Conflict Minerals Reporting: Efficient Risk Management." While not constituting legal advice, it will help companies determine their preparedness, identify critical gaps in compliance programs, and describe best practices that are being implemented to efficiently manage Conflict Minerals enterprise risks.

About Green Status Pro
Green Status Pro’s mission is to simplify the regulatory lives of operating managers by automating the documentation of due diligence. GSP delivers comprehensive Conflict Minerals, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 due diligence solutions. Green Status Pro (GSP) is the only cloud-based software service in the world that provides the knowledge base to guide managers through the implementation of their firm’s OECD Conflict Minerals Due Diligence program. GSP is an IBM Business Partner, hosting its application on IBM’s SoftLayer secure global cloud infrastructure. For more information, please visit Green Status Pro.