Sustainable and ethical jewellery movements.

If you have been keeping up with our magazine, you may have come across our article all about why you need to think about sustainability of jewellery. Unfortunately there are no international standards currently that have been developed for brands to officially classify themselves as “sustainable”. This makes it important for a brand to show the consumer what they are doing to make their business sustainable. 

When looking for sustainable and ethical brands, it can be so hard to know exactly what to look for. Therefore, it is important to know exactly what sustainable and ethical means. The general definition of sustainability is that a company meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. With regards to jewellery, the concept of being sustainable refers to the materials that are being used. 

On the other hand, a brand cannot be sustainable without being ethical. When it comes to ethical jewellery, it’s important to look at the company as a whole, and how they treat every person in the supply chain. This includes health and safety at the work place, avoiding any kind of discrimination, slavery and child labour.

Currently, there are a few organisations that are pushing toward more transparency & ethical accountability in the jewellery industry.

Ethical Metalsmiths

Ethical Metalsmiths inspires responsible jewellery practices through education, connection and actions. They aim to create awareness regarding the recycled metals and gemstones. They connect consumers with responsible jewellery manufacturers. Lastly, they bring Fairmined Gold to the market. 

According to Ethical Metalsmiths, it takes many people just to make one ring. From the mine to market, the journey of a single piece of jewellery can be a complicated and toxic path. Most of the time, it is unsafe for metal miners, gem miners and gem cutters. Jewellery making is also toxic to our ecosystems, poisonous to refiners and hazardous to jewellery makers. 

Ethical Metalsmiths raises awareness in order to change every facet of the jewellery industry. They have collaborated with Radical Jewellery Makeover and Better Without Mercury.

Radical Jewelry Makeover

Radical Jewelry Makeover (RJM) is a part of Ethical Metalsmiths. This is an innovative community mining project. They aim to raise awareness about the connection between mining, metalsmithing, activism, collaboration and art. While educating people about the recycling and reusing of jewellery, they also make innovative jewellery from recycled sources. 

Better Without Mercury

Currently there are 400 tonnes of mercury contamination at the Fairmined certified Gualconda mine in Colombia. In 2017, after 40 years of using mercury, miners fully transformed their gold ore processing away from mercury. Now, they need to clean up the original processing site which contains the mercury.

You can find images of this process on their website here.

Jewelry Industry Summit

The Jewelry Industry Summit aims to develop collaborative approaches to solve sustainability issues. They also empower businesses to become more sustainable and source more responsibly. 

In 2018, they hosted events in the USA to give designers and industry veterans a better understanding of ethical & sustainability issues. They also connected them with resources in order to improve their impacts. 

In 2019, they hosted their third summit. The third summit provided practical tools and strategies for sustainable businesses across the supply chain.

How does Kleiderly contribute?

At Kleiderly, we always aim to educate the community about sustainable and ethical practices & brands. We educate the community by using our social platforms and magazine. 

Sources:

https://dukesavenue.com/ethical-and-sustainable-jewellery/#1-the-definition-of-sustainable-jewellery