What needs to change in the industry conversation
about ethics?
Frankly, I’m not convinced the industry takes jewelry ethics seriously. There was a surge of interest when the movie
Blood Diamond came out, but then most thought that the Kimberly Process put that to bed. We have to change the conversation, because not only is it what customers want, it’s the right thing to do. Whether millennials are driving it or not, the wider industry has a lot of catching up to do with what the marketplace now demands. And the conversation depends on your customer’s definition of ethics. It’s a subjective term. For example, some consider mining to be unethical, period. Others see it as essential for economic development, but not at the expense of human rights and the environment. What’s critical is to make consumers aware of the issues so they can decide for themselves what’s important.
What is your definition of ethics?
Jewelry is a non-essential product, so we look at it from a “greatest good” perspective, which means we tend to put the planet first. The choices we make about materials are all about minimizing harm, but we don’t ignore the human element. In the bespoke gemology and jewelry-design business that Melinda Bailey and I founded in 2007, we use ethically-sourced recycled gold, platinum and palladium (and fair-trade gold from time to time). We also only use traceable or recycled and vintage diamonds, fair-trade gemstones, or responsibly produced lab-created gems.
We focus on minimizing our carbon footprint, but that doesn’t mean we’re opposed to mining, provided producers are socially and environmentally responsible. We’re also concerned about climate change, and I like to think we do our bit. For every piece of jewelry we make, we plant two trees through a group called the Carbon Neutral Charitable Fund. It’s a new initiative we started this year, and to date, we’ve planted 78 trees.
There’s a lot of talk about diamonds and ethics, but what about colored stones? Aren’t strides being made to improve the lives of artisanal miners of other gems?
Yes, and there are a lot of great people working hard in the fair-trade space to improve things. Awareness in the market is growing, but we have a long way to go. It’s still a huge problem affecting millions of people, especially in developing nations. The ethics of the jewelry they buy is still not top of mind for most people, and colored gemstones are just one aspect of a very complicated picture.
For instance, solutions like blockchain are much more difficult to implement in the colored-gemstone space because the supply chain is so fragmented. Some 75% of gemstones come from artisanal mining sources, whereas around 85% of diamonds come from a relatively small number of large-scale producers.
What do you think the messaging should be surrounding lab-grown diamonds?
Mine-origin, as a product, has not had any direct competition until recently. The industry has not had to do a lot to sell diamonds ever since De Beers’ “A Diamond Is Forever” campaign kicked things off in the 1940s. But now the Federal Trade Commission is saying that lab-grown diamonds are essentially the same as mine-origin, so the whole diamond-jewelry landscape is changing.
There’s no ignoring the fact that lab-grown products are cheaper, so the mine-origin industry now must work a lot harder to convince the market to pay a premium for what many perceive to be the same thing — rightly or wrongly.
The places where much of the world’s precious gems and metals originate are poor, so how can the industry continue to ethically provide much-needed mining jobs in those areas?
Tiffany & Co. is setting a great example. According to published reports, it recently increased — by hundreds — the number of people it employs for cutting and polishing in areas adjacent to mine sites in Africa.
Adding value in the country of origin helps with local economic development, but more could be done to sponsor local infrastructure development, health and education. This helps locals develop other ways of generating income to sustain them when the resources run out, which they inevitably will.
Are fair-trade and Fairmined gems and metals the answer to the industry’s ethics and sustainability issues?
On balance, yes, but you need to add to that. Adopting those principles will improve the environmental and social situations in developing nations, but that’s only part of the big picture.
We haven’t talked at all about human rights issues in the cutting and polishing industry or jewelry manufacturing, or about habitat destruction or carbon-offsetting, or about the porosity of supply chains that facilitate illegal activity. Traceability and fair-trade principles, directly and indirectly, address a lot of these issues, but not all of them. A good starting point is to find suppliers with personal values that match your own — whether in relation to human rights, the environment, or elsewhere.
Image: Gem LegacyArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - June 2019. To subscribe click here.