A Green Standard for Gold
Sat, Oct 27, 2007
Can the gold industry be “green”?
The jewelry industry is not known for being green or even ethical. Think diamonds and you think Sierra Leone, Angola, and horrific violence for the shiny little stones.
But the demand for ethical jewelry is huge. Nobody wants to be the guy buying conflict diamonds anymore. Now, Fairtrade is beginning to certify ethical gold, and they plan to have ethical gold on the market by 2009.
According to a Fairtrade spokesman, ‘We’re interested in bringing our expertise in trying to get a better deal for small-scale producers, how to get a fairer price for their goods, how to use the sale of gold to improve terrible health and safety environmental issues, and set up best practice.’
The reality is a bit more complex. Jewelry requires so many different components it’s almost impossible to completely certify it as ethical. That would require certifying miners, smelters, jewelers, jewel miners, and a whole host of others to certify that one piece of jewelry was ethical. In the face of all this, gold may never be completely green.
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www.topjewelryforyou.info » A Green Standard for Gold Says:
October 28th, 2007 at 5:58 am[...] Robert placed an interesting blog post on A Green Standard for Gold.Here’s a brief overview:Can the gold industry be “green”? The jewelry industry is not known for being green or even ethical. Think diamonds and you think Sierra (more…) [...]
October 28th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
There is a strong ground swell right now within the mainstream jewelry industry to produce ethically mined gold from small, artisan miners around the world.
This is being supported businesses in all sectors of the mainstream jewelry industry, from Tiffany to Debeers to large trade associations, such as Jewelers of America. Last week there was a meeting put together by Earthworks, an environmental NGO, at the World Bank in Washington DC which brought these people and others together with small suppliers from around the world, such as a collective of women mining in Tanzania, and representatives of FLO (Fair Trade Labeling International) Also there was the Association for Responsible Mining, ARM, an advocacy collective that has signed a letter of intent with FLO to bring Green Fair Trade Gold, third party certified, to market.
There is no doubt that this movement is launched and will only get stronger. This is a very worthy initiative that can have a profound effect on millions of people. For more information, see my blog, http://www.fairjewelry.org