Orphan children, toxic wastelands and premature deaths are all results of traditional jewellery production from mining and manufacture. This is not a new phenomenon, and unfortunately continues an awful history of negative flow on effects from jewellery production. Unless huge changes are made in the sourcing or jewellery materials these issues will not change especially in mind of a larger population requiring more from the earth’s dwindling resources and the cost cutting measures employed by producers who are able to trade internationally.

Orphan children, toxic wastelands and premature deaths are all results of traditional jewellery production from mining and manufacture. This is not a new phenomenon, and unfortunately continues an awful history of negative flow on effects from jewellery production. Unless huge changes are made in the sourcing or jewellery materials these issues will not change especially in mind of a larger population requiring more from the earth’s dwindling resources and the cost cutting measures employed by producers who are able to trade internationally. Opening your mind to ethical questioning changes the way you make decisions, which if well informed, can lead to a safer, cleaner future. Education is the key to so many of the worlds ills but information about issues within the jewellery industry must be researched carefully to find the truth. There are wealthy companies, organizations, individuals and countries all trying to cover up, or at the very least, promote the positives and dismiss the negatives in order to increase sales and market share.

High street jewellers find themselves at the end of a huge global industry, one that is very wealthy and determined to portray a loving, caring view of itself. A gold mine from a developed country may tout its great environmental programs but this metal may be mixed in with gold extracted illegally from the Indonesian forests causing species loss and terrible land degradation. By the time the gold is sold to a jeweller from a refiner there is no point of origin information given and know way of scientifically telling where the gold is from which makes it impossible to make an informed ethical decision on whether to purchase the gold. The only decision that can be made is not to purchase the gold because it could have come from anywhere. However, very few jewellers come to this decision. Most purchase the unethical gold and don’t give it another thought. They are oblivious to the fact it could lead to the increased threat of extinction of the amazing Orangutan and many other species. I have asked traditional jewellers about their decisions and explained the problems they can cause - the strange thing is that they blame their lack of care when purchasing, on consumers. From the CEO of the Jewellers Association of Australia to jewellers in London’s famous Hatton Garden, most say they don’t ask questions about their materials origin when buying because their own customers don’t ask them. My question is: what about your own ethical code? Do you think it’s ok to employ a person in a job that has a high chance of killing them via lung disease? The answer seems obvious. However, parts of the gem industry do exactly that and jewellers around the world buy these goods, on selling them to consumers. Consumers can’t be experts in everything they buy. However, the seller should be. As a seller of a product it is your responsibility to know and understand the impact of the goods you sell, to give a balanced, transparent view to customers so they have the opportunity to make their own informed ethical decisions. If the impacts of a product are hidden to the customer, wherever you are in the selling chain, the seller could easily be shown as being unethical as they are withholding information that could lead to an unfavourable decision made by the buyer.

We live in a world of peace - it might sound strange when we see war on the nightly news but compared to the recent past, peace prevails more now than before. This produces a different outlook for most consumers who now live without the threat of death and disease to themselves. The outcome is that we wish the same on others, a life without early death and a clean environment in which to live is something we hope all can achieve. As a whole the ethical code held by humans and the importance of it in decision making is growing.

Consumers are expecting more from goods providers and many industries are falling behind. There are two ways this can go, the industry can change its ways and clean up its act or hide behind marketing campaigns and cover up the real issues. Currently, most in the jewellery industry are doing the latter, covering up, not being transparent, using token campaigns like the ‘give a damn, give a gram’ program endorsed by the Jewellers Association of Australia and the World Jewellery Confederation. http://www.cibjo.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=233%3Ai-give-a-damn-i-give-a-gram-campaign-to-launch-in-australia-in-august&catid=24%3Anews-update-june-17-2010&Itemid=40

The program is a great idea and I applaud any donations made to impoverished communities but it’s totally useless at stopping the harm caused by the jewellery industry which is what all jewellers should be striving for. The JAA are using the program as a marketing ploy to increase the perception of a high ethical code while totally hiding from the truth, which is that all their members sell gold of unknown origin that could be producing the harm they are trying to patch with donations. This backward idea confuses the consumer who is not an expert on gold production and thinks that the JAA must be doing a great job as they are giving to a good cause. Unfortunately the truth is much different. If all jewellers chose to follow the ‘give a damn, give a gram’ campaign it would cost each of them a one off amount of about A$30. If they chose to follow the path of other ethical or eco-jewellers they would have to spend time researching their materials and suppliers, change many of their suppliers and in most cases pay more for materials used to make their jewellery to cover the higher production costs associated with ethical goods (certification, more health and safety equipment, environmental protection and other costs). Its easy to see that by signing up to this campaign and not making real changes the JAA, CIBJO and their members can make it look like they ‘give a dam’ while saving costs that would be incurred by trading ethically. This also allows them to protect suppliers who in many cases are financial members of their organizations. This leads to a small amount of money being donated in what could be a one off event, rather than the large change needed to prevent the environmental degradation and cost to human, animal and plant life caused by the jewellery industry.

Why does it matter? If you’re a jeweller or an end consumer, should you care that the things you’re buying and selling are causing harm? It’s a decision you just need to ask yourself and if you’re like most people, you will want your buying decisions to reduce harm rather than increase it. The public’s awareness and inclusion of ethical questions in buying decisions is increasing, especially in developed countries. This gives jewellers two options, continue down the road of traditional sourcing and manufacturing which brings harm to our environment people and animals or move towards ethical trading which will attract customers and increase the wellbeing of our planet.

It can be seen that change from the top down is very slow in the jewellery industry due to the huge financial benefits of trading unethically; therefore it is consumers that can have the greatest impact. Whether you are a jeweller consuming products from wholesalers or an end consumer buying a finished ring, the decisions and questions are the same. Were the materials sourced ethically and was it made under ethical, fair-trade conditions? Our own personal ethical position can count for a lot if we all use it in our purchasing decisions. Choices made using these simple questions could transform our industry, harm would be severely reduced protecting children, adults and our eco-systems, creating a better more utopian world for all.