SPECIAL FEATURE: Ethical dilemma

When considering ethics in jewellery, there are a lot of aspects to consider. What are you prioritizing in your business?

Charlie Betts, managing director, Betts Group: As a 264-year-old family business, interacting ethically with both our customers and our own employees has always been very important to us. We especially prioritize responsible sourcing. This is spearheaded through our commitment to Single Mine Origin (SMO) gold. We believe in full transparency and traceability, which is why SMO certification plays such a vital role in our business. By sourcing directly from SMO member mines, we can ensure that the gold we offer is free from conflict and mined to strict social, environmental, and governance standards. Alongside this, we support Fairtrade and Fairmined initiatives, as we remain the only UK refiner certified for both. As the oldest recycler of precious metals in the UK, we also look to continually develop known provenance recycled precious metal options for our customers. Our goal is to build a supply chain that respects the environment and promotes fair labour practices.

Eliza Walter, founder and creative director, Lylie: We are prioritizing our efforts to use recycled or repurposed diamonds, over lab-grown, as we see that as the most sustainable choice of all.

Kat Weymouth, director, SCS Global Services: For 40 years, SCS Global Services (SCS) has served as a pioneer in sustainability standards and a leader in third-party certifications, working across the global economy in natural resources, the built environment, food and agriculture, consumer products, and climate sectors. Social responsibility and ethical business practices power our vision: to build a sustainable future that safeguards our environment and our climate; respects and supports the dignity, health, and wellbeing of workers and communities; and raises the standard of living for all.

To mobilize our vision, we have established programs and services designed to recognize the outstanding achievements of companies, institutions, and organizations who are meeting the highest levels of performance in environmental protection, social and ethical responsibility, and product safety and quality, while stimulating continuous improvement on the path toward sustainability. In this undertaking, we employ a life-cycle framework, state-of-the-art science, proven analytical methods, performance metrics, and professional expertise.

SCS is prioritizing Human Rights impacts in our work. We are a Participant of the United Nations Global Compact, joining thousands of other companies globally committed to taking responsible business action to create the world we all want. The UN Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with 10 universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to act in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With over 40 years of sustainability auditing, standard development, and certification, SCS serves as the leading authority on Diamond Sustainability — both by defining the concept and setting the global standard. In 2020, our standards development organization, SCS Standards, released a pilot standard that was later revised and released as the Certification Standard for Sustainability Rated Diamonds (SCS-007-1). SCS-007 set the bar as the world’s first — and only — comprehensive, multi-stakeholder sustainability standard developed for the diamond sector.

The SCS-007 certification program provides jewellery manufacturers, retailers, and their customers unparalleled transparency and due diligence around the environmental and ethical performance of diamond producers and handlers. Across the suite of SCS organizations, our teams delineate and reinforce the vital roles necessary to uphold the rigorous ethics and scientific integrity needed to meet the pressing demands of this standard for sustainability rated diamonds.

Morgane Winterholer, GM strategic brands and sustainability, Dimexon: Our approach to ethics is multi-faceted, as it underpins all that we do at Dimexon. We are committed to continual improvement on our journey to sustainable luxury and, as part of this, we conduct annual ESG reporting. Within the report, which is available publicly, we focus on four strategic pillars: Environmental Synergy; Product Integrity; Social Stewardship; and Responsible Business Conduct.

We have various projects in action at all times to push our progress forward in each of these key areas — be it improving our environmental credentials or building better collaboration with partners in the industry to push for meaningful change — as well as being a certified Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) member and World Diamond Council member.

We have already done lots of work historically to offer full traceability on our diamonds, and are also a pioneer in empowering women (75% of our staff is female) and creating a positive corporate culture for all staff. A major ethical focus for the business now is the environment. As well as switching to solar power at Coimbatore (which is responsible for 85% of our total emissions), we have many smaller projects such as harvesting rainwater, cutting out all single-use plastics from the business, improving our recycling policies, and more. All of these efforts, big and small, will help us to achieve our goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030.

Sonia Lopez Delgado, general manager, Pandora UK: At Pandora, we recognize that sustainability in jewellery extends beyond the quality and design of our products to include the way we source materials and the impact we have on the planet and society. Since the company was founded, it has also been part of our ethos to not only run a healthy business but also create positive outcomes for the people and communities we touch while reducing our negative impact on the planet. This is why we have committed to one of the most ambitious sustainability agendas in the jewellery industry.

Earlier this year we announced that we will only be sourcing 100% recycled silver and gold for all our jewellery. The shift has allowed us to avoid emitting approximately 58,000 tons of CO2 annually, which is equivalent to the emissions produced by 6,000 cars or the annual electricity use of 11,000 homes. This also aligns with our broader goal of becoming a circular business, as we continue to explore recycling opportunities for other raw materials.

We have been using lab-grown diamonds since 2021, which are more affordable and have a lower CO2 footprint. All our lab-grown diamonds are grown, cut, and polished using 100% renewable energy and are set in 100% recycled silver and gold. This results in a carbon footprint that is only 5% of that of mined diamonds.

We are very proud to say that we have succeeded in decoupling business growth from environmental impact as we have grown revenue almost 30% while also cutting our emissions by close to 30% over the last five years. An incredible achievement which puts us on track to halve our CO2 emissions across our full value chain by 2030 and reach net zero by 2040 — 10 years ahead of the Paris agreement.