World-leading jewellery makers Chopard, Kering, LVMH, Richemont, Swarovski and Tiffany & Co. (now part of the LVMH Group) and coloured gemstone mining companies Gemfields and Muzo (together, the Coloured Gemstones Working Group or CGWG) have launched ‘Ancient Crafts, Modern Challenges’, a series of expert papers researched and written by TDi Sustainability, to shed light on the coloured gemstones industry.
The publication of this paper series follows the launch, earlier this year, of the Gemstones and Jewellery Community Platform, a unique, digital learning and capability building initiative to catalyse positive change for the sector, from within.
The Platform is freely available to all companies who are part of the gemstone and jewellery industry.
The paper series ‘Ancient Crafts, Modern Challenges’ traces the journey of coloured gemstones from formation and discovery through to mining and recovery, trading, cutting and polishing, and retail.
Each paper shows what gemstones mean to the people involved in their extraction and production, and the impacts, for miners, workers, their communities, and their natural environment. By painting a clear picture of the realities of coloured gemstones, the papers point the way forward for effective, pragmatic responsible sourcing.
The first paper in this series, “Hands that Dig, Hands that Feed: Lives Shaped by Coloured Gemstone Mining” has been published. The paper drawbacks of different types of mining and what these mean for the communities who rely on this ancient activity.
The following papers will be published over the course of the next three months. The goal of this paper series is to equip the reader with relevant knowledge on an industry that is often seen as mysterious, reveal its important role in livelihoods the world over, and to enable joint action to enhance the sector’s social and environmental performance where needed, gemstones-and-jewellery.com writes.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
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