My Fair Luxury Pledge…
Gosh, I haven’t written a blog for ages, so I’d better do something about that now by telling you all about a fantastic organisation called Fair Luxury, and how myself and lots of other jewellers are trying to change the world!
This next bit is stolen from their website as I don’t think I could have written it any better, so I hope they don’t mind…
Jewellery is bought, displayed and passed on as a token of love, a reflection of our personalities or as means of communicating power and wealth. Though beautiful and sparkly on the surface, sadly jewellery is often tarnished by its journey into fruition, via supply chains that harbour social injustice and perpetuate environmental destruction.
We know that when jewellery is produced responsibly it can provide sustainable livelihoods for all involved – from the miners of raw materials right through the supply chain to the ultimate designer or retailer of the finished piece.
As individual designers, makers, traders and educators we’ve pledged to make changes and business decisions that are driven by more than just profit. In every aspect of our work we seek to ensure that we are achieving and maintaining a safe, sustainable and just industry for all. We dream of one day casting our minds back and feeling proud to place ourselves at the core of the revolution that transformed the jewellery trade for good.
We are each at a different stage in our journey towards responsible business, but we are all working on it. No matter how big or small, our collective actions will change the world.
Now, I think I’m already pretty well on the jewellery making ethical-ness/eco scale, but that doesn’t mean that I should just sit back looking smug. Noooooo!! There’s ALWAYS more that can be done, and so my pledge is to do my best to educate both my fellow jewellers and potential customers about some of the current problems associated with the jewellery industry, and more importantly, the possible alternatives and solutions! I intend to do this through posting on social media and when/if I get time, writing longer articles on there. I don’t think that most customers would knowingly want to contribute towards some of the terrible things that happen in our industry. The problem is that they’re just not aware of it in the first place, so I’m going to do my best to try and change that, if only just a little bit.
