If attendees at last month’s Future of the Jewelry Industry Summit were initially unsure of their role in tackling climate change and inequality, the massive successes of Harvard University and MIT left no doubt.
First, the keynote speaker, Dan Schrag, professor of geology, environmental sciences and engineering, as well as public policy, at Harvard, where the event was held was clear: although the jewelry sector represents a small sliver in the industry global mining, you will be profoundly affected by the changes that are taking place around the world.
But he added: It’s not just darkness, it’s also light, because there are incredible opportunities to make this world a much better place through some of the work we do.
This unique opportunity to discuss the latest developments in jewelry research, technology, business and art was organized by the Responsible Jewelery Council (RJC), the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and the Mineralogical and Geological Museum of the University of Harvard.
Light and dark were present in equal measure. Yang Shao-Horn, an engineering professor at MIT who works on green hydrogen production and battery technologies, laid out the challenges: For the entire jewelry industry, 95 percent of the CO generated is in metal production, with l mining of gold, platinum and silver with a much higher carbon footprint than, for example, aluminum oxide or iron ore.
His suggestions for tackling the problem involve a mix of a carbon tax (say $50-$100 per ton of C0 [each tonne of gold produces 38,000 tonnes of C0; and about 3,000 tonnes of gold are produced each year]), which could encourage the use of new technologies, including electric vehicles, as well as shift mining practices away from open site towards the development of mobile mining vehicles powered by renewable energy or hydrogen.
Harvard Professor Daniel Nocera (left) with MIT Professor Yang Shao-Horn
His colleague was Daniel Nocera, an energy professor at Harvard, who created a bionic leaf. This takes the biological process of photosynthesis and does it more efficiently in the laboratory, he told the summit.
Right now, when you look out, you think sustainable Earth and then you think technology. What you forget is the human part. So I will argue that you cannot have a sustainable Earth with poverty.
Nocera was referring to the 6 billion new energy consumers in the global south who will lead to a doubling of energy needs over the next 30 years.
To meet even half of this increase with nuclear power within that time frame would require building a new nuclear power plant every 1.5 days. So if you want to avert a major catastrophe, we need to figure out how to give energy to the poor, he argued.
Nocera’s message to the jewelry industry was to start asking your suppliers, because you’re taking from the global south, to leave something behind. And the most important thing you can leave behind now is sustainable energy for you and for them.
However, Mercury Free Mining founder and jewelry designer Toby Pomeroy charted a different path for tackling poverty.
He believes the technology exists to remove mercury from mines and, in one fell swoop, improve the safety, health and profitability of the 20 million small-scale and artisanal miners and the 100 million people who depend on them. His non-profit company is working to eradicate the use of mercury, a neurotoxin, in mining. Nearly 5.5 tons of the metal is released into the environment every day, he said.
Working with the Alliance for Responsible Mining, with a grant from the GIA, Pomeroy successfully tested a new low-cost system for mercury-free processing of gold ore in three communities in the Choc and Antioquia gold-mining regions in Colombia.
We are making proposals to USAID [the United States Agency for International Development] and the GIA on how we can scale this, he said. I don’t think there is a bigger problem for our industry and corporate reputation opportunities if we accept it.
Melanie Grant, executive director of the RJC, warned the industry of the need to embrace technology also to keep pace with new online shopping patterns for high-end jewelry, particularly by people under 40. She urged art jewelers to highlight not only their artistry but also their responsible and ethical practices.
The importance of this was underlined by Colleen Rooney, chief communications and ESG (environmental, social and governance) officer at Signet, the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewelry. She said the company is attracting 22.5 million new customers in the United States alone as a result of a realignment of its culture to embrace human rights and sustainability, to use our voice for good.
However, embracing ESG principles can be daunting, particularly for small businesses, which may not always recognize the implications. At the summit, the RJC launched an ESG toolkit explaining what ESG is, how it can benefit companies and how it relates to impact globally.
And there was another dimension to the discussions at the summit: how sustainability relates to jewelry on an emotional and spiritual level.
Wallace Chan, jewelry designer and master craftsman, recounted how a childhood of extreme poverty taught him to be frugal and get the most out of every single piece of material.
I like to think, when a dream falls apart, it multiplies and becomes brighter, more beautiful dreams, she said. So when a vase broke, I made it into a bracelet. Sustainability is a very long word… for me it’s not a watchword but a lifestyle.
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Image Source : www.ft.com