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<\/p>\n\u00a0How the jewelry industry is becoming a leader in green sourcing and manufacturing.When people say \u201cgreen\u201d and \u201cthe environment\u201d endlessly these days, they assume that everybody knows their definitions. But for jewelers and their suppliers, what does \u201cbeing green\u201d or \u201cenvironmentally aware\u201d really mean?<\/p>\n
The answer, it turns out, is that more than almost any other industry, the jewelry industry is conscious of how heavily its processes impact people and the earth. The distinct green trends within it are like pieces of a mosaic that are just now being assembled. The portrait that\u2019s emerging depicts a new sensibility among consumers and producers about jewelry in particular and life in general:<\/p>\n
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DESIGNERS FIND THEIR OWN GREEN PATHS<\/strong><\/p>\n Sometimes you can be green and not know it. In late November, jewelry designer Jessica Fields sent out an e-mail blast to customers and colleagues announcing, \u201cJessica Fields Goes Green!\u201d Although the announcement was the first time that New Jersey-based Fields had ever mentioned green, she had been using eco-friendly gold for a considerable time, as well as buying free trade gemstones and working with a diamond dealer who follows the Kimberley Process for acquiring conflict free diamonds. \u201cI think my green sensitivity was always there and I don\u2019t think the worldwide push to go green had that much of an effect on it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n For Washington, D.C.-based designer Alberto Parada, \u201cthinking green\u201d began in 2006 when clients came to him asking about eco-friendly pieces. \u201cThey may not have quite known what they had in mind when they made the request, but they\u2019d often refer to things like renewable bamboo floors as examples,\u201d says Parada. \u201cSo I started doing research on mining practices and other aspects of producing eco-friendly jewelry. How did miners extract metals and treat their workers? Where did gems come from? Did they have conflict free origins and involve fair trade? Then I looked for manufacturers I could visit to see their recycling processes.\u201d<\/p>\n THE SEARCH FOR GREEN MATERIALS<\/strong><\/p>\n Michelle Den\u00e9 Reagan, owner of Den\u00e9 Jewelry in Chicago, epitomizes how far many designers will go in their commitment to use only vetted materials. \u201cWe have a rigorous sourcing policy in place and we work with others who are passionate about ethical sourcing.\u201d Den\u00e9 says she will not buy gemstones whose origin or treatment she can\u2019t trace. \u201cI won\u2019t buy diamonds from sources who don\u2019t meet our requirements, and although it\u2019s much cheaper to manufacture overseas I cannot condone unfair, or in some cases near-slave, labor.\u201d<\/p>\n Thinking green has also pushed designers to look for non-toxic materials. Plano, Texas-based designer DeAnna Cochran works from a home studio where she has to worry about a three year old running about. \u201cI use very traditional processes, but the problem is that they\u2019re highly toxic. So I was forced to find a non-toxic process that doesn\u2019t create fumes, even in the kiln. That way I wouldn\u2019t have to kick everybody out of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n One answer she found was \u201cprecious metal clay,\u201d a non-toxic compound derived from metals reclaimed from cell phones, PCs, film negatives, and X-rays. \u201cI saw that PMC was a new material to work with, loved that it was from recycled materials, and found it was no different in handling.\u201d (Picture: \u201cAlma\u201d rings in tricolor Harmony 18k gold with fair trade concave cushion cut citrine and amethyst in high bezels by Alberto Parada Jewelry, suggested retail $1,800, (202) 333-5575, www.albertoparada.com<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n As conscientious as contemporary designers try to be, it\u2019s hard being green\u2014that is, achieving 100 percent success in using strictly fair trade materials or non-toxic processes. \u201cThe whole green movement in the jewelry industry is interesting because it\u2019s hard to make jewelry totally eco-friendly,\u201d says Fields. \u201cI try my best to buy fair trade stones, but that\u2019s not always possible. Small designers like me don\u2019t have the pull to make big refiners or manufacturers change their practices.\u201d<\/p>\n Parada says that his ideal is 100 percent free trade gems and recycled metals, but that\u2019s not always possible. \u201cRight now my main issue is finding chains from recycled sources\u2014their manufacturing process is harder and more elaborate. But everything else I make is 100 percent handmade from recycled or fair trade materials.\u201d<\/p>\n The desire to be scrupulous about source materials often extends into other parts of designers\u2019 businesses. Cochran says that even in her marketing, she tries to be eco-friendly. \u201cMy packaging and brochures are printed on recycled material. On my back-office stuff I make sure things are printed on both sides of recycled paper. I try to send out most documents via e-mail, and avoid packaging things as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n THE DAWN OF A LOCAL GEM MOVEMENT?<\/strong><\/p>\n Other designers are pioneering new ways to look at jewelry. Just as the \u201clocal food\u201d movement is converting consumers to the idea that they should focus on locally produced food and drink, Grand Marais, Minnesota, designer Stephan Hoglund offers jewelry in his store made from the marvelous native gems he has found on the shores of Lake Superior. \u201cLake Superior gemstones, such as thomsonite, chlorastrolite, and eye agates are of such great beauty,\u201d says Hoglund. \u201cThere\u2019s a craze for the agates and I\u2019m always looking for small ones.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoglund has run into other designers that emphasize use of local gemstones, but thinks it can be a hit or miss proposition. He cites Yogo sapphires from Montana as \u201cprobably the best in the world,\u201d but too rare to ever make more than a small splash in the greater scheme of things. \u201cThe problem with regional stones is that they need to be plentiful enough to sustain great popularity. Lake Superior stones haven\u2019t even reached regional popularity.\u201d<\/p>\n Being green for Hoglund occurred by default. \u201cThe stones I use are found on the surface, so gathering them involves no mining or disturbances of the landscape. Also living here, 250 miles north of Minneapolis, makes me live greener by default.\u201d Several years ago Hoglund started buying \u201cgreen\u201d gold from Oro Verde in Colombia. \u201cThe miners there practice traditional panning and sluicing\u2014there\u2019s no leaching, strip mining or industrial processes involved, and whatever land is disturbed is restored and rehabilitated. Fifty percent of the bridal sets I make are from green gold. Younger customers ask for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoglund says his shop, a combination rock-hound emporium, museum, jewelry store, and factory, has become a natural gathering place for locals. It\u2019s the same for Bucheit: \u201cThere\u2019s a sensory and social aspect to what we do. Our shop is open to the selling floor so that customers can hear our hammering and see the flames from our manufacturing process. Locals love to come in and see what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n ORGANIZATIONS RISE TO ENCOURAGE, CERTIFY, INNOVATE<\/strong><\/p>\n The green movement has inspired non-profit organizations that serve to encourage its spread. \u201cNo other industry has taken as clear a stand on monitoring its supply chain as the jewelry industry,\u201d says Catherine Sproule, COO of Responsible Jewellery Council in Toronto, Ontario, founded in 2005 and one of the first non-profits to take a direct approach to ethical sourcing.<\/p>\n \u201cOur first three years we were in a research and development phase, developing standards, guidelines, and a code of practices. Over the next three to five years I think showing the kind of consciousness that those guidelines imply will become an imperative among jewelry industry members.\u201d (Picture: Den\u00e9 Jewelry\u2019s \u201cTrue Colors\u201d collection in 14k reclaimed gold, conflict free diamonds, and fair trade sourced garnet, peridot, blue topaz, citrine and sapphire, and amethyst, suggested retail $2,000, (800) 577-3363, www.denedesign.com<\/a>.)<\/em> Sproule says the two pillars of the now 90-member organization\u2019s growth \u201chas been at opposite ends of the supply chain: the mining sector, often thousands of miles away, and the retailer, at the last 18 inches, the most crucial part of the supply chain. Now the mid part of the supply chain has come forward.\u201d She adds that while RJC has large national chain members, such as Ben Bridge and Zale, it is also looking to attract independent chains and one-store operations.<\/p>\n Another group, Ethical Metalsmiths, concentrates on fair trade metals sourcing. Co-founder Christina Miller, assistant professor of jewelry and metalsmithing at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, says, \u201cWhen we first started talking about ethical sourcing, people were scared. Either because it was something new\u2014yet another issue to digest\u2014or they felt they were part of the problem and didn\u2019t know how to respond. We realize that for many jewelers what they really want is to know how to buy right, not necessarily to have to know all of the background.\u201dTo help draw jewelers, and their customers, into the right frame of mind, Ethical Metalsmiths\u2019 co-founder Susan Kingsley has put on three \u201cRadical Jewelry Makeover\u201d events across the country where people contribute old jewelry pieces whose metal is recycled and then converted into sometimes whimsical, often very artistic \u201cnew\u201d jewelry.<\/p>\n GREEN <\/span>Glossary<\/span><\/p>\n PUSHING RECYCLING<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cFive years ago,\u201d says Torry Hoover, \u201cjewelers started coming to us and asking, \u2018Can you guarantee that your gold is recycled?\u2019\u201d Hoover is president of 96-year-old Hoover & Strong, the Richmond, Virginia-based refiner in the forefront of the industry\u2019s green movement. \u201cAt the time, we couldn\u2019t answer yes because we were getting a lot of gold in bullion form from banks and other sources. We just didn\u2019t know where some of our gold came from. So we started segregating by origin.\u201d<\/p>\n Four years ago, when the company had reached about 80 percent recycled metals, Hoover saw this was an enduring trend. \u201cAs we got more customers, segregation became harder, so we asked ourselves, \u2018What would it take us to get to 100 percent recycled so we wouldn\u2019t have to segregate?\u2019 So we found other sources, such as other refiners who could vouch for their sources, and went to 100 percent recycled gold. Later we went on to platinum, palladium, and silver.\u201d Two years later, the company, sensing the power of branding, labeled its recycled metals \u201cHarmony Gold.\u201d (Picture: Tsavorite and 18k gold pendant, suggested retail $1,190, and diamond and tsavorite pendant, suggested retail $1,350, by Rhonda Faber Green from the limited edition \u201cGreen for Green\u201d collection to benefit the Alliance for Climate Protection, (310) 858-8688, www.rhondafabergreen.com<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n The company\u2019s next step will be to offer government-certified diamonds from Canada as part of its Harmony Diamonds line. \u201cBeyond that, we\u2019re looking at the market for recycled diamonds, where we take diamonds from jewelry that didn\u2019t sell, pull them out of their old settings and resell them as finished loose stones. Recycling them lessens pressure on the environment from mining.\u201d<\/p>\n THE RIGHT CHOICE TO MAKE<\/strong><\/p>\n Retail jeweler Judy Brown says she and her husband, Steve, started going green almost 30 years ago when they realized their daughters were \u201cborn environmentalists.\u201d At Brown Goldsmiths, their store in Freeport, Maine, being green includes working only with vendors who disclose gem treatments and the origins of their materials.<\/p>\n It also means either recycling onsite metals or buying them from refiners who can guarantee their product. Doing so has produced some pleasant results. \u201cWe recently made a piece, using totally recycled gold from our own scrap, with a Canadian diamond as the centerpiece,\u201d says Brown. Word got around and the Browns began noticing that younger people were impressed with the store\u2019s ethic. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen more awareness about green, especially among folks in their 20s and 30s, who come in and order jewelry from us because they like the idea of what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n The Browns work on a bigger stage, too. Members of the Responsible Jewellery Council since 2006 and closely associated with South African-based philanthropies, the couple sees a difficult task in spreading a green ethic\u2014but one they\u2019re willing to undertake. \u201cIt\u2019s important to find ways to reward and honor vendors who are ethical in difficult economic times,\u201d says Brown. \u201cWe\u2019re not flashy folks, but we\u2019ll just keep on trying to tell the story.\u201d<\/p>\n Copyright 2009 Cygnus Business Media, Publication: Modern Jeweler<\/p>\n \u00a0How the jewelry industry is becoming a leader in green sourcing and manufacturing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[39,37,33,34,36,38,35,44],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/technical-articles.hooverandstrong.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.modernjeweler.com\/images\/article\/1229956173651_p28_3.jpg\")
In Minnesota, designer and custom jeweler Liz Bucheit had \u201calways been green in the sense that I recycle gold to avoid messing with the earth. When green became big, I realized I had been green all along.\u201d But Bucheit, who lives and works in an 800-person town that\u2019s popular with artists and art tourists, says her customers have also helped her green awareness. \u201cI do well with engagement jewelry and find that people 30 years and younger ask intelligent and concise questions about the origins of the materials I use. They\u2019re a sophisticated clientele, and selling jewelry is almost like having an audition with them. Can we disclose where we got our diamonds? What\u2019s the source of our gold?\u201d (Picture: Hand-forged silver cuff with a cast fern leaf by Stephan Hoglund, suggested retail $395, (218) 387-1752, www.stephanhoglund.com<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.modernjeweler.com\/images\/article\/1229956173737_p28_4.jpg\")
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