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Know
Everything About Fair Trade for Precious Metals and Gemstones
Fair Trade for
Precious Metals and Gemstones - A Review in August 2008 Jan Spille
Translation: Doreen Curtis, Cornwall Who hasn’t at some time or
other thought about what is actually being achieved for society if
s/he makes something as ‘crucial to living’ as genuine
jewellery? On the one hand, luxury items made of extremely expensive
material and, on the other, jewellery that, moreover, appreciates in
value if it has a claim to being art. In both cases, objects reserved
for an affluent élite, articles that those who make jewellery
only very rarely are able to afford for themselves. Apart from the
luxury debate, the question of the provenance of the materials used
for jewellery is bound to surface sometime. Discussions with social
overtones about ‘blood diamonds’ or ‘ecologically
harmful gold’ raise general questions about the compatibility of
the jewellery one makes oneself with society and the environment
– questions that today when compared directly with Fair Trade,
that is, socially and environmentally fair trade with raw materials,
are raised more and more frequently and are gaining in importance.
Here the development of Fair Trade must be examined against the
general background of societal change. The current discourse on
environmental policy is increasingly confronting people with the
issues of sustainability and the economical use of natural resources.
Moreover, the ubiquitous presence of the media contributes to
transporting environmental catastrophes and social injustice into
family sitting-rooms in real time, worldwide. Hence interest in
environmentally relevant that is, related to both the social
environment and ecology issues can generally be described as growing.
More questions are being asked about provenance and the conditions
under which the desired wares are made and services rendered. Many
consumers no longer think solely in economic terms but also want to
support ethical values such as fairness, sustainability and social
justice with their products. Consequently, a creeping ethicisation of
markets is taking place, in which the clientele for socially and
environmentally friendly products has long since changed from being
‘merely’ long-haired eco-freaks in Jesus sandals who are
adherents of left-wing environmental movements. On the contrary, environmentally-friendly
products are becoming an integral part of a modern lifestyle culture
that centres on values such as hedonism, style and health. The trade
in commodities such as foodstuffs has in many respects pioneered this
development and for some years now has recorded a real eco-boom.
Environmentally friendly foodstuffs such as coffee, chocolate and
bananas – bearing Fair Trade and ecological certification marks
– have become a common sight on regular supermarket and even
discount supermarket shelves. By now, however, a number of other
sectors have seen opportunities in marketing socially and
environmentally beneficial products and this trend has led to a
remarkable diversification of the market for sustainable design
(ecodesign). As a result, there are environmentally sustainable
cosmetics, drugs and hygiene articles, clothing, furniture and all
sorts of consumer electronics (such as computers), cars, building
materials, electrical appliances – and the list of sustainable
products continues to grow. It is well worth the effort, however, to
inquire closely in every case as to whether the sustainable and
environmentally friendly certification is actually justified. And
what about jewellery? Can there be ecodesign for jewellery or will
the jewellery trade be able to assert itself in this respect in the
face of ongoing innovation?Since the first initiatives brought
fair-trade materials on the regular market in 2001-02,
jewellery-makers have also been able to offer ethical designer
jewellery – an entirely new perspective, which at first
developed slowly but has gradually begun to accelerate. In line with
this development, an increasing number of potential jewellery buyers
are becoming increasingly aware of the issue and the circle of makers
who have switched to producing with fair-trade
materials is widening steadily. As a result, the number of dealers
and the range of fair-trade materials they can offer is growing in
line with the demand shown by buyers and makers. The trade-fair
gazette at the 2008 Inhorgenta Europe confirmed the existence of this
trend by publishing an article entitled “Fairer Handel ist
Top-Messethema” [“Fair Trade is Top Trade-Fair Trend”].
Top trend well and good but the article devoted to it was remarkably
short and what went on at the trade fair did not go far to confirm
its importance. But perhaps herein lies a very representative
freeze-frame of a fledgling market, one with which the jewellery
trade will have to reckon in future?!Dirty gold and blood-stained
diamonds – where do the raw materials come from? The development
of Fair Trade (FT) in jewellery is directly linked with the social
and environmental problems caused worldwide by mining, processing and
trading in natural resources. Each raw material has its own
distinctive history associated with the products made of it after
mining and processing. Precious metals and gemstones are the classic
raw materials of the jewellery trade. They are mined on either a
small or a large scale from both primary (alluvial or placer) and
residual deposits. Ethical conflicts emerge here, on the one hand, on
the environmental plane, with the earth’s ecosystems being
damaged, and, on the other, on the social plane, on which human
rights are infringed. The two planes are very difficult to
disentangle and, with respect to raw material, phenomena from both
categories are involved in many interrelated ways. Gold mining in
particular has often had a negative press and made headlines in
recent years. Whereas gold prospectors mine placer deposits by using
mercury, seriously harming themselves and their families in the
process, industrial mining of residual deposits is criticised for the
unscrupulous way local populations are treated (forced evacuation to
other settlements and violations of human rights by mercenaries) and
for heap leaching and gold cyanidation. Whichever process is used,
extracting gold from ore by means of zyanide solutions makes it
worthwhile to extract even a gramme of gold, often less, from a tonne
of ore. Heap leaching entails irrigating vast quantities of crushed
ore with a cyanide solution and the mass is left to percolate in
basins, leaving behind toxic residue and pocked moonscapes. That
extracting gold in this way can result, apart from lasting
ground-water pollution, in accidents on a regular basis has been
shown for instance by the spectacular disaster that occurred when a
dam broke at Baia Mare, Romania, on 30 January 2000, heavily
polluting great stretches of the rivers Theiss and Danube. According
to the human rights organisation Fian, industrial residual gold
mining produces more toxic residue than all other mining sectors
taken together. The negative impact of environmental damage, which is
always borne entirely by the local population, outweighs the benefits
in the form of profit margins for the transnational mining consortia,
which trickle down only slightly to the local economy in any case.
Whereas gold-extraction practices are often equally damaging to human
beings and ecosystems, social problems are paramount in the mining of
precious stones. Compared to working conditions in the West, the
situation of miners in the so-called developing countries is usually
very different. Low wages are paid, there is no such thing as
unemployment insurance or social benefts. Working conditions are
often disastrous (akin to slavery in Sierra Leone, for instance) and
child labour is widespread, in the Indian diamond-cutting industry,
to take just one example. Alongside this daily situation, there are
stories that are fit to print, which do create public awareness.
Currently it is Burmese rubies – or rather gemstones from
Myanmar – that are ensuring attention because of the conflict
prevailing in that country. Just a few years ago, conflict diamonds
were being bandied about in the media. Called blood diamonds, these stones became
known worldwide as the essential cause of flashpoint conflicts in the
African countries of Angola, the Republic of the Congo and Sierra
Leone. After NGOs such as Medico and Amnesty International had
conducted campaigns to highlight the situation then prevailing,
public pressure caused the first official diamond certification
scheme to be implemented in 2003 with the aim of preventing
mainstream trade with blood diamonds. Known as the Kimberley Process,
the certification scheme was worked out by several African
diamond-producing states and the diamond industry. Forty-eight
countries participate in it to date. However, it has been criticised
from various angles as inadequate and compliance is difficult to
monitor. How recognisably important the role played by the public at
large is in the discourse on environmental and social problems as
related to jewellery is shown in the reaction of the diamond industry
to the Hollywood film Blood Diamond in winter 2006-2007. The film,
which was on general release in the US promptly in time for
Christmas, deals with the civil war in Sierra Leone (1991 2002).
Featuring child soldiers and conflict diamonds among other horrors,
it vividly depicts the atrocities committed in that war. In a jittery
enlightenment campaign conducted over several months in specialist
publications jewellers and jewellery-makers were then duly informed
on the Kimberley Process. This was to counter the looming loss of
prestige, at least for the time being, with simple answers to
critical queries from clients. Films like Blood Diamond and,
increasingly, reports in the print media, including the cover story
“Schmutziges Gold” [“Dirty Gold”] in the German
weekly news magazine Der Spiegel(03/2008), social awareness of the
origins of precious metals and gemstones is gradually being created.
An awareness on which in turn the development of critical consumer
behaviour and subsequently also Fair Trade are premised. FAIR TRADE
– what does it really mean? Fair Trade means international trade
that is socially just, that achieves better trading conditions and
secures social rights for disadvantaged producers and workmen and, in
so doing, contributes to a sustainable development. Apart from the
general criteria that apply to all products – such as observing
human rights, freedom to form unions, no child or slave labour in the
production process – product-specific criteria have also been
established. The FT guidelines focus on the human being although
environmental criteria are not binding. The reverse is true of
organic foodstuffs and other commodities, whereby only environmental
principles are explicitly addressed but no questions are asked about
the social side of production conditions. This division has hitherto
not applied to jewellery in quite that form as related to FT.
Following the currently prevailing consensus that environmental and
social conditions always influence each other, FT in jewellery takes
both the social and the environmental conditions obtaining in the
extraction and processing of raw materials into consideration. They
can be weighted differently according to country of origin and
prevailing extraction conditions. Since several initiatives called
into being by mining engineers, geologists, geographers, gemmologists
and goldsmiths brought FT material on to the mainstream market in
2001-2002, the circle of dealers involved has widened steadily.
Collaborating directly with mines enables them to provide a selection
of gemstones and/or precious metals from alternative production.
Currently there are FT metals such as gold, platinum and silver from
mines in Peru, Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia. The FT gemstones
available are diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and rhodolite
from mining co-operatives and village communities in Lesotho, Sierra
Leone, Madagascar und Tanzania. FT stones that come from Brazil
include aquamarine, tourmaline, heliodor (yellow-green beryl), golden
beryl and various types of quartz (amethyst, citrine, rose quartz,
rock crystal) in a wide range of cuts and/or crystal forms. There
have been FT pearls since 2008 and, since 2007, gold from the Rhine
– Made in Germany. Although the FT status of the last two rests
primarily on environmental claims, generally good working conditions
obtain in Germany and especially for specialists in pearls. Moreover,
there are many more mines and projects in the pipeline that promise
future FT offerings, for instance an opal mine in Honduras. Dealers
confirm to their clientele with each purchase that they comply with
the FT principles they have developed on an individual basis by
issuing a certificate informing on the guidelines aimed at and the
conditions obtaining in the regions where stones and metals were
mined. Alongside the general FT criteria that are binding on all
parties, assurance is provided that no hostilities or conflicts have
been financed with the material, that good living and working
conditions, including the usual local wages, prevail where processing
takes place and that, ideally, local producers share in the profits.
As far as the local environment is concerned, minimal impairment of
soil, water and air is certified as well as eschewal of mining
technologies that severely harm the natural environment (such as the
use of cyanide and mercury). In addition, dealers guarantee minimal
prices to producers and guarantees of purchase of materials.
Long-term contracts are the aim – in so far as they have not
already been concluded – but they are not yet secure because
demand is only gradually increasing. The next crucial step is
implementing uniform FT criteria as well as a certification mark,
something that – despite the long-term endeavours of many FT
iniatives – has hitherto not existed for any material used in
jewellery. Certification marks, such as Transfair in Germany and Max
Havelar in Switzerland, are issued by independent FT organisations
(FLO, IFAT andEFTA). These organisations monitor a variety of
products and conduct regular, unannounced inspections of the product
ranges. FLO (Fair Trade Labelling Organization), ASM (Artisanal and
Small-scale Mining) and ARM (Association for Responsible Mining) are
currently collaborating on guidelines for environmentally friendly
primary mining, on the basis of which a future FT label for gold is
to be issued. Until uniform FT guidelines make a binding FT
quality-control system possible and the certification mark has been
implemented, dealers have to engage in a variety of strategies for
plausibly advertising their products as authentically Fair Trade. In
collaboration with academics at German universities, human rights and
environmental organisations as well as local environmental protection
authorities, alternative warranty systems will be built up according
to which certification will be issued. In addition, transparency for
consumers is essential so that, alongside diverse sources of
information and methods of enlightenment, organised package tours to
the countries of origin often also provide insights into mining and
gemcutting. SWITCHING in practice – what does using FT material
mean? Like the dealers, jewellery-makers working with FT material are
pioneering in a market that has not yet opened up very far. In recent
years, it has been mainly small jewellery labels and goldsmiths’
workshops that have been receptive to the FT idea. Most of these are
European and, more specifically, in the German-speaking countries,
the Netherlands and Britain. In Pforzheim, too, there is a
third-generation manufacturer who today is already producing in
compliance with FT principles. Since 2007 the organisation
“TransparenceDesign” fromSwitzerland has been in operation,
representing jewellery designers working along FT lines and on whose
initiatve the first competition with FT material has been established
in 2008. Compared with Europe the FT-discourse in the USA is clearly
advanced. Several environmental and human rights organisations,
jewellery associations and reputable firms such as Tiffany & Co
and De Beers have been engaging in what is known as the Madison
Dialogue (a sort of round table) since 2006 to work towards
sustainability and the responsible extraction of precious metals and
gemstones. Just how widely notions of an FT standard can vary is shown
by a joint venture entered on by Walmart, the largest American public
corporation, with the second largest gold producer in the world,
Newmont Mining Corporation, for the purpose of establishing a
proprietary eco-label for jewellery. Walmart has repeatedly been
sentenced to huge fines by American courts for the substandard
working conditions it imposes on employees. Newmont Mining, on the
other hand, is criticised for using conventional mining methods (heap
leaching with cyanide) and for its current undertakings in Ghana,
which are not very beneficial to the environment there. But what does
switching a business to using FT material actually entail? What
difficulties as well as what opportunities result from such a switch?
Switching to FT has consequences for virtually all aspects of
jewellery production, ranging from purchase of materials, the
production side to the communications side. Even at the material
purchasing stage, it becomes clear that working up contacts and
information on FT materials and suppliers is quite a lot more
time-consuming and expensive. The choice of FT materials available is
limited to the raw materials currently in stock and the processing
methods that the market has developed. These limitations lead either
to a narrowing down of possibilities for design or the optio of
combining FT with conventional materials. Working entirely with FT
material is in any case only possible to a very limited extent
because some common alloy constituents are not yet available as FT
materials, including copper and palladium. Nor is there any FT
furniture, which makes realistic cost estimates more difficult if
they have to be made extra. As far as the cost of FT is concerned, a
surcharge must be factored in, depending on the material, which
results from the more cost-intensive yet environmentally correct
extraction methods used and the more humane wages paid to workmen
(this surcharge amounts to approx 25 % for FT gold and silver). By
contrast, the cost of many FT gemstones compares favourably with
conventional price ranges since buying directly from the mines cuts
out middlemen and their profit margins. In addition, such direct
transactions ensure quality control that eliminates the inadvertent
purchase of fake or treated stones. It remains to be seen which
jewellery materials, apart from “the classic ones”, will
supplement the design of an FT jewellery scene in future, such as
certified hardwoods, organic plastic materials and new developments
in environmentally friendly materials. From the technical angle,
working FT metals and stones can be said in general to cause no
problems that might not also crop up with conventional materials.
That FT material behaves according to its physical properties just as
its conventional counterpart does is a circumstance that several
unbelieving jewellery founders have had to learn the hard way. Some
foundries and refineries are responding to continuing client demand
for FT material to be worked and are providing a variety of
solutions. The crucial question here is often to what extent real FT
material – that is pure FT material – is to be worked or
whether the idea and effect of sustainability is fulfilled merely by
adding some FT material to the cycle. That this is not just a purely
pragmatic solution is shown in the reaction of many end consumers,
who often insist on real FT material being worked for their piece of
jewellery. Communications is an aspect of FT jewellery that must not
be neglected if production is to be sustainable. Of course the
material can be passed over in silence but the communications
situation changes drastically as soon as those responsible for
launching it choose to go on the offensive. The social, environmental
and political factors associated with FT as opposed to conventional
material are indissolubly linked with jewellery made of FT material.
Many people who are interested in this particular type of jewellery
are often those who want to be informed about the background factors
– and that implies an awful lot of communication. Whether in
person-to-person talks with clients, critics and the press or in
marketing packages comprising both texts and images – in the
sense of developing a market and a corporate identiy, bringing
content across is pivotal. In this communication process,
transparency and plausibility decide the future success of an FT
movement in jewellery. One conclusion
A reservation quite often voiced about Fair Trade – to the tune
of ‘it’s not really necessary’ – is tabled with a
reference to the thousands of years of recycling that have gone into
working gold. According to this line of reasoning, gold, once
extracted, continues to be put back into circulation by being melted
down and refined again and again – and rightly so! However, that
alters nothing about the fact that, by direct comparison, more than
double the amount of gold worked up annually into jewellery comes
from current mining operations. Approximately three quarters of the
worldwide demand for gold is claimed for jewellery production. What
is correct is, on the other hand, that the international jewellery
industry makes a far greater contribution to the social and
environmental impact made by conventional jewellery production than
the small individual craftsmen, designers and makers of auteur
jewellery. If the jewellery industry does not invest in sustainable
mining practices, not enough FT material can be extracted to even
start to meet industry demand. For this very reason, FT provides a
possibility for small and medium-sized producers to stand out on a
jewellery market that continues to grow tighter. In addition, they
contribute by their actions to societal processes of
consciousness-raising that in turn gradually make FT jewellery
acceptable to a broader public. And, apart from this constantly
advanced line of reasoning that is indebted to the market economy and
is entirely economic in nature, there are many other good reasons for
thinking about sustainable design in jewellery as well. Thoughts
that, if they are pursued to their logical conclusion, lead to more
areas of work: for instance, how sustainably do I run
myworkshop/studio? How economical of resources are my working methods
and how does my environmental footprint look as far as marketing and
travelling habits are concerned? – How far is it possible to
work in freedom in such a way that not just my freedom but also that
of other people and the conservation of ecosystems are made possible?
Opal mining in
Australia over 100 years has created a moonscape type environment in
the opal fields. Sapphire mining has had similar impacts. Ruby mining
is often carried out close to rivers; threatening water supplies with
contamination from effluent.
There can also
a great human cost. The term 'blood diamonds' refers to the trade of
diamonds where the proceeds are used to that help fund wars in
Africa. With nearly 50% of the world's diamonds coming from Africa,
it's not unknown for blood diamonds to wind up in the stores of major
jewelry chains. Aside from financing wars; in many diamond mines,
working conditions are deplorable and the miners paid a pittance.
There are
alternatives - earth friendly jewelry is becoming increasingly
popular. Instead of precious metals and gemstones, components such as
glass, shells and recycled materials are used.
There are many
ways to show someone you love them, but if you do settle on precious
metal/gem stone jewelry and are concerned about your purchase's
impact on the environment; consider these two ideas:
a) Find
socially responsible jewelers who are certified to be sourcing
precious metals and gemstones in an ecologically and socially
responsible manner. While no form of mining can be considered truly
environmentally friendly, some responsible mining companies are
making an effort to ensure that damage to the environment is minimal,
effluent properly managed, workers fairly treated and areas mined rehabilitated.
b) consider
buying a pre-owned ring; or even a couple of pieces. Take them to a
jeweler and have them make something new from it - if you purchase
wisely, you might save a stack of cash and wind up with a truly
original piece!
I don't think
we'll ever change our fascination with things that sparkle, but
something we do need to change is our gullibility for allowing
companies to convince us of what we need to give to make someone feel
special and to demonstrate our depth of feeling; or allowing them to
dictate to us what is beautiful, precious and "forever". |
