Jeweller - May 2022

GEMSTONE FEATURE | Responsibly Sourced
by HUGH BROWN
Left and above: Artisinal
sulphur labourers work at
Kawah Ijen Volcano, Indonesia.
Let’s say you’re the buyer, or a key decision-maker
in a jewellery store, and over the past few years
an increasing number of shoppers are asking
about ‘responsibly sourced’ jewellery.
You know it’s a topical issue – no different to eco-friendly
and sustainable products in other retail categories such as
consumables.
You’ve also heard that it’s complex issue. However, your
intention is to begin offering, or continue selling, products
that are ‘responsibly sourced’, whether they be gemstones,
diamonds, or other jewellery.
It’s about showing that your business has what is known
as ‘CSR’ – corporate and social responsibility – across the
board, even though you may only operate a small jewellery
store.
So how do you go about it? What are the guidelines, and,
most importantly, how can you guarantee that you are
sourcing responsibly?
And just because someone says a product is responsibly
sourced, does that make it true?
Defining the problem
The first issue is to work out what ‘responsibly sourced’
actually means. To the consumer, it may have many
meanings.
Some might be interested in ensuring that no child labour is
involved in the supply chain that produced, say, that beautiful
colour gemstone or gold jewellery piece.
For other customers, ‘responsibly sourced’ might relate to
the impact on the environment, say, in mining operations.
Others might be concerned about human trafficking,
organised crime or the involvement of extremist groups in
the supply channels.
And more politically savvy people may be concerned about
insurgent groups using the proceeds of mineral production
to finance armed conflict.
As you are probably starting to gather, ‘responsibly sourcing’
is not as simple as it first seems.
To add more complexity to the matter, responsible sourcing
is not the same as ‘sustainable sourcing’.
The former requires meeting or complying with accepted
levels of ethical or trustworthy practices in areas such as
human rights or pollution, whereas sustainable sourcing
goes beyond compliance to engage and improve the
AT A GL A NCE
Artisanal and
small-scale mining
45
million
the number of
people working in
artisanal mining
20
per cent of the
world’s gold is
courtesy artisanal
miners
80
The number of
countries where
artisanal mining
takes place
269
million
the potential number of
people downstream who
depend artisanal mining
80
percent cent of the
world’s sapphires
are courtesy
artisanal miners
Source: delvedatabase.org
conditions of sustainability that can include areas such as
livelihoods or climate-smart practices.
So when a customer is asking you about responsible
sourcing, their definition could be very different to yours – or
that of your suppliers – and they could even have sustainable
sourcing in their mind.
Complex subjectivity
The one reality in all of the above is that there are so many
factors involved in the adjudication of what is, and is not,
‘responsibly sourced’ that it’s impossible for there to be
unanimity between consumers as to what it means. It is an
entirely subjective process.
A noble concept, but subjective nevertheless! And after all
that, everything remains voluntary too.
After all the above, the process and definition then becomes
even more complicated when each element of responsible
sourcing needs to be weighted relative to the other, and then
scored to give an overall performance assessment.
It’s a process that every customer does intuitively, making it
impossible for there to be unanimity between customers.
The little guy
One of the major issues I raise with people and groups
who preach about ethics is that responsible sourcing and
sustainable sourcing both ignore the fact that almost the
entire focus is on the negative aspects of jewellery supply
chains, rather than the incredible positives that sourcing
from Third World countries can also generate.
And I say ‘Third World’ because the overwhelming
production of gemstones in particular comes from
impoverished nations.
Now, here’s the rub. I say ‘incredible positives’ because 85
per cent of the global mining of gemstones is carried out by,
what are colloquially known as, artisanal miners.
Artisanal mining, or small-scale mining, refers to
subsistence mining by people using primarily manual
means - forget machinery and automation, they work using
tools such as picks and shovels. Think of the photos we’ve
all seen of the Australian gold rush in the 1850s.
It’s estimated that there are 40 million people mining this
way around the world, while a further 240 million people
symbiotically depend on the activity.
The benefits not only accrue to these miners in the form of
employment, they also accrue in terms of opportunities for
others to gain skills they would otherwise not have because
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