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by Brand Nu
ETHICAL GOLD
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS BOLD
“From Columbian rainforests to the Canadian Arctic, from Nepalese mountains to Tanzanian savannahs, we explore the world in our search for natural materials to craft in to Cred Jewellery”
Chichester based company Cred is the world’s leading ethical and fair trade luxury jewellery company committed to the creation of beautiful jewellery.
We’re probably more aware of ecological and humanitarian issues nowadays than ever before. Since the release of the award winning power point presentation ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, the media has picked up on the global sense of concern and run with it. Despite this new found enlightenment, however, there are still an unbelievable number of issues that slip through the cracks; and the mining of precious stones and materials such as gold, is just one.
‘Blood Diamond’, the action blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio, brought the conflict and misery born from diamond production to the popular consciousness, but it’s only recently that the true extent of the jewellery industries’ problems have started to come to light: problems that Greg Valerio and his charity Cred are working to change. Charity probably isn’t the right word to use because although registered, its priority is not to raise money to give to poorer nations, but to create fair trade routes for people in those countries thus providing more /safe / fair job opportunities. “Poverty doesn’t exist because of a deficit of aid” Greg attests, “it exists because of biased and unfair trade laws.”
“We see man-made exploitation, abuse of human rights and reckless destruction of natural resources. Such horrors are totally unacceptable to us, so we are motivated to change this reality.”
Speaking to Greg, you get the impression of a man who fights passionately for what is right - a rare thing these days and it’s nothing if not inspiring. Before Cred he would go visit schools explaining the various human rights violations around the world. He found that a lot of the schools wanted to twin with those in the poorer areas that he was talking about. These projects put him in close contact with people on and below the poverty line and they told him that what they needed more than anything else was jobs and an opportunity to support themselves.
In 1996 Greg took it upon himself to start the Cred Foundation but it wasn’t until later that he fell into the jewellery trade. “We imported goods from the poorer nations but I found that the only thing that sold with any consistency was the jewellery.” This spurred him to search for fair trade gold and silver, but he found that the concept simply didn’t exist. The problem was that he could only trace the products back so far – certainly, the validity of a jeweller can be ascertained relatively easily, but the raw materials had no paper trail.
“The whole extraction industry is one of the most polluting in the world” states Greg, referring to gold and silver mining operations. Cyanide is used to literally dissolve the mountains containing the precious metals. Once they have been removed, several thousand tonnes of toxic waste are left. Ironically, it’s then treated with more chemicals to make it less toxic and then, well, that’s it. “I’ve seen cyanide lakes; they have quite an apocalyptic feel about them”: this doesn’t seem to be an overstatement.
If all this seems a little far away, Greg puts everything into perspective rather well. “A ten gram, 18 carrot wedding ring produces at least three tonnes of toxic waste alone” - sort of takes the shine off, so to speak.
Cred eventually found an organisation in Colombia called Oroverde which pans for gold in the traditional method, enabling the ethical validity of a ring to be traced from its very source. When asked how viable this is as an alternate for the rest of the industry, Greg is realistic “right now, no, it’s probably not viable for the big names to do it like this but, remember, this is an entirely new space that even we are just starting to explore, so no one has many answers yet.”
Cred Foundation works to make sure that the mining of metals and gems respects strict social and environmental principles: restoring and re-foresting mined land; and avoiding the use of toxic chemicals that pollute rivers thus protecting marine life and eco systems.
The company’s concern for the environment is matched by its emphasis on human rights. “We work to improve the social standards of workers in the mining industry; campaigning to end unsafe practices such as exposure to chemicals which can cause brain damage. We reject child labour and the loss of the indigenous people’s land rights.”
By the time you read this, Greg will already have been to Greenland to research the ethical mining of rubies from the Inuit people. Cred Jewellery’s aim is to be able to ethically produce everything in their range – 100%.
“Although we live by a rigid set of standards, we never let our ethics get in the way of the aesthetics. We have style as well as scruples: we love jewellery; we love beauty.”
“I’m idealistic and pragmatic at the same time. I’ll reach for the ideal whilst knowing what is realistically attainable”. Thanks to this combination, one less problem has slipped through the cracks.
Cred ethical jewellery - from wedding and engagement rings to one off bespoke designs - can be found at www.credjewellery.com.
To find out more about the Cred Foundation visit www.cred.org.uk
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ALL THAT GLITTERS IS BOLD
“From Columbian rainforests to the Canadian Arctic, from Nepalese mountains to Tanzanian savannahs, we explore the world in our search for natural materials to craft in to Cred Jewellery”
Chichester based company Cred is the world’s leading ethical and fair trade luxury jewellery company committed to the creation of beautiful jewellery.
We’re probably more aware of ecological and humanitarian issues nowadays than ever before. Since the release of the award winning power point presentation ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, the media has picked up on the global sense of concern and run with it. Despite this new found enlightenment, however, there are still an unbelievable number of issues that slip through the cracks; and the mining of precious stones and materials such as gold, is just one.
‘Blood Diamond’, the action blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio, brought the conflict and misery born from diamond production to the popular consciousness, but it’s only recently that the true extent of the jewellery industries’ problems have started to come to light: problems that Greg Valerio and his charity Cred are working to change. Charity probably isn’t the right word to use because although registered, its priority is not to raise money to give to poorer nations, but to create fair trade routes for people in those countries thus providing more /safe / fair job opportunities. “Poverty doesn’t exist because of a deficit of aid” Greg attests, “it exists because of biased and unfair trade laws.”
“We see man-made exploitation, abuse of human rights and reckless destruction of natural resources. Such horrors are totally unacceptable to us, so we are motivated to change this reality.”
Speaking to Greg, you get the impression of a man who fights passionately for what is right - a rare thing these days and it’s nothing if not inspiring. Before Cred he would go visit schools explaining the various human rights violations around the world. He found that a lot of the schools wanted to twin with those in the poorer areas that he was talking about. These projects put him in close contact with people on and below the poverty line and they told him that what they needed more than anything else was jobs and an opportunity to support themselves.
In 1996 Greg took it upon himself to start the Cred Foundation but it wasn’t until later that he fell into the jewellery trade. “We imported goods from the poorer nations but I found that the only thing that sold with any consistency was the jewellery.” This spurred him to search for fair trade gold and silver, but he found that the concept simply didn’t exist. The problem was that he could only trace the products back so far – certainly, the validity of a jeweller can be ascertained relatively easily, but the raw materials had no paper trail.
“The whole extraction industry is one of the most polluting in the world” states Greg, referring to gold and silver mining operations. Cyanide is used to literally dissolve the mountains containing the precious metals. Once they have been removed, several thousand tonnes of toxic waste are left. Ironically, it’s then treated with more chemicals to make it less toxic and then, well, that’s it. “I’ve seen cyanide lakes; they have quite an apocalyptic feel about them”: this doesn’t seem to be an overstatement.
If all this seems a little far away, Greg puts everything into perspective rather well. “A ten gram, 18 carrot wedding ring produces at least three tonnes of toxic waste alone” - sort of takes the shine off, so to speak.
Cred eventually found an organisation in Colombia called Oroverde which pans for gold in the traditional method, enabling the ethical validity of a ring to be traced from its very source. When asked how viable this is as an alternate for the rest of the industry, Greg is realistic “right now, no, it’s probably not viable for the big names to do it like this but, remember, this is an entirely new space that even we are just starting to explore, so no one has many answers yet.”
Cred Foundation works to make sure that the mining of metals and gems respects strict social and environmental principles: restoring and re-foresting mined land; and avoiding the use of toxic chemicals that pollute rivers thus protecting marine life and eco systems.
The company’s concern for the environment is matched by its emphasis on human rights. “We work to improve the social standards of workers in the mining industry; campaigning to end unsafe practices such as exposure to chemicals which can cause brain damage. We reject child labour and the loss of the indigenous people’s land rights.”
By the time you read this, Greg will already have been to Greenland to research the ethical mining of rubies from the Inuit people. Cred Jewellery’s aim is to be able to ethically produce everything in their range – 100%.
“Although we live by a rigid set of standards, we never let our ethics get in the way of the aesthetics. We have style as well as scruples: we love jewellery; we love beauty.”
“I’m idealistic and pragmatic at the same time. I’ll reach for the ideal whilst knowing what is realistically attainable”. Thanks to this combination, one less problem has slipped through the cracks.
Cred ethical jewellery - from wedding and engagement rings to one off bespoke designs - can be found at www.credjewellery.com.
To find out more about the Cred Foundation visit www.cred.org.uk
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