Meeting on the first day of the CIBJO Congress, CIBJO’s Sustainable Development Commission discussed a roadmap being drawn up to adopt formal ESG (economic, social and governance) principles across the various sectors of the jewellery industry.

Speaking to the congress, John Mulligan, the Climate Change Lead and Market Relations Director at the World Gold Council, who is President of the CIBJO Sustainable Development Commission, introduced a guidance document originally drawn up to help laboratory-grown diamond businesses on their sustainable development journey, which is in the initial stages of being adapted for wider adoption in other parts of the industry.

 A year after their initial presentation at the 2023 CIBJO Congress in Jaipur, two consultants, John Key and Helen Mitchell, referring to “what good looks like and the journey to best practice,” presented their project to the CIBJO gathering, including detailed diagrams showing which steps they recommended to be taken by laboratory-grown diamond businesses to reduce their carbon footprint, and improve standards in their day to day activities.

The consultants reported on discussions with companies that were at different stages of their journey towards greater sustainability, and noted they had produced “living document”, which was open to feedback from CIBJO members. This, they said, could be a step closer to producing formal guidance, before it would be turned into a CIBJO Blue Book, an official document for the jewellery industry. 

Delegates gave feedback including a call for simpler language to help small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) to be able to act on the recommendations.

One delegate called for a concise worksheet to be developed, particularly to help SMEs, sometimes micro entities operating to tight schedules with limited resources, to move forward effectively.

John Key, responding to a call from a CIBJO member for education, said he was considering delivering online teaching to help companies on their path towards greater sustainable development.

Mr Key also spoke of the importance of measuring impact in order to gather data to monitor the success of moves towards sustainable development by LGD jewellery businesses.

Ms Mitchell said a key takeaway of the toolkit was ultimately to boost the bottom line of businesses and deliver sustainable profit growth, as well as to avoid greenwashing.

Among the other speakers during the Sustainable Development session were Iris Van der Veken, Executive Director of the Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030, which was launched in October 2021 by Cartier and the Kering group of luxury brands, and which is working towards finding solutions to create a better global watches and jewellery industry, by engaging with the industry to develop more sustainable practices in climate, environment and human resources.

Rounding out the panel was Alice Vanni, the Compliance and Sustainability Officer at Italpreziosi Spa, a leading refiner of precious metals from Italy, who reported on the ambitious sustainability programme undertaken by the company.