The issue of so-called carbon footprints and how companies can reduce the amount of pollution into the atmosphere was the main subject on the agenda of the Marketing and Education Committee.
A British company called Carbon Expert gave a presentation on operating in a carbon-neutral manner, telling delegates: You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Committee members heard about ways to reduce carbon emissions and the benefits to business of doing so. The firm said it could aid companies in the jewellery pipeline to put a plan in place and manage it for them.
Some of the world’s largest consumer goods firms, with scores of brands, have already taken steps to reduce carbon emissions, as have leading luxury goods firms, including Gucci, Tiffany & Co and Louis Vuitton. Many of these companies are seeing greater revenues because they are advertising their environmentally friendly ways of operating, and this has struck a chord with consumers who are willing to pay a higher cost for goods that have been created in a way that causes less damage to the environment than was formally the case.
Globally-known department store Marks & Spencer saw a 50 percent rise in revenue in 2012 due in part to its carbon-neutral activities that were popular with shoppers, the Carbon Expert team reported.
Having carried out carbon-neutral activities, it is critical that businesses report them to their customers in order to reap the full benefit, they said.
On the sustainability theme, Dr. Laurent Cartier from the Swiss lab SSEF, spoke about sustainable pearl and coral farming in a project that had been sponsored by Tiffany & Co. He said that caring for the environment where pearl farming took place often produced healthier marine life, and healthier oysters, meaning better-quality natural pearls were created.
He said that the arguments in favour of sustainable development produced a favourable response among the younger generation – a target market for jewellery firms.
Professor Donald Feaver from RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, pointed out that CSR is also about environmental protection. He cautioned industry members against using claims that they could not back up, saying that there were many knowledgeable groups worldwide keeping an eye on such claims and embarrassing firms which made exaggerated claims.
Photo Caption: Moya McKeown of Carbon Expert during deliberations of the CIBJO Marketing and Education Commission in Moscow.