Editor’s Note
This article introduces the Responsible Jewellery Council’s first global retail campaign, #LoveResponsibleJewellery. Launched on its 20th anniversary, the initiative aims to strengthen consumer trust by transparently showcasing members’ sustainability efforts.
Kicking off today, the Responsible Jewellery Council’s (RJC) latest campaign has all the usual communications tools and glossy images needed to promote and educate around responsibility in the industry. But this time, there’s a difference: as the RJC marks its first 20 years, #LoveResponsibleJewellery is the organization’s first-ever global retail campaign, designed to strengthen consumer trust by demonstrating exactly what RJC members are doing to work towards a more sustainable, responsible and transparent jewelry industry.
Meleski believes that the consumer is the final piece in the puzzle, enabling brands from luxury jewelry powerhouses right down to mom-and-pop family jewelers to “bridge the gap between certification and customer trust”.
As the jewellery industry’s leading standard-setting organization, the RJC has been working for the past 20 years to educate and promote responsibility, through certification, global standards and initiatives to drive responsible business practices at every stage of the jewelry supply chain, from mine to retail. The body was founded in 2005 with 14 organizations from across the industry, including Cartier, Jewelers of America, Rio Tinto and Zale Corporation. Today, the RJC represents an international community of over 2,000 members, in 74 different countries.
Described as a “milestone moment” by Meleski, the #LoveResponsibleJewellery campaign kicks off today with a Member Workshop. RJC retailers will find out how to use a specially designed communications kit to demonstrate their commitment to responsibility, sustainability and trust to their customers, raising awareness and reinforcing trust from the very people who have created such demand for responsible jewelry in recent years.
The shift towards greater sustainability in the jewelry industry is widely believed to have been driven by consumer demand – 50% of jewelry consumers say they prefer to buy sustainably sourced jewelry – from a new, well-informed generation of customers who want to know where and how their jewelry was created, and at what cost to the planet and people involved.
Great strides have been made in responsibility and sustainability over the past decade. The RJC’s own work in strengthening chain-of-custody and transparency standards is driving a greater emphasis on traceability and ethical sourcing, industry-wide, while the Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030, launched by Cartier and Kering, now comprises 72 influential industry organizations. Recycled gold now accounts for 27.5% of all gold supply and with big names like Pandora and Prada claiming 100% recycled gold, this figure is expected to rise. Driven by consumer demand, the tide now appears to be changing.
The moves comes as the RJC celebrates its 20th anniversary. In July, executives and stakeholders came together to bury a time capsule at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK, containing mementos, documents and messages from RJC members to symbolize an ongoing commitment to ethical standards in the jewellery and watch industry.