What is Sustainable & Ethical Jewellery?

What exactly is Sustainable & Ethical Jewellery?

Sustainable and ethical fashion has become more prominent than ever before. With our focus being shifted to the realities of fast fashion, many shoppers are more conscious with where their clothing and jewellery comes from and what effect it’s having on the environment. Sustainable and ethical jewellery are quality investment pieces that are sure to last a lifetime and have little to no impact on our surroundings and the people who made it. Keep reading to find out what sustainable and ethical jewellery is, what to look out for when buying it and what practices Auree Jewellery use in their pieces.

 

What is sustainable and ethical jewellery?

In general, sustainable and ethical jewellery is jewellery that has little to no impact on the environment it’s made in and to the people who make it. Many jewellers and fashion brands do this by making sure their manufacturing and sourcing process is ethical and that the materials can be traced back to their original source. The following measures are used by many jewellery brands to help protect the planet, their workers, and their customers.

  1. Using manufacturing methods or sourcing that reduces pollutants and the impact to the environment

Jewellery and clothing manufacturing can be harmful to the planet, depending on what methods are used. Metals, gemstones, and other materials are typically found and bought from reliable sources and places that aren’t affecting the environment that the material is found from.

  1. Limiting excess waste

In an effort to decrease pollution, fashion brands also make high quality pieces to keep clothes and jewellery out of landfill. If your jewellery is well made from premium materials, you’re less likely to throw them away and pollute the planet. If you do want to get rid of some jewellery, you can take it to brands like Auree Jewellery and they will recycle it to create new pieces. Some jewellers even create specialist collections from their left-over materials.

  1. Using Fairtrade or recycled materials

By ensuring the materials used are recycled, jewellers breathe a new lease of life into old jewellery and create something new. Fairtrade is something you want to look out for especially when you’re looking at gold. But what is Fairtrade?

Fairtrade is a system of certification that ensures strict and safe standards are met in the production, sourcing, and supply of a product. Fairtrade ensures workers operate in safe working conditions, receive fair pay, and use climate friendly techniques. Fairtrade Certified Gold is an ethical certification that supports small-scale miners and protects the environment. All Fairtrade gold is sourced from mining sites that meet their standards, and you can tell if something is Fairtrade by the stamp on the inside. This stamp can be traced back to its original source for complete transparency.

  1. Using conflict-free gemstones and diamonds

Diamonds and gemstones are beautiful natural stones that come from nature. This often means they’re found in mines or in the earth’s crust so miners will need to dig deep to find them. This has a big affect on the environment which is why Fairtrade and other ethical certifications encourage people to use specific mines. Conflict-free diamonds are especially important in promoting fair pay, safe working conditions and no human rights abuses during the mining or sourcing process. These diamonds can be tracked to where they came from and must adhere to the Kimberley Process. The Kimberley Process is a certification scheme that was established to prevent conflict or blood diamonds from entering the mainstream diamond market. To find out if your favourite brands stick to this process, it’ll be advertised on their website.


  1. Working with suppliers that pay fair wages, proper working hours and don’t use child labour

Sustainable and ethical jewellery is mostly associated with protecting the planet, but it also looks after workers and suppliers. To keep the manufacturing process ethical, it’s vital that workers are paid fair wages and have proper working hours. Child labour is often a problem when sourcing materials so ensuring a supplier doesn’t endorse this is also important.

 Auree Jewellery Workshop

How Auree Jewellery stay sustainable

Auree Jewellery can be considered a sustainable or ethical jewellery brand due to the many practices that they adhere to.

Auree Jewellery use a small number of workshops based in the UK, Thailand and India. These workshops all follow proper sustainable and ethical practices and create beautiful jewellery that’s made to last.

Where possible, Auree Jewellery use recycled materials in their jewellery, including their gold and silver pieces. They also offer gold and silver recycling services so you can give them your old jewellery and they’ll turn it into something new. Packaging is also very important, and Auree Jewellery send their gifts in reusable cotton jewellery pouches and boxes that can be recycled.

Salina Gemstone Drop Earrings

Auree Jewellery is dedicated to making its design and manufacturing process more sustainable in the future and are making steps towards this goal every day. For stunning classic jewellery pieces, check out the Auree Jewellery Bestsellers collection.