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Paris (AFP)
Forget how many carats – how ethical is your gold? While high-end consumers demand to know the origin of their treasures, some jewelers make sure to use gold from responsible, environmentally friendly or recycled sources.
Specialized producers now add to their production a "fair" label that respects the environment. The Swiss company Chopard became last year the first big name to engage in creations "100% ethical".
The Geneva-based company, which wins the Palme d'Or award for the Cannes Film Festival, claims to only use certified suppliers that meet stringent standards in order to minimize the negative environmental impacts of extracting it. precious metal.
Among the many certificates and standards claiming to codify a "responsible" orpaillerie, two labels emerge.
This is the "fairmined" gold – a label certified by a Colombian NGO – and the better known "fairtrade" label launched by the Swiss Max Havelaar Foundation.
Both support artisbad mines that seek to preserve the environment in terms of mining methods, as well as decent working conditions and wages for miners.
This production remains limited – a few hundred kilograms a year. World gold production by comparison is about 3,300 tons.
– Good as recycled gold –
The jewelers concerned are keen to ensure that they can trace the source of their entire supply up to an ethical production cycle and to certified companies by the non-profit Responsible Jewelery Council, which has developed standards for the entire supply chain.
RJC members must adhere to the strict standards governing ethical, human rights, social and environmental practices in the precious metals industry.
The luxury French group Kering, which claims to have purchased more than 3.5 tonnes of "responsibly produced" gold since 2015 for its brands Boucheron, Pomellato, Dodo and Gucci, is committed to using 100 % "ethical" gold by 2020.
"We are trying to maximize the proportion of Fairmined and Fairtrade gold – but their modest output is in high demand, so the bulk of our supply source is recycled gold, which is certified" chain of RJC traceability ", explains Claire Piroddi, Sustainability Manager for Jewelry and Watches in Kering.
Fairmined or Fairtrade gold costs about 10 to 12% more. But recycled gold generates little extra cost, "Piroddi told AFP, as it was already refined for a previous life in the form of jewelry or part of product.
Go further still, only using precious metals from electronic or industrial waste is an original idea developed by Courbet, a brand launched last spring.
"We do not want to promote mining or use the recently mined gold, so we looked for suppliers who recycle gold used in graphics cards or computer processors." because we know today that more than half of the available gold reserves have already been extracted, "says Marie-Ann Wachtmeister, co-founder and Artistic Director of Courbet.
She says that the brand's order words are an ethical and environmental conscience.
"In a mine, a ton of land can hold five grams of gold, while a ton of electronic waste can generate 200 grams," says Wachtmeister.
"Customers are also demanding more and more of an eco-friendly approach: they are aware of their day-to-day impact and consider where they are coming from," she added.
– No gold trip –
"The issue of supply really affects the general public," said Thierry Lemaire, general manager of Ponce, a jewelery company created in the trendy Marais district in Paris in 1886.
The company is RJC certified and uses only recycled gold.
"There is a logic to that, if we want to do our job well, then let's take it all for ourselves and respect nature.This can be done today because the whole chain is now normalized.
"Studios like ours that work for big names in the Place Vendome are all certified," said Lemaire, referring to a high-end place in Paris.
It represents the fifth generation of the Ponce family business, which produces 45,000 gold rings a year from recycled gold.
Working in a hot atmosphere of heated metal, the refiners are sitting on polishing machines, a large leather skin hung on the knees to catch the smallest shave.
"Every Friday, we have a large storeroom and review the workshop with a fine tooth comb to pick up small pieces of dust (gold) and chips," says Lemaire.
"Nothing is lost, it's a really virtuous chain."
? AFP 2019
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