Wal-Mart Jewelry Goes Green
It’s official: “green” jewelry has hit the mainstream. Wal-Mart Stores announced today that it will stock a new brand of sustainable jewelry that will be tracked from mine to market. The new exclusive Love, Earth brand, which includes a $69 sterling silver necklace and $48 hoop earrings, will be sold in Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and online. A customer who buys the jewelry can visit www.loveearthinfo.com to see where their particular piece of jewelry was mined and learn about the suppliers’ environmental programs. To make this program a reality, Wal-Mart is working with United States metal mines: a first. Previous environmental brands have used recycled precious metals. The project partners include global mining giant Rio Tinto, Newmont Mining Corporation, and Aurafin, a jewelry distributor that is part of the Richline Group. The project will initially focus on gold and silver jewelry using metal from Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Utah Copper Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah, the largest man-made excavation in the world. Every year, in addition to 300,000 tons of copper, Kennecott produces 500,000 ounces of gold and 4 million ounces of silver. Newmont will provide gold from its Nevada mines. The retailer says it plans to add diamond jewelry to the project, no doubt through Rio Tinto’s diamond mining operations. Wal-Mart says its goal is to eventually have all its jewelry meet sustainability and environmental standards, starting with 10 percent of all jewelry by 2010. Although this is the first large project of its kind, consider the gauntlet thrown. With the world’s largest jewelry retailer now pressuring all suppliers for details on standards and sourcing, other retailers will be sure to follow.
[…] Canyon Mine in Utah, the largest man-made excavation in the world. Image source : ebayimg.com> Continue . News selected by Covalence | Country: USA | Company: Wal-Mart | Source: Modern […]
Another slippery slope to deal with!
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How in the world did the largest strip mine in the world get placed in the same term as “green”. Seems like a contradiction to me. And doesn’t that kind of remove the concept of competition? I guess that means that the prices of jewelry at Wal-Mart will go up… every time someone says green that is what happens.
The point here is not to claim that the Jewellery is ‘green’ today (although WalMart strongly suggests this association). Rather it is to begin give consumers the information they need to make better decisions in future…
There’s lots wrong with the WalMart approach today (for starters you have to buy an item before you can explore its provenance!!!) but it’s a step in the right direction.
Trust is the jewellery industry’s most valuable commodity and it has been eroding. If transparency is what it takes to restore it, then in the end the whole industry will be grateful…
It does though, as ‘Karl’ suggests, change the rules of competition away from price and onto transparency. Where gold and silver have begun, diamonds will surely follow…
In future, the most clearest diamonds will certainly be the most valuable, but perhaps not in the way you think…
[…] That’s the view of the industry blog at US trade publication Modern Jeweller. […]