Last luxuries: How sustainable is the watch & jewellery industry today?
Ethical sourcing and sustainability are issues that have become impossible to ignore in the watch and jewellery industry. Critics and research show that luxury brands are now at a crossroads: to keep up with increasingly conscious consumers, or 'face trouble'.
For all the glamour and gloss of the fine jewellery industry, much less has been said about where the stones that make up these staggering creations come from. And for a long time, the industry was content to maintain the status quo, an unsaid ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy that would retain the mystique of these amazing works — or perhaps make them more palatable.
But in recent years the topic has become harder to ignore by both consumers and brands. The advent of the Internet and social media have exposed the numerous faults in the diamond mining industry — this, after the famous “blood diamond” scandal in the 1990s, which put a spotlight on the industry’s insidious underbelly and its lack of transparency. A sampling of historical damage, from the Human Rights Watch: The forcible displacement of indigenous peoples and local residents that live near mines. Children injured, or even killed, when working in small-scale mining pits. Waterways and soil polluted with toxic chemicals, harming whole communities; one study cited by the BBC in 2020 estimates that the polishing of just one carat of diamonds emits 160 kg of carbon dioxide: In five years, this would produce between 160 to 170 megatonnes of CO2 emissions — the equivalent of Singapore’s yearly emissions for the entire country.
Some companies have taken matters into their own hands. Most famously, Tiffany & Co. launched their Diamond Source Initiative in 2019, a move that would enable consumers to trace the provenance of each newly-source diamond above 0.18cts. The programme was further expanded in 2020, with Tiffany sharing the craftsmanship journey — namely, the location of the stone’s cutting and polishing workshop — with consumers as well. Last October, Cartier and Kering (the parent company of brands such as Boucheron and Gucci) announced a new sustainability pact, the candidly-named ‘Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030’. Commitments include submitting their plans to the Science Based Targets initiative — what critics have called the ‘gold standard’ for corporate climate targets — and supporting the upward mobility of their workforce. The pact has called on other brands in the industry to join, and stressed that “aspirations for a sustainable industry can only be achieved through collaborative initiatives.”
In jewellery, the consumer cares much more about values, sustainable practices and ethics than she did two, or even three years ago.
In 2003, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme — so named for South Africa’s famous diamond capital — was enacted with the goal of preventing “conflict diamonds” from reaching the mainstream market. Since its inception, the Process, which requires participants to satisfy several “minimum requirements”, including establishing national legislations and import and export controls, has become the most prominent international standard that the majority of the industry adheres to. But critics say that it is far from enough: The Human Rights Watch calls the Process “inadequate”, nothing that it does not require “full traceability, transparency, or robust on-the-ground human rights assessments from their members.”
Non-governmental organisations say that while the situation has improved since the early aughts, not enough is being done to protect the people at the bottom of these supply chains — something exacerbated by the arrival of Covid-19. As the Human Rights Watch notes, when consumer demand waned in the early days of the pandemic, watch and jewellery companies that were investing in responsible sourcing had to “divert attention and resources” to more immediate crisis management measures.
But if there has been one silver lining to the pandemic, it is that the world’s inequalities have once again been thrown into stark relief — making the issue impossible to ignore.
The ‘Sustainability Surge’
In a post-Blood Diamond industry, the notion of sustainability used to be seen as a form of risk management: What sort of practices can we implement to prevent our brand from losing customers? What are the steps we can take to avoid a public relations fallout?
But analysts say that it has since transformed into an enormous opportunity to enact positive change: On the mining industry, the people whose labour it relies on, and on brands’ bottom lines.
In June 2021, management consulting firm McKinsey & Company and The Business of Fashion released an extensive report on the state of the watch and jewellery industry. Sustainability was a key pillar in the report; the publication describes it as nothing short of a “surge.” By 2025, it is estimated that up to 30 per cent of global jewellery sales will be driven by sustainability concerns — a three to four-times increase from 2019 amounting to some US$70 to $110 billion, once again proving that the move toward more sustainable practices is as much a moral responsibility as it is a sound business decision.
“Sustainability considerations across categories are really skyrocketing,” said Tyler Harris, an associate partner at McKinsey and a contributor to the report. “In jewellery, the consumer cares much more about values, sustainable practices and ethics than she did two, or even three years ago.”
What’s changing now is that you’re required to do things, to share what you’re doing, and to prove it... You must express your intentions and show that you ‘walk the talk’.
Harris’ colleague and co-contributor Alexander Thiel was more blunt. “If the brand doesn’t have a sustainability agenda or sustainability credentials, then for many consumers — millennials in particular — it will just not be viable,” he said. It all stands to reason: For big ticket, highly emotive items like watches and jewellery, consumers naturally want their purchase to align with their public persona.
But for brands, it’s not as easy as putting out a ‘sustainability’ page on their website and calling it a day — customers must feel like the brand is sincere in their desire for sustainable practices. “In the past, people assumed big brands did the right thing — that was enough, unless revealed it wasn’t the case,” said Cartier’s chief executive Cyrille Vigneron. “What’s changing now is that you’re required to do things, to share what you’re doing, and to prove it... You must express your intentions and show that you ‘walk the talk’.”
François-Henry Bennahmias, Audemars Piguet’s chief executive, agrees. “It’s a long road. You can’t just say, ‘I was bad, now I’m good’,” he said. “What I do know is that brands will be in trouble if they don’t act.”
