“This is NOT a jewelry issue. It’s a lifestyle issue. It’s a moral issue. It’s an ethical issue. It’s a humanitarian issue. It’s an environmental issue. It’s about the choices we are making with everything in our lives.”
Lourens discusses Vukani-Ubuntu, a Non-Profit Organization that trains people from rural townships into the commercial jewelry trade. Widely supported by government and private donors, this social entrepreneurial effort is one of the most concerted attempts to apply the fair trade principal of economic empowerment for the economically disadvantaged to the main stream jewelry world.
Lourens Mare’
A few jewelry companies today differentiate themselves from the competition by branding themselves as producing green or fair trade jewelry. They’re taking advantage of a growing market that values socially responsible business practices.
The Ethical Metal Smiths are a group of concerned jewelers interested in the fabrication of ethically sourced jewelry. They an excellent example of the “moral minority” in the jewelry industry interested in socially responsible business practices. Here’s an article by Jennifer Horning, its founder, which we took from the Policy Innovations website with her permission.
The Alchemist’s Wedding Band, by Ana M. Lopez.
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“We have customers all the time who tell us that they would not have purchased a diamond had they not found a company with our social mission” says Eric, a entrepreneur who started a non-profit to support initiatives in Sierra Leon.
Beth and Eric Grossman of Brilliant Earth
In my last post, I discussed the notion of radical transparency as a means of examining the integrity level of two large players in the jewelry industry. Now, I want to give examples of companies that are already working within this model that provide a model of how all of us can differentiate ourselves from the rest of the industry in our Blue Ocean strategy by being transparent.
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