Manufacturing Standards
The work of this international group is to establish a set of “fair trade” or “fair made” standards for jewelry manufacturing. The original impetus for this work came from the cross sector, Madison Dialogue meeting at the World Bank in Washington DC in October, 2007. You can read about this meeting in an article written by Marc Choyt, publisher of Fairjewelry.org, that appeared in Modern Jeweler Magazine.
This Manufacturing Committee originally was a working group from that meeting. However, it was recognized that the Madison Dialogue was not meant to be a standard setting body. The members of that original group are now supported by several other companies and organizations with broad expertise. All share in the goal of developing standards from the ground up.
The validity of our work, in part, is based on transparency. Updates, minutes, announcements and additions will be linked here as they become available.
Update 9 March, 2009 – Members of the Group Working To Establish Fair Trade Jewelry Manufacturing Principles and Standards
Update 4 March, 2009 – Dear Manufacturing Group – A Call for Renewal
Update 11 July, 2008 - Manufacturing Group Regroups
Update 12 June, 2008 - On Setting Standards
Update 12 June, 2008 - Manufacturing Committee Procedures:
Update 7 June, 2008 - Current Working Draft Of Manufacturing Principles
Update: 6/June/2008 - Considering Child Labor In International Manufacturing
Update: 5/June/2008 - Contamination Issues In International Manufacturing
Update: 12/May/2008 - Fair Trade Manufacturing Principals For The Jewelry Sector
Update: 9/May/2008 - Manufacturing Group Begins Discussions
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Introduction:
The work of the Madison Dialogue Manufacturing Working group derives out of an industry wide recognition that there is a growing market interested in a supporting a greater level of corporate socially responsibility through their purchases.
Many in the jewelry sector are already branding themselves as “eco-friendly,” or “fair trade” with various degrees of transparency. The work of this committee is to legitimize those efforts which are credible through a third party certification process.
The ultimate goal is to create a certification agency that produces a product far beyond the “fair trade” label. Studies have shown that consumers wish to make their own assessment as to whether something is “fair,” or “green” or “ethical” themselves. The certification agency will draw on principles in the areas of environmental protection, human rights, sustainable development, and fair trade.
The committee will do the ground work which will ultimately enable customers to click on a logo on a web page which will take them to a specific website, which will allow them to see the actual study, including comments, photos and perhaps video of the factory. In this regard, the model will be based less on just a logo than an actual report. The Better Business Bureau is a good example of this:
Objectives
The manufacturing committee has three objectives:
1. To develop fair trade based principals which lead to specific objective criteria for environmental, corporate social responsibility, and working condition for jewelry manufacturing facilities in the developing world.
2. To create a working group that will visit factories and objectively evaluate the fair trade standards.
3. To publish these standards online, on a website which will allow those who work with the factory to link directly to that site, offering third party verification to legitimize claims of “fair trade” or “ethical” practices.
Leadership of Committee and Participation
We recognize that there will be many different levels of participation. Casting a large net creates greater legitimacy for our work. We are going to do our best in invite a wide diversity of participants.
The initiators of this document are Amanda Stark, the Rapaport Group Fair Trade Development Liaison, Marc Choyt, President of Reflective Images Inc, and Demos Takoulas, CEO of Vukani-Ubuntu. Anyone who wishes to join this steering committee who is currently part of the Madison Dialogue is welcome. The steering committee is limited to seven people.
The purpose of this steering committee is to draft documents, set deadlines, call consensus and to ultimately develop funding and brand identity for what we hope will become a vibrant, non-profit organization created to validate the fairly manufactured jewelry. The steering committee will also initiate proposals for discussion, assure that all opinions are respectfully heard, set deadlines and call consensus.
We seek to have a diversified group which would include representatives from various sectors. Sectors which we hope to see represented include but are not limited to: manufacturing, civil society, and environmental protection.
Forum for Discussion
The initial discussion will take publicly on the blog, www.fairjewelry.org. This is a temporary home for this discussion. Ultimately we will create our own website. The purpose of putting it on this blog is to legitimize the process by making it completely transparent. Those who post comments will be required to first create a profile. Anonymous posts will not be accepted.
Proposed Initial Steps
These proposed steps are only a broad outline that we will put forth initially. We realize that over time, issues will come up that will need to be covered.
1. We will call for participants and ask them to create a profile which will be published online.
2. We will begin our process of developing principals based on fair trade practices and in reference to parallel efforts.
3. We will begin to develop standards, specifically a list that can allow for test studies.
4. We will seek funding for initial case studies of factories.
5. We will publish those studies and the work of the manufacturing committee on its own website.
Proposed Decision Making Model for the Manufacturing Committee
We will strive to reach consensus at every step of the way. However, recognizing that consensus may not always be possible, we propose that a two thirds vote of the manufacturing committee will be sufficient for us to move forward with a decision.
The committee decisions will be posted on the blog along side of the minority decent, if the minority wish to write one.
