Travis Donovan, Huffington Post’s Green Editor, Writes A Weak Ethical Jewelry Article
His view misleads progressive customers and is woefully short of useful information.
~By Marc Choyt
While these days, I appreciate any exposure to the issues related to purchasing ethically in the jewelry sector, in many respects Travis Donovan’s recent article distorts critical issues enough to be counter productive. He also takes cheap shots that show he has not done real research.
First, he said:
“Quick Google searches on the subject yielded little information, especially for someone well-versed in the deceptions of greenwashing. Most of the websites turning up were filled with links to pages that looked straight out of the Internet of the ’90s, when cheesy animated images and self-serve, do-it-yourself insta-websites boomed (remember Geocities?).”
There exist enough legitimate efforts in ethical sourcing on line now that anyone can find a decent company. There is no hippie in the Fair Jewelry Action jeweler membership. Travis apparently did not dig deep enough to know what greenwashing in the jewelry sector really is and is not. If you want a crash course on that, just go to Rio Tinto, which wants to destroy Bristol Bay Watershed with a gold mine, and read about their “sustainability” initiatives.
Travis then goes on to discuss his recycled platinum ring. Recycled metal is one of the best options. I sell it in my own company. But it is far from a perfect solution. Most likely, that old platinum came from apartheid South Africa, Inc. The recycled diamonds could be blood diamonds mined in the Nineties.
Lab grown diamond options might be considered a better option, but they do not help alleviate the poverty of the small scale mining producer. Perhaps Travis did not yet understand that poverty and economic degradation go hand and hand and the jewelry sector can do a tremendous amount of good if it can support viable initiatives among small scale producers.
Everything we do in the jewelry world has its social and economic cost. Recycled metals are too passive an approach. We need to find ways to maximize our economic impact in a direction that is beneficial for life supporting systems. We can do this by creating a regenerative economy which supports human community and eco systems. This is far better than merely “sustaining” our current situation through recycled metals.
There are between 15 and 20 million small scale miners supporting 100 million people worldwide — most of them very poor. Poverty is bad for the environment. We need to find ways of maximizing the impact of the jewelry sector toward the creation of regenerative economy that supports small scale miners, and their ecology in producer communities. A few projects do that now. We are currently similar to where fair trade coffee was in the Seventies.
The public needs to become a little bit more educated about the effect of their purchases (not just with jewelry, but with lumber, gas, ANYTHING they buy) and make choices that will reward those who are acting with the next seven generations in mind.
Had Travis done some serious research, he would have chosen fair trade metal, traceable to its source. Or at least he would have mentioned it. But, to see change, everyone must ask their jeweler where he sources from. The key is traceability and transparency from mine to market. Jewelers and civil society members of Fair Jewelry Action are already committed to this goal.
It would be helpful if the progressive media at the Huff Post would join the movement.
FJA is a forum open to a diversity of opinions in support of its mission. Any editorial expressed in this article represents the opinion of the author, and not necessarily the views of Fair Jewelry Action members.
