Discussions For Setting Standards For Fair Trade Jewelry Manufacturing Begins
Introduction:
This past September I drafted a document with a proposed complete set of standards for the principles that were developed in 2008. Principles are somewhat universal and not as difficult to nail down as standards, which apply to on the ground practices.
Over the fall, I circulated a standards document proposal to several members in our working group, including the steering committee. The document was broadly supported and was revised several times based on comments from early readers.
The actual document will be published in sections and then posted in its entirety as a PDF file. Below, is the Introduction to the document, Group Procedures and Objectives. Dialogs among members will also be published. This is a multi-sector, transparent discussion open to all members of civil society.
I also want to emphasize that this document is only a proposal and that it will be modified as it goes through a discussion process. What I tried to do in drafting this is to put the best possible document on the table as a start. If you are interested in participating, please contact me.
~ Marc Choyt, Publisher
INTRODUCTION TO THE STANDARDS DOCUMENT
The initial impetus for a working group to establish principles and standards for fair trade manufacturing for the mainstream jewelry sector, came from a cross sector meeting on ethical jewelry issues, which took place at the World Bank in Washington DC, in October, 2007. This watershed event brought together representatives from the jewelry trade and civil society, many of whom had been working on their own initiatives around exemplary mine to market sourcing. Though the focus of the meeting was on mining and diamond issues, it was acknowledged that jewelry manufacturing posed its own unique set of challenges.
At the time of the DC meeting, fair trade jewelry or “ethical jewelry” made from a transparent and traceable supply chain, was still a relatively new concept within the mainstream jewelry sector. With few exceptions, jewelry sold as “fair trade” was sourced from small cottage industry producers in the developing world. The jewelry was targeted for a low end niche, fair trade market.
Yet most everyone recognized that adding the fair trade halo to luxury jewelry products would constitute a perfect “added value” to an item loaded with emotional and symbolic value. Also, many recognized the potential for positive economic development for the fifteen to twenty million small scale artisan miners through fair trade and beneficiation projects. Fair trade mined materials ultimately needed to end up in a fair trade manufactured product.
Today, eco-friendly, fair trade jewelry as a concept is still in its infancy, even though several initiatives have developed, and mine to market sourcing has become a kind of holy grail. Apart from the internet, a few mainstream jewelry stores in the US and the UK are also marketing their product as fair trade jewelry. Many people across the sector are working in their own areas of expertise to fill in the supply chain gaps. Third party certified fair trade precious metal is very close to entering the market.
The market remains chaotic, with various claims being made about jewelry often with little transparency and no standards. But in this chaos is also opportunity. The market is ripe for fair trade jewelry. Given what we have seen in the last ten years in organics and natural products, it is only a matter of time before ethical jewelry catches hold. Fair trade manufacturing is the keystone in the process, and the need for principles and standards is greater than ever.
Some believe that the term, “fair trade” should be reserved strictly for the producer of raw material, and not the manufacturer. During early discussions, terms such as “fair made jewelry” or “fair produced jewelry” were used to describe what we were trying to achieve. Though we may ultimately brand ourselves with a term other than “fair trade manufacturing,” we are for now simply using this term for the purpose of this document.
A: Manufacturing Group Procedures
The impetus for a manufacturing group at the Madison Dialogue meeting came from Marc Choyt, President of Reflective Images Inc, a designer jewelry studio located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was joined in an initial steering committee composed of Amanda Stark, at the time, Fair Trade Development Manager for the Rapaport Group; and Demos Takoulas, CEO of Vukani-Ubuntu, a South African fair trade jewelry manufacturing project. This group was later joined by Vivien Johnston, a designer jeweler in Scotland, Director of Fifi Bijoux and head of the British Ethical Jewellery Association.
Visits to factories in Thailand, India and Indonesia by a member of the steering committee, strongly enforced the view that, in addition to the market potential of fair trade manufactured jewelry, factories that were exemplary, needed greater guidance. Worker safety was a serious problem. Though excellent principles and standards do exist for general manufacturing, small and medium scale jewelry manufacturing have unique requirements, particularly in the context of fair trade.
Using the International Standards and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling Alliance (ISEAL) codes of good practices for establishing environmental standards, the steering committee sought out a diversified group, representatives from various sectors, including but not limited to: manufacturing, civil society, and environmental protection. There were calls for public participation in list serves, websites and in trade publications. The steering committee drafted documents, initiated, and moderated discussions.
Recognizing that consensus may not always be possible, it was decided that a two thirds vote would be sufficient to move forward with a decision. In the case that participants had a strong minority opinion, that minority view would also be published.
To gain maximizing credibility by creating a transparent and open process, dialogs were to be publicly posted on www.fairjewelry.org, where they remain today, under the heading of Manufacturing Standards.
B: Objectives
The steering committee developed these objectives in early 2008:
1. To develop fair trade based principles which lead to specific objective criteria for environmental, corporate social responsibility, and working conditions for small and medium jewelry manufacturing facilities in the developing world.
2. From these principles, to develop standards.
3. To create a fair trade verification platform utilizing an existing organization or a newly developed one.
4. To visit factories and objectively evaluate the fair made standards and to assist them in worker safety issues.
5. To publish these standards on-line, 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.
6. In the final stage, the factories would be supported in the marketplace minimally through a website. A customer would click on a logo on a web page which will take them to a specific website, allowing them to see the actual report, including comments, photos and perhaps video of the factory. In this regard, the model would be based on something akin to what the American Better Business Bureau does with its clients.
The ultimate goal of the initial steering committee was to create a certification agency that produces a product for a particular label. The label will be rooted in transparency. Studies have shown that consumers wish to make their own assessment as to whether something is “fair,” “green” or “ethical,” themselves. Ultimately, the group hoped to develop a “fair made” brand based on radical transparency.
