Greg Valerio Leaves Cred Jewellery
Introduction: Greg Valerio, a prominent activist in the fair trade jewelry movement, has officially resigned from his company. Freed from the business he founded, he intends to focus on the fair trade jewelry issues exclusively. See his resignation letter below. Greg is also a staff writer for fairjewelry.org.
~ Marc Choyt, Publisher
I am writing to announce that as of the 30th September I will no longer be a Director of CRED, the fair trade jewellery company that I founded in 1996. I have had a fantastic 13 years pioneering in the for-profit sector of the fair trade market in jewellery and against all odds as a company CRED has proved that physical traceability in the jewellery sector is possible, if not without its considerable challenges.
As the fair trade jewellery concept and movement has grown and developed particularly over the last 5 years I have been privileged enough to work with some amazing small scale mining communities from the mountains of Bolivia, jungles of Colombia and polar regions of Greenland. All of these communities, against the odds, have battled and in the case of my friends in Greenland continue to battle against the odds to prove that fair trade certifiable and traceable metals and stones is and are possible. The dignity of our collective work is captured in the concept of fair trade for the small scale miners who will directly benefit from it and the consumers who will wear our products with pride.
Yet there is still much to do. Therefore, I have taken the decision to remove myself from the commercial sector so I can dedicate myself, alongside my friends in the Alliance for Responsible Mining and the Fairtrade Movement to campaign and speak for the transformation of the jewellery sector through traceable fair trade certified metals and gemstones. Fair trade is owned by everyone and no one company can own it, whether in the gold, diamond or gemstone market. In short, I am going back to my roots of campaigning and advocating for human rights, indigenous rights and environmental justice.
I leave CRED in a strong state with an excellent jewellery offer, a new and rapidly growing ethical and fair trade bullion business, an excellent dynamic team and an exciting future and my prayers are for their success. They are the world’s finest fair trade fine jewellers and I am very proud of what we have achieved together.
Long may the winds of change blow strong.
Greg Valerio
Please support the small-scale miners of Greenland in their fight for the re-legalisation of small scale mining in Greenland (recently banned under Danish law) and their desire to sell ruby to the international community by signing the online petition at www.freegreenlandruby.com
