Wal-Mart’s “Love Earth” Brand Draws Early Fire
Introduction:
Wal-Mart is introducing a “sustainable” jewelry product they are calling “Love Earth.” This will represent 10% of their product range.
The large scale operations are described in this letter signed by 29 environmental activists concerned about the ethical jewelry sector. The letter, dated July 29th, preceded a conference call with the main players from Wal-Mart introducing the brand. I listened to the call.
In essence, the sourcing for Wal-Mart is from massive strip mines, some of the largest in the world, located in Utah. As the letter states, one of the mines has polluted seventy square miles of an underwater aquifer. The jewelry from these mines are now being branded as “Love Earth.”
This branding is straight from George Orwell: “Earth Love” is now “Earth Death”. Their brand also undermines legitimate efforts from companies such as my own that equate ecologically responsible jewelry production with recycled materials.
Wal-Mart claims that they cannot go recycled because there isn’t enough supply available, but I suspect that the real issue is cost. Wal-Mart, with their volume, probably purchases gold from these mines at a significant discount off of the standard spot price. This is typical of the relationship large refiners have with gold mines. This discount is not as likely with recycled precious metals. About twenty percent of all jewelry is made from recycled precious metal.
In the call itself, Wal-Mart representatives claimed to want to be “part of the solution.” They are going to respond to early criticisms made during that call later this fall.
Few people beyond the mining companies, share holders and employees like the effects of these mines on the environment. Yet it must be said that mine to market sourcing represents a best practice for a player like Wal-Mart. Even with the current issues, what they are trying to do is better than purchasing their gold from unspecified sources around the world where gold is associated with child labor and even more destructive environmental practices than those in Utah. Wal-Mart could simply source from these mines as Tiffany does without calling it “Love Earth.”
I am personally holding back my full critique or support of this project for the time being. This is the first of several posts on Wal-Mart that will be on this site over the next few months. ~Marc Choyt, Publisher
See the letter as a PDf here: Letter To Wal-Mart
