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Harriet Kelsall
22nd May 2008 16:40

The Council of Responsible Jewellery Practice- AGM

 

Hello

Yesterday Alice and I went to the AGM for the CJRP (the Council of Responsible Jewellery Practices ) http://www.responsiblejewellery.com

We were one of the first members of the CJRP and like to keep up with what is going on as this area of working practices within the industry is so important to us, and we have been talking a lot with our suppliers about how we can be certain that the gems and precious metal we are using have been mined in a responsible way, which isn't always easy with these things that have historically been seen as the ultimate in portable, untraceable wealth.

Matt Runci gave an inspiring talk about their year and how we've been going about setting up a trusted and externally verified community of confidence within the jewellery industry. This kind of community doesn't seem to have a precedent in any other industry.

Fiona Solomon explained how they have been working hard on a 5-step system of achieving this which consists, in summary, of first a self assessment of the business against the CRJP's code of practice, then this is submitted to external auditors and whether the business complies or not is then decided on by the committee the basis of this audit. Businesses who comply will then be granted a certificate - a sort of 'rubber stamp' of approval. There are checks and balances in place.

Charlotte Morris, their new operations manager explained (amongst other things) how they plan to support business during this process and about the importance of training and accreditation of the relevant auditors.

John Hall also talked about how this will be communicated both nationally and internationally.

I worry a bit about how this system and even membership will work for smaller businesses and have been thinking a lot about this since the meeting. I discussed this with Charlotte and Melissa (communications) at length with them and we plan to meet up to discuss it further. They urged me to show and explain how things would need to be for us (and maybe other smaller businesses) to encourage and promote this important framework.

Otherwise I am concerned that this certification process may exclude smaller companies pushing them out of the loop which would be very worrying on many levels. The BJAhttp://www.bja.org.uk/ and the NAG http://www.jewellers-online.org/ are involved and they and the CJRP are very keen to find ways to encourage all kinds of businesses within the industry including smaller ones and I gather they are discussing ways of making compliance not too hard for smaller businesses too

I also discussed my worries about coloured gemstones at the moment with Charlotte after the meeting. This is, of course, out of the current scope of the CJRP as they are starting by concentrating on diamonds and precious metal. But it is very much on my mind as it is very important within our business and increasingly so within the industry as a whole, and I'm keen to see them brought into the process sooner rather than later, as this is a very complicated area and you have to start somewhere. We currently do everything possible to find out where and how the gemstones we use are mined, and for some we know for certain and can guarantee they are ethically sourced. For others we are as certain as we can be - what we have to do in this important area is rely on people we trust who are working with people they trust - this chain of trust is what the jewellery industry was founded on and generally it works well - but this doesn't feel good enough and it would be great to have a formal system of checks.

Charlotte suggested that we start to at least send our suppliers the formal questions from the CJRP that we would like answered even at this early stage so that they know the standards we would like them to adhere to, and that they would be able to start to talk with them about the relevant parts of the CJRP code of practice even at this early stage. This will also mean that when the CJRP begin to include coloured gemstones in the future, they are better prepared. This sounds like a great way forward. As she said, taking steps in the right direction ultimately makes the whole journey shorter.

Harriet

PS - you can find out more here:- http://www.responsiblejewellery.com / or download the code of practice here. http://www.responsiblejewellery.com/what.htm.

Harriet Kelsall
 

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  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, North Barn, Fairclough Hall Farm, Halls Green, Weston, Hertfordshire, SG4 7DP, England
    Phone: +44 (0)1462 790565 Fax: +44 (0)1462 790140 enquiries@hkjewellery.co.uk
  • Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design, 6/7 Green Street, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 3JU, England.
    Phone: +44 (0)1223 461333 Fax: +44 (0)1223 365269 cambridge@hkjewellery.co.uk

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