Marketing & Education Commission focuses on
environmental impact
Moya McKeown (left) of Carbon-Expert, together with CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri (centre) and Francesca Manfredi, General Manager of GECI. They are holding certificates attesting to having retired carbon credits as part of the CIBJO’s Greenhouse Gas Measurement Initiative for the jewellery industry. CIBJO retired carbon credits for 2015, and GECI, together with Osigem Srl of Milan, retired carbon credits for 2014.
OCTOBER 27, 2016
The need to improve a firm’s carbon footprint and environmental impact was the heart of the message given at the Marketing & Education Commission by environmental consultant Moya McKeown of Carbon-Expert.
“We set up this initiative because there is a lot of competition from other sectors and we want to see the jewellery market compete and show how they are reducing their environmental impact,” she explained. “Large international firms such as Nike are advertising to consumers about how they are operating with a reduced environmental effect, and so the jewellery sector needs to do the same. We are seeing this with the work of Tiffany & Co which is doing its part to reduce its environmental impact.”
Ms. McKeown said that another important element relating to reducing a company’s carbon footprint comes from research provided by the Luxury Insights Report which showed that Millennial clients (people aged from 20-35) are concerned about the environment, and are prepared to spend more on products from firms with a track record in cutting their impact.
Ms. McKeown also spoke about CIBO’s Jewellery Industry Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Measurement Initiative carbon management programme, an ongoing effort to enable firms to reduce their environmental impact.
She advised that there are several practical steps that firms can take to be more environmentally aware, such as checking their energy usage and making their staff aware of this. Another simple step is to look at paper purchases and usage, and the amount of travel that staff members do. However, she said that firms will not be able to improve in all their operations and they should focus on what is possible from a practical perspective.
She told the meeting that the CIBJO Congress is again carbon neutral as it was last year, and also mentioned firms in the jewellery sector that are taking steps, through the CIBJO initiative, to measure and offset their carbon footprint. These include Crossworks Manufacturing in Canada, the Gemological and Certification Institute (GECI) and Osigem Srl in Italy.
Ms. McKeown presented certificates to CIBJO, GECI and Osigem during the congress, attesting that each have had their carbon footprints measured and retired equivalent carbon credits.