“Producing one single gold ring can generate up to 20 tons of mine waste, with mercury and cyanide going into the water system,” New York-based jeweler Monique Péan, who, several years ago, became horrified by the unethical impacts of her industry told BoF. “The more I learned, the more frightened I was about how I’d be able to proceed and create beautiful things that spoke to the same sense of quality and craftsmanship as other luxury players and still be able to stand behind the pieces that I was producing.”
Péan is among a select but important group of high end jewelry designers dedicated to blazing a path of ethically sourced gem stones and precious metals.
“It’s exciting to see that more designers are becoming interested and the consumer landscape is changing globally,” says Péan. Several small, independent operations like Péan’s and ethical jewelry artists, Natalie Frigo, Melissa Joy Manning, Blair Lauren Brown have embraced ethical jewelry.
Read Along the Ugly Path to Beautiful Jewelry on Business of Fashion highlighting Monique and other incredible ethical jewelry artists.
image via flickr user Bored Now