The jewelry industry is aware of the great impact it has on the environment and is moving towards a sustainable product, respectful of nature and its workers. Given the relevance of this problem and with the purpose of achieving a lower environmental and social impact, there are more and more jewelry stores that strive to create and distribute ethical and responsible jewelry to our planet. Sustainable jewelry, by definition, is those that are made with minerals extracted without the use of highly polluting chemicals and free of human suffering, child exploitation, gender differentiation, living wages and enables safety in the mines. One of the biggest problems facing the jewelry industry is the serious environmental pollution that occurs throughout the entire process, from extraction to production. The lack of government control and of the use of appropriate technologies and machinery make this sector one of the most polluting. Introducing Mejuri, a fine jewelry brand founded in 2015 built with a lens of diversity, equality, inclusion, and sustainability. As of the end of 2021, the brand ensured that 100% of their gold was traceable, 70% of their 14 karat solid gold products were made from certified recycled gold, and 30% was freshly mined. Feeling disconnected from an industry that generally markets to men, co-founder and CEO Noura Sakkijha drew on her learnings as a third-generation jeweler to rethink the way women buy jewelry for themselves. Noura founded Mejuri because she wanted to uplift women in the industry, as she saw that it was revolving around men gifting women, rather than women celebrating themselves.
Striving for Sustainability in Fine Jewelry Responsible Jewelry Council (RJC) certified, Mejuri makes its fine jewelry with responsibly sourced or recycled gold, enforces fair labor practices and gives back to BIPOC & nonbinary communities. With Traceability and transparency as its main founding pillars, the brand is deeply committed to cutting out any practices that would incur negative impacts on the environment at any stage of production. One of the main problems many companies face is that they simply lack visibility, not only visibility in terms of where their products or goods are, but also visibility into the partners and stakeholders that many supply chains depend on to work efficiently. With all the hand-offs in the fine jewelry supply chain, it can be difficult to establish frameworks that enable the traceability of our materials across the supply chain.
Certified by the Responsible Jewellery Council, Mejuri is able to provide a comprehensive international framework surrounding the highest standards of ethical practices regarding health and safety, human rights, fair labor, governance, and environmental protection. It ensures that its diamonds are selected by meeting full compliance with the Kimberley Process, which guarantees that the diamonds used don’t fuel armed conflict in high-risk countries. What’s more, Mejuri is also making advances in its traceability framework to continue to develop its sustainability strategy to work with manufacturers who have the appropriate traceability processes and certifications set up.