Free E-books For the Consumer and Jewelry Trade On Ethical Jewelry Sourcing
Santa Fe, NM — Gold, diamonds and even the making of jewelry has too often been the cause of human misery and environmental catastrophe. Today, we have a choice. Beautiful jewelry which provides real benefit to artisans and producer communities is available now. The work that remains is to turn this specialty niche market into the standard within the mainstream jewelry sector.
For Marc Choyt, publisher of the internet’s most comprehensive trade and consumer resource on fair trade jewelry issues, www.fairjewelry.org, the primary means through which to build this emerging trend is consumer and trade education. He has published two e-books to drive the fair trade, ethical sourced jewelry movement forward.
Fair Trade Jewelry Now! A Consumer’s Guide provides the jewelry collector critical inside information they need in order to purchase environmentally and socially responsible jewelry. The Ethical Jewelry Handbook: a Resource Guide for Jewelers Wishing to Adopt Exceptional Standards offers jewelry manufacturers and retailers background information, resource contacts and examples of best practices.
Both books, available as free downloads, explore a wide range of topic related to responsibly sourced jewelry—such as artisan mining, the specious notion of “conflict free diamonds,” dirty gold, politics of fair trade, and the pervasiveness of marketing spin as companies attempt to position themselves as “green” and “responsible” without changing their supply chain.
“It takes just a few minutes to gain a basic understanding that will enable you to avoid purchasing jewelry that causes destruction of human and natural community,” said Choyt, who also spearheads an international committee that is developing HYPERLINK “http://www.fairjewelry.org/madison-dialogue-manufacturing-committee”fair trade principles and standards for jewelry manufacturing. “Education will drive the market and the market will drive the change.”
Choyt’s approach to these issues derives from his own experience in the jewelry sector as President of Reflective Images. Founded in 1994 and located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the company was among the first in the jewelry sector to move their entire American and fair trade international production to 100% recycled precious metal. It also pioneered transparency through its own Fair, Responsible, Ecological model, which reveals to customers how exactly how a piece of jewelry was sourced and made. The company purchases green energy and offsets the carbon footprint from its operations.
These consumer e-books are available on the company’s two retail websites: www.artisanweddingrings.com and www.celticjewelry.com. The book for the jewelry trade is available on www.fairjewelry.org.
