Our current consumption of the resources on planet earth is unstainable.

One of the resources that we’re using that won’t re-generate is gold. Obviously, there’s a finite amount of gold on earth, and when that eventually runs out we’ll have to find other materials to use for the applications that we use gold for. However, the extraction of gold, usually in the form of mining, takes vast resources, the use of which accounts for its own carbon footprint.

When it comes to global warming it is this, not the depletion of the gold itself that is the biggest concern and that will cost the most lives and livelihoods around the world.

What keeps gold mining going is our consumption of gold, on a global scale. It may not feel like you are part of a vast global system when you are sitting at your bench making a wedding ring, but you are.

The jewellery industry in the UK is totally reliant on imported gold. In 2020 the UK was one of the top 5 gold importers in the world, yet the most gold the UK ever produced in one year from 2007-2016 was 202 kilograms. The monumental shortfall in our consumption and production is made up of gold imported from other countries as well as the re-use of gold that is already in circulation.

If there was enough gold already in circulation to meet demand then great, but there isn’t and never has been so it’s just false to claim that by using ‘recyled’ gold you bypass the carbon emissions that come with gold mining. You don’t, because you’re contributing to the demand that keeps the mining of gold, with all of its associated costs, profitable.

If your main concern is climate change then starting a jewellery brand is probably one of the most counterproductive things you can do.

Consumption = demand and demand drives mining.

Gold mining is expensive or very hard work and often dangerous. If you didn’t know that you could sell what you mine, then you wouldn’t bother. This is true for women in Sierra Leone panning for gold with babies strapped to their backs and for gigantic evil corporations with shareholders to satisfy and large bonuses to pay. But it is now and always has been worthwhile because people want to own gold. The desire to own gold is another way of describing ‘demand’. For many of us that desire to own gold comes in the form of jewellery. Demand from the jewellery industry accounts for roughly 50% of demand for gold annually.

This is something that many people and even governments get wrong and is why the infamous ‘war on drugs’ is a failure. Whether you think people should or shouldn’t be allowed to take drugs is up to you and we’re not discussing the rights and wrongs of this, just acknowledging that the way this ‘war’ has been fought is a strategical failure.

The tactic has been to mainly prosecute dealers whilst to a large extent ignoring users. If the penalty for possession of cannabis was 10 years in prison, and this was actually enforced then I think far few people would smoke it. If there were fewer people smoking weed then being a dealer wouldn’t seem like an attractive proposition, the risk/reward ratio would be unfavourable.

This is what they do in Japan, where drug use and many of the ills it brings with it are far below the levels we see in most of Europe and especially America. Again, we’re not here to talk about weather drugs are a good idea but to demonstrate that going after the demand rather the supply seems to be the best way to reduce drug use, in a rich country at least.

So let’s swap drugs for gold and phsycosis and addiction for carbon emissions. If there wasn’t the demand for gold then it wouldn’t be worthwhile anybody mining it and there wouldn’t be the carbon emissions that come from mining. If your consuming gold and then blaming the miners for causing all of the carbon emissions and damage then you’re part of the problem. Yet that’s what so many brands, publications and well funded start-ups do.

We’ve deliberately used the two extreme ends of the gold mining spectrum to demonstrate a point that is often misrepresented by jewellery brands who communicate about recycled gold.

But I just make sure I use recycled gold, I can't be responsible for other people . . . . .

Well yeah, but what if another brand got there first, and bought up all the ‘recycled’ gold. What would you do? Stop selling jewellery?

If you’re thinking

Why is this type of misinformation so damaging?

Greenwashing is so damaging because it tricks people who really do care into making bad decisions. There are plenty of jewellery brands who just don’t communicate anything to do with their supply chain, sustainability, traceability etc. If you’re in the market for some jewellery and you care about the issues then you might avoid these brands. In 2022, if they had positive things to say, then they’d probably be telling you about it.

However, if you find a jewellery brand who does talk about these things in what seems like an open an honest way, then you’re likely to trust them, especially if you already desire the product they are selling. There’s only so many hours in a day and as much as we’d like to, we can't all be experts in the supply chain of all the products we buy, so you do have to trust brands.

Its the same in all industries

Many lab-grown diamond businesses like to promote themselves as an ethical or sustainable alternative to traditional jewellery that relies on mined materials such as diamonds, coloured gemstones and mined metals.

I feel it’s necessary to put together this type of article because of the amount of jewellery brands putting out information which is just false, or leave it up the customer to assume a positive.

You can use the words sustainability and recycled and people will assume this is a positive thing.