Ethical jewellery is jewellery that has been made with materials and using manufacturing processes that cause minimal harm to the environment and that benefit the communities involved.

For instance, a diamond ring that has been made from a traceable, conflict-free diamond and fairtrade gold made in the UK is ethical. That is because the diamond used hasn’t funded conflict, the gold used has been mined in safe conditions, the workers have received a fair price and harmful chemicals like mercury have not been used. The UK has high workers rights standards and relatively high wages so you can be almost certain that the person who made the ring has not been exploited.

There is no perfectly ethical jewellery . . . . . yet.

A massive amount of progress has made in the traceability, supply and availability of precious metals in the last 15-20 years though ethically mined metals still account for a tiny percentage of the precious metals used in jewellery worldwide.

Fairtrade and Fairmined gold are both certification labels that assure gold has been mined, refined and sold responsibly. These are the only two schemes that offer genuine guarantees. Gold that is labelled as 100% recycled could have come from anywhere and funded conflict on its way to becoming jewellery.