The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Diamond mining giant De Beers on Monday outlined plans to ethically source its diamonds and be carbon neutral by 2030 due to growing investor pressure on companies to be environmentally and socially responsible.
The initiative is the latest example of a miner setting sustainability goals in an industry blamed for depletion of natural resources, smuggling and child labor in supply lines.
De Beers, a unit of Anglo American, said it would provide the origin and impact of every diamond it discovers and sells, while also extending a set of ethical, social and environmental standards beyond its value chain and across diamond mining as well as other sectors.
De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond producer by the value of its gems, has led industry efforts to verify the authenticity of diamonds and ensure they are not from conflict zones where gems may be used to finance violence.
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The company has tracked high-value diamonds from miner to retailer using blockchain to clear the supply chain of imposters and conflict minerals.
The diamond producer, which in the past has been accused of failing to report toxic levels of mercury at one of its mines in Canada, said on Monday it would look to halve its water footprint and achieve a net positive impact on biodiversity by 2030.
De Beers, through its CarbonVault initiative, has been trying to capture carbon from the atmosphere and lock it away in kimberlite, the rock in which diamonds are found.
The ethical practices are among the company’s 12 sustainability goals being adopted for the coming decade, which also includes achieving gender parity across its workforce.
Advocacy group Human Rights Watch had warned this month that major jewellery brands are still not doing enough to combat human rights and environmental abuses in their gold and diamond supply chains.
By Arundhati Sarkar and Arathy S Nair. Editor: Amy Caren Daniel.
The industry needs to ditch its reliance on fossil-fuel-based materials like polyester in order to meet climate targets, according to a new report from Textile Exchange.
Cotton linked to environmental and human rights abuses in Brazil is leaking into the supply chains of major fashion brands, a new investigation has found, prompting Zara-owner Inditex to send a scathing rebuke to the industry’s biggest sustainable cotton certifier.
Over the last few years, the run-up to Earth Day has become a marketing frenzy. But a crackdown on greenwashing may be changing the way brands approach their communications strategies.
This week, Sephora announced plans to double down on ‘green’ and ‘clean’ product labels, leaning into an increasingly risky marketing tactic even as a greenwashing crackdown has prompted other brands to pull back.