| What Retailers Can Do About Cleaning Up Dirty Gold Gold mining is a dirty business--it contaminates drinking water, destroys traditional livelihoods, and displaces indigenous communities. National and international media have exposed the environmental and human rights violations that are taking place at gold mines around the world. And consumers want to know if the gold they are buying comes from these dirty mines. Not being able to answer these questions puts jewelry retailers in a vulnerable position.
In order to maintain consumer confidence, jewelry retailers need to know that the gold they are selling is not produced at the expense of communities, worker, and the environment. We are calling on retailers to insist that the gold they buy and sell is produced in accordance with the Golden Rules, which are social, human rights, and environmental criteria for more responsible gold production.
A number of jewelers who have signed the Golden Rules have taken important steps to implement the Rules. You can read about what many jewelers have -- and have not -- done on responsible sourcing in our 2010 jeweler report, Tarnished Gold: Assessing the Jewelry Industry's Progress on Ethical Sourcing of Metals.
Jewelers, please join some of the world's leading retailers of jewelry who have already endorsed the Golden Rules. You can sign on, by emailing retailers@nodirtygold.org.
Read how a leading jewelry retailer responded to consumer demand for responsibly sourced metal by calling for mining reforms that protect communities and the environment from destructive mining. And the national AP story that resulted.
| 
