Blog 13: Environmental Sustainability in the precious metal sector, Round-table discussion

I was invited by the Crafts Council to take part in a round-table discussion on the subject of environmental sustainability in the precious metal sector. I was very excited to have been invited and the meeting took place last week, 25th January 2023 in Birmingham at the STEAMhouse.

Image Credit: Jade Mellor

Participants:

• Caroline Jackman, Head of Craft Business Skills at Crafts Council; Chair of the Meeting

• Toby Cotterill, independent designer/maker,

• Hendrike Barz-Meltzer, independent designer/maker

• Rebecca Skeels, independent designer/ and senior lecturer at Birmingham University

• Jade Mellor, independent designer/maker and manager at Gill Wing Gallery, London

• Eliza Higginbottom of Yunus and Eliza, independent designer/maker

• Rebecca van Rooijen, Co-founder and Editor of Benchpeg,

• Fran Onumah, independent designer /maker

• Paul Wells, independent designer / maker and lecturer

• Chris Corti, metallurgist and gold expert

• Greg Valerio MBE, Social & Ecopreneur, Author, Speaker, Ethical Jeweller

• Sonny Bailey-Aird, independent designer / maker

• Jonathan Stokes, Bishopsland Educational Trust

The meeting had been organised as a direct result of the annual Crafts Council Maker Needs Survey (2021), in which 85% of makers expressed the wish for further guidance on being more environmentally sustainable in their business, with “a majority of respondents indicating environmental considerations are important to them.”

As such, various round table discussions were organised, each centring on a different discipline and these were to be held in 2022/23 with the results to be published in the spring of 2023.

For our meeting, Caroline had invited professionals with diverse areas of expertise in the precious metal industry to ensure a rich discussion and outcome. She had also circulated a number of questions to be discussed prior to the meeting.

These covered: our understanding of being ethical; what we were already doing in our business; the barriers in our way as well as our motivations for adopting an ethical stance in our work; how much we are influenced in our ethical approach by our customers; our vision for a more ethical future in our work as well as our needs to achieve said vision.

With some participants more knowledgeable in the field of sustainable and ethical practice than others, the round nevertheless provided a positive atmosphere of equality that allowed for the frank exchange of views and thoughts.

Whilst many issues were discussed, my personal favourite comments were:

• Making the precious metal industries sustainable and ethical requires leadership.

• This leadership should ideally come from industry and established institutions but in their absence, it is down to everyone to make a difference.

• For this we need a clear set of values, encompassing, for example, equality, justice and a priority of the poor and environment over resources.

• We not only need leadership, but also funding to enable change to take place; for research to be undertaken, these kind of talks to take place, etc.

• We need existing organisations, institutions and individuals, who have already done pioneering work in this field, to cooperate, to share their findings and make them easily accessible to all in the field.

• The biggest players in the industry, such as the Goldsmiths’ Company, need to become leaders in the field of ethical jewellery, but for that to happen it needs to become more open to change and to an increased inclusion of women.

I look forward to reading the summaries and findings of these discussions and am excited about what changes it may lead to in the future.

Hendrike