These four jewelers have made social responsibility a cornerstone of their work:
ERICA COURTNEY
One of the many things that struck designer Erica Courtney on her trip to Tanzania last summer was the local Maasai tradition of wearing red and blue together. In the bright sunlight, they looked violet, much like the color of tanzanite, the gemstone discovered there in 1967.
“Of course they have worn these colors long before tanzanite was discovered, but it’s as if the Maasai were telling us that the tanzanite was in the earth by the way they dress,” Courtney says. “I thought that was very poetic in a way, since the tanzanite find has given them so much opportunity: money, schools, roads, jobs, tourists buying their wares.”
Courtney saw those opportunities first-hand thanks to her collaboration with the Tanzanite Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of tanzanite. Upon her return to Los Angeles in September, Courtney arranged for 10 percent of the proceeds from the month’s sales at her Robertson Boulevard retail store to go to the Community Uplift Program, set up by the foundation to help sustain medical clinics, community centers and educational programs in the area where tanzanite is mined.
“I personally have plans on financially helping two schools and visiting every year to spend time with them,” Courtney says. “My heart has been absolutely stolen!”
Erica Courtney’s 18-karat gold, diamond and tanzanite earrings and Tanzanite Aurora necklace with pink sapphires were the rpoduct of her partnership with the Tanzanite Foundation.
LORI BONN
A few years ago, jewelry designer Lori Bonn attended a luncheon in San Francisco to raise money for the indigenous people living in the Amazon rainforest. At the end of the fundraiser, the hostess made an announcement: The entire event, she said, had been staged with a net-zero impact on the planet, thanks to a clever approach to carbon offsetting.
“It was an epiphany for me because, until then, I couldn’t find anything green that wasn’t also ‘granola,’” Bonn said, recalling the gathering as ultra-sophisticated, in stark contrast to the “crunchy” aesthetic she had previously associated with green activism. “It didn’t occur to me that you could be stylish and socially responsible at the same time.”
Although the Oakland, Calif.-based designer had always endeavored to ensure her jewelry, most of it produced in Bali, was manufactured under progressive standards, the luncheon proved to be a turning point. She now promotes her collections, including the Chrysalis line of recycled silver and speckled chalcedony jewels, under the “Clear Conscience” label, an umbrella term meant to convey that her jewels “tread lightly on the planet while respecting every person along the supply chain.”
Lori Bonn’s Chrysalis collection, including this Kaleidoscope cuff bracelet with smoky quartz, citrine and white quartz.
MONIQUE PÉAN
When her younger sister passed away unexpectedly in 2005, Monique Péan, then a banker with Goldman Sachs, turned to jewelry as a form of therapy. Today, the company she founded in her sister’s memory is at the forefront of a growing movement to help consumers effect change with their purchases.
“The whole idea behind my collection was to combine my love for art, business and philanthropy,” Péan says. “My father worked in development growing up, so I had the privilege of traveling to over 40 countries. And I felt indigenous art and culture is so rich, but it had never been at the forefront of the luxury market.”
The fall 2007 Bering collection, featuring smooth shards of fossilized walrus, caribou and wooly mammoth ivory sourced from the Alaskan Inupiaq and Yup’ik tribes living in the Arctic Circle and set in 100 percent recycled gold, was the product of her freshman effort. Ten percent of proceeds are directed to the Alaska House, a gallery in Fairbanks dedicated to preserving and promoting Alaska native arts.
Péan’s second collection, called Charity Water after the New York nonprofit of the same name, features chunky stones designed to evoke clean or contaminated drinking water, thereby drawing attention to the 1.1 billion people who live without access to safe drinking water. Each sale provides clean drinking water to 10 people for 20 years.
Every element in Monique Péan’s collection has been ethically sourced. This hemimorphite and recycled yellow gold necklace includes 4 carats of “conflict- and devastation-free diamonds” on a sustainably gathered stingray cord.
TODD REED
Todd Reed began experimenting with raw diamonds in the early 1990s, long before the idea of “socially responsible jewelry” entered the trade’s lexicon. Fast forward 15 years, and not only have raw diamonds become Reed’s much-admired (and much-mimicked) trademark, the industry has finally come around to the idea of sourcing responsibly. That, however, doesn’t mean the Boulder, Colo.-based designer is doing things differently.
“I always called it ‘right relationship,’ which means doing things for the right reasons regardless of the outcome,” Reed says. “It’s always something my customers cared about, my style — and I don’t mean my aesthetic style but my social style, my civic style.”
It helps that Reed has worked with a single diamond supplier for 12 years, a sixth-generation family business in New York that buys rough from eco-friendly locations and can trace its sources. Last year, he partnered with Ruff&Cut, the New York company that builds designer jewelry collections around diamonds mined in Sierra Leone, channeling a portion of profits to community organizations based there. It’s a far cry from Reed’s early days, when the language to define these ideas didn’t exist, but, as they say, better late than never. “Maybe this is the time in jewelry when change happens,” he says.
Todd Reed prefers raw diamonds because they have a less processed aesthetic that’s more in line with his eco-friendly lifestyle. This necklace is made with 18-karat recycled gold and silver; raw diamond cubes, macles, octahedrons; natural color rose-cut diamonds; and white rose-cut diamonds.
