With few weeks to go before the 2025 CIBJO Congress opens in Paris on 27 October, the second pre-congress Special Report has been released. Prepared by the CIBJO Sustainable Development Commission, led by John Mulligan, the report addresses the challenges of creating a unified sustainability framework for a jewellery industry marked by vast geographic, product, and company diversity.
“As the global jewellery industry grapples with responsible sourcing, environmental stewardship, stalled socio-economic development, and inequalities of opportunity, the need for a broadly agreed, collaborative approach to sustainability has never been more urgent,” said Mulligan.
He cautioned that fragmentation across geographies and business models, along with politicisation of sustainability issues and short-term thinking, continues to hinder meaningful progress.
To help companies align with international standards, CIBJO announced it will release a series of updated tools free of charge on its website, including:
- An updated Responsible Sourcing Blue Book with a revised toolkit aligned with OECD Due Diligence Guidance.
- A new Sustainability & ESG Reference Guide covering key aspects of the global agenda as it applies to jewellery.
- The ESG Wheel with additional materiality assessment guidance, tailored also for small and medium-sized businesses.
The Commission also introduced a “Sustainability Practice Group,” made up of sustainability experts and advisors from within CIBJO’s membership, to ensure tools remain relevant and effective.
“Within jewellery supply chains, industry and commodity (precious materials) associations need to further embrace these changes and deepen their capacity to support their members in becoming more active, transparent and able to measure their impacts,” Mulligan noted.