Jewels are designed in different styles, but environmental jewels represent a trend that has acquired a significant boom in the last decades, supported not only by garment consumers with designs based on ecological principles, but also by designers, jewelers and famous celebrities who have come out in defense of the environment, nature and the natural resources that are often unconsciously exploited to satisfy the ego, so that environmentalists have asserted the values of the environment through conservation campaigns.
This type of jewelry is called environmental or ecological, precisely because they are made without detriment to the environment, using materials whose exploitation does not put natural resources at risk, following a series of rules and procedures implicit in the well-known “environment conservation” .
So, the ecological and sustainable principles have found a position in the field of jewelry, whose companies and designers are joining the initiatives that have been manifested through vegan gastronomy, natural cosmetics and environmental fashion in the last years; so that the jewelery industry is being incorporated and interfering in the struggle to make sustainability a significant option in favor of the conservation of natural resources through the use of materials whose production processes do not affect nature.
For these reasons, the organizations and institutions that are part of this industry, non-governmental organizations, as well as the different brands that exist in the jeweler market have undertaken work in teams to guarantee production processes that comply with conservation principles, and so that they maintain the ethical and sustainable thing as basic pillars in their companies.
In this context, we must mention the case of gold, that precious mineral that since man discovered it has been used as a symbol of power and beauty, and that in the jewelry industry is one of the most used materials in the range of designs created to satisfy the most demanding customers.
That is why the environmental and social impact caused by the indiscriminate exploitation of gold mines must be reduced, for which large craters are excavated that destroy local ecosystems and affect the natural interrelation between plants, animals, soil and water. On the other hand, in this extraction process and in many cases, chemical products are used, such as cyanide, whose waste remains in the soil, rivers and even in the air, bringing pollution and affecting nature.
Furthermore, these large-scale gold mining processes greatly affect the indigenous communities that generally inhabit these natural places where gold deposits are located and being forced to move, so they lose their agricultural and subsistence system; a reason why the organizations that fight for this cause direct their efforts to protect those indigenous communities that are cultural heritage of humanity.
An example of this type of initiative has been given by the famous company “Chopard”, which is committed to using in its designs only the gold considered as “totally ethical”, which is achieved through a certificate given by the “Responsible, Jewelery Council ”, a non-profit organization dedicated to carry out strict follow-ups to guarantee that the gold production process, from its extraction until the arrival to the buyer, does not violate human rights.
Another important initiative is the one undertaken by lots of artisan jewellers, who have smaller-scale production of jewelry designs of different styles and have chosen to use ecological gold, which is also known as green gold and comes from small mines, in which the principles of fair trade are fulfilled and / or they use recycled gold.
In this context, we must highlight the fact that wearing environmentalist jewelery makes personal values be enhanced and join a struggle that has not been easy and has found thousands of obstacles to enforce the respect for natural resources that are part of nature which we belong to as another living being, and not as many men and women conceive themselves, as owners of that nature.
In this way, the defense of the environment implies the protection of those natural resources that are used in the elaboration of jewels, which in turn are decorative elements that give prestige and presence to people, but that if their materials are exploited in a discriminated manner , this series of natural resources would be undermined, which in the end are detrimental to life on the planet, so we would be harming life at all levels, including the human being’s own life.
For this reason, bring the topic of environmentalist jewelery up is of the utmost importance, since it is about creating environmental awareness through these initiatives, as well as promoting campaigns and messages through which we spread environmental values, the principles of environmental conservation, respect for and protection of natural resources in order to fulfill a social and human mission by using the elaboration of objects that are generally considered superficial and frivolous but that carry with them a deeper meaning related to self-esteem and personal valuation.
Considering the importance of both issues, we must give the right value to things and highlight the fact that we can provide women with these essential decorative elements to highlight their appearance and comply with the principles of environmental conservation at the same time as a fundamental factor in the defense of life, nature and all natural resources existing in it.
In this regard, we must mention celebrities as famous as Sarah Hood, who bases her designs on the use of plants, acorns and leaves to achieve environmentalist jewelery of great beauty. This jewelery designer believes that wearing environmentalist jewelery is a duty of every aware woman who attaches importance to the respect for and protection of natural resources and the environment in general, considering that it includes not only plants, animals and mining resources, but also water and air, as well as human beings who, as previously stated, should not be seen as a separate entity that owns nature, but as an element of it.
There are also companies like Raw eco-jewelery, which offers designs with a bohemian style, where the jewels are made with recycled materials, antiques and found and reused objects, following the principles of conservation, as well as Green Karate company, which recycles old gold and uses it in the elaboration of its ecological designs that emulate the most beautiful things in nature.
These ecological designs start from the basis that certain standards must be met, following patterns of behavior and attitudes of human beings, which are essential so that they are respected in the processes of developing different products from the various markets that exist worldwide. In this sense, environmentalist jewelery designs must be based on these ecological principles of conservation to be considered as such and in whose productive process materials from natural resources are used, which are not affected by the processes of exploitation of them, thus respecting their conservation and that of the nature.
It should be considered that one of the questionings that are mostly made to jewelery companies is their great environmental impact generated by the extraction of the minerals that are used in the different designs of garments that would not exist without these materials, which has been denounced for many decades, since most of the time and in their productive chain, polluting activities in the processes of extraction of mineral raw materials and of wild flora that do not follow the ecological principles of conservation are practiced indiscriminately.
However, there are environmentalist brands such as “Amalena” by Colombian entrepreneur Johanna Mejía and settled in Austria, who from that distant European country promotes the concept of ethical jewelry and eco-gold, becoming the first jewelry brand that uses exclusively 18-carat Eco -Gold, which is characterized for its extraction where methods are applied that cause minimal environmental impact and the mineral is one hundred percent free of mercury, cyanide or other chemicals harmful to nature.
Another of the brands that has been working on this line of sustainability is “Chankuko” jewelery company, which through its representative Daniel Tunjano, argues that its main objective is to make jewelry develop its production processes through a responsible and ethical ecological approach through designs that reuse non-recyclable materials, such as rubbers for vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles, beer or soda tops, among other materials.
In this way, these materials are used in jewelry designs, since they are very flexible, have a good permeability to the color and have resistance, achieving a good finish in the final product that gives quality to the garments, thereby it ensures the positioning of the designs and does a bit to the work in favor of the environment.
It should be noted that Chankuko brand has been present for years in environmental campaigns, and its ecological objectives made it the winner of awards such as “Steel Pencil” in 2011 in the jewelery category with its collection called “Poisonous Frogs”, as well as nominations for the Shared Value Prize of the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá in 2015.
Finally, we will mention “Finart” jewelery company, one of the largest in Latin America, which has devoted itself to develop ecological methods to reduce the environmental impact of its production process, which also includes its suppliers, achieving to recycle approximately 17% of the total waste generated in 2015, reducing the consumption of energy and water within its production processes.