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Cred Jewellery is the original fair trade jeweller. We do not make this claim lightly, but as pioneers we have pursued the dream of fair trade fine jewellery and brought it into reality. We believe it should be culturally unacceptable to buy a piece of jewellery that is not certified as socially and environmentally responsible and are proud to be able to offer beautiful jewellery that is.
In the beginning
When we started Cred we wanted to create a company that reflected a set of values that we were passionate about: values such as environmental sustainability, justice for the poor and the upholding of human rights. As we embarked on our journey in 1996 we wanted to get to the heart and source of where all our jewellery and raw material was coming from. Transparency in the supply chain became the Holy Grail that we sought after.
On a trip to Rajasthan in India in 1998 Greg Valerio and Christian Cheesman witnessed the most horrendous situation in a small scale mine in the Rajasthani desert: women and children working in 100+ degrees of heat, indentured and child labour, no health and safety, clean water. It was worse than a trip through Dante’s inferno. Our dream of fair trade transparent jewellery now became a mission with a purpose.
From Greenwich University to Kathmandu
At this time a fair trade transparent jewellery sector was a brand new idea and heavily ridiculed. We approached Greenwich University's Natural Resources Institute (NRI) and asked them to map the silver supply chain from mine to retail. We wanted to fully understand the breadth and depth of the undertaking.
While NRI got on with this, we went in search of an artisanal manufacturing partner. We had decided that while we searched for a source for the metals, the least we could do was begin to partner with manufacturers.
Hari Thapa was a real star, his cottage silversmith workshop in Kathmandu was just what we were looking for, and to this day we still work with him. NRI published their findings entitled ‘Towards an Ethical Jewellery Business’ in early 2003 and it confirmed academically what we already knew anecdotally: that the real forgotten issue was the plight of the small-scale miner.
“There are over a 100 million people directly or indirectly dependent on small scale mining, this makes it the second biggest employer in the world after textiles and agriculture”
Meeting Oro Verde and the shaping of the Responsible Jewellery landscape.
In 2003 Greg Valerio got a phone call to say a Colombian woman by the name of Catalina Cock-Duque who was in London and wanted a meeting. She was in the UK representing Oro Verde. Cred at this stage was exclusively a silver jewellery shop, so Gold was not on the agenda.
Catalina persuaded Greg to visit the work in the Choco Region the following year. This relationship opened up the potential for the vision to be realised, and Christian Cheesman began work on the launch of the UK’s first website dedicated to Fair Trade Gold using Oro Verde as the source.
This mine-to-retail dream had now become reality and it catalysed a whole series of events. In 2004 the first inaugural meeting of the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) was convened in Quito Ecuador. ARM’s purpose was to take the ‘Fair Trade’ model and replicate it throughout the small-scale mining sector. Cred, as a founding member of ARM, has played an active and foundational role in the creation of what is now the world’s first ‘Fair Trade Gold’ standard.
We are delighted that we have been able to play such a critical role in the shaping of a new market. CRED will continue to forge a new way in the jewellery sector where beauty is celebrated without the cruelty that is so often associated with our industry.
We have facilitated the introduction of Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) to ARM, conceived the idea of The British Ethical Jewellers Association and are signatories to The Golden Rules (www.nodirtygold.org).
The Future
Today we find ourselves facing new challenges: we still do not have an artisanal fair trade source for silver, and there is no independently-certified artisanal fair trade gemstones or diamonds.
So we move on; we are a pioneering company and we must never settle for the status-quo or ‘green lip gloss’. We remain committed to demonstrating that you can be transparent, fair trade and contemporary in look and feel. Our new Ethical Quality Assurance Programme (EQAP) is going to help us to open up new partnerships with small-scale miners and assist them in transforming their production to a fair trade system.
We will continue to challenge, provoke and pioneer in an industry prone to secrecy and status quo. And finally but most importantly, we remain dedicated to providing what our customers desire: beautiful jewellery that is pure in every way.
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