The Top Players Keeping the Gem and Jewelry Trade Ethical

Responsibility is big business, and many view the constant reminders to adopt recognized best-practice standards as a mind-boggling buzz. The scale of documentation can be overwhelming, to say nothing of the financial and management burdens of execution.  

While some point to responsible-business organizations as arbiters of progress – offering much-needed transparency and infusing consumers and governments with confidence in a sector that has traditionally been opaque – others see the responsibility landscape as focusing more on compliance and liability coverage than on real impact.  

In today’s business environment, ethical solutions must be practical, effective and realistic, especially for the small to mid-level stakeholders in the pipeline, which make up the bulk of the industry. Accountability is key, but a struggling small business may not have the bandwidth to read and follow the latest 20- to 40-page report on climate change and water stewardship. To deliver meaningful impact, the industry needs tools and guidance simple enough for companies to act on while dealing with invoices, shipments and survival. 

Most bodies and solutions fall under one of three categories: education, certification and technology. Here’s a look at the main players and projects in each of those areas. 

Education 

The World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) 

Since 1968, CIBJO has been publishing its benchmark “Blue Books” outlining detailed terminology and guidelines for pearls, gems, diamonds and jewelry – the result of a robust, industry-wide consulting process. 

“CIBJO does not have legal jurisdiction in any country or region,” says Gaetano Cavalieri, who has been the confederation’s president since 2000. “What CIBJO provides is an expert, transparent and nonpartisan process by which standards, principles and nomenclature are defined and updated, and a rigorous due-diligence process by our professional commissions.” 

CIBJO’s latest initiative is the Blue List, which aims to crystallize the definitions of the terms “responsible,” “ethical” and “sustainable,” and provide detailed guidelines on how companies should and should not use these terms. The Blue List also clarifies popular jewelry terms like “vintage” and “contemporary,” applying the former to pieces that are 50 to 100 years old, and reserving the latter for jewelry from the 2000s onward. As of this writing, the list is undergoing a public consultation process, with a final version likely to come out by September.  

“Words matter,” says Ken Scarratt, dean of the CIBJO Academy. “There is a habit across industries to use words to their advantage in marketing. The committees behind the CIBJO Blue List are now establishing a common understanding and acceptance of specific words and phrases, [which will serve] as a foundation upon which the industry can further build.” 

The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) 

For the diamond sector, the NDC offers free downloadable marketing assets such as images, videos and fact sheets. It also has courses and training videos for industry members in its Diamond Learning Center. The council’s Assure Program, meanwhile, assesses the various diamond-verification instruments on the market, putting them through rigorous testing and publishing the results in a directory on the NDC website.  

The Coloured Gemstones Working Group

For those without the mental bandwidth to pore over the CIBJO Blue Books, there are online resources from the Coloured Gemstones Working Group. The sustainability initiative – which unites mining and luxury firms including Gemfields, Muzo Emerald, LVMH, and Tiffany & Co. – offers user-friendly presentations, animations, and free downloadable templates of policies that both large organizations and small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) can easily adopt. 

The Laboratory Manual Harmonisation Committee (LMHC) 

The labs that issue reports on diamonds, pearls and colored gems are a cornerstone of the industry, and their grading terms form the basis of most transactions in the trade. In 2001, seven of the world’s leading gemological labs came together to form the LMHC. Their shared mission: to establish and use consistent language across gemstone reports. The founding members were the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Gübelin, the Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF), Italy’s Centre for Information and Services in Gemology (CISGEM), DSEF German Gem Lab, the Gem and Jewelry Institute of Thailand (GIT), and Central Gem Laboratory (CGL) in Japan. The LMHC publishes practical, accessible information sheets that are freely available on lmhc-gemmology.org, setting out standardized terminology and practices for reporting on colored stones and pearls. 

The Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC) 

The JVC works to help the industry navigate the ever-evolving compliance challenges of the diamond, gem and jewelry sector. Founded in 1917, the organization translates US federal regulations into more easily digestible guidance and training for the trade, including Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines, anti-money-laundering rules, sanctions, and conflict-mineral reporting. 

Certification 

The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) 

Founded in 2005, the RJC is a global standard-setting and certification body covering the entire jewelry supply chain. While the norm for most trade bodies is to rely on members’ self-declarations of their ethical practices, RJC members must undergo a third-party audit to earn and retain their certification. For brands and retailers facing rising scrutiny from clients, investors, regulators and consumers, this offers a credible, internationally recognized framework.  

Critics, however, highlight gaps. The RJC announces its audits in advance, which could conceivably limit the reliability of what it finds. Large, well-resourced companies can afford the costs of certification – including membership fees, which are a percentage of the company’s turnover – far better than smaller players can. Auditors have training in environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance frameworks, but rarely have the technical expertise to evaluate the colored-gem sector adequately, particularly when it comes to disclosing treatments and sourcing stones. Additionally, RJC membership is not the same as certification; the latter can take a company up to two years to achieve after joining. This means members can tout their RJC affiliation well before doing the work necessary to live up to it.  

Despite these limitations, the RJC offers the jewelry industry a credible, workable, recognized model, with 2,066 members across 74 countries, of which 1,628 have certification. Its ISEAL accreditation (see table, Page 27) ensures it aligns with worldwide expectations for sustainability standards.  

But it’s important to understand that while the RJC is a strong baseline, it is not a guaranteed solution in and of itself. While its 2024 Code of Practices (COP) for responsible business “raises the bar significantly, there are still important areas to address as the system evolves,” says RJC executive director Purvi Shah. “The shift from strengthened standards to consistent, high-quality implementation on the ground is the most critical next step.” 

The Kimberley Process (KP) 

The diamond sector has its own distinct governance architecture, much of it forged in the late 1990s after years of campaigning from NGOs – particularly Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada. These groups brought conflict diamonds into public view, leading to the 2003 creation of the Kimberley Process intergovernmental scheme, which aims to prevent diamonds that fund armed rebel movements from entering the legitimate supply chain. Its 85 member countries cover most of the world’s rough-diamond production.  

The KP’s strength is its scale and near-universal government participation, but its limitations are equally well known. In 2011, Global Witness, a founding architect and official observer of the group, left the initiative. “The Kimberley Process’s refusal to evolve and address the clear links between diamonds, violence and tyranny has rendered it increasingly outdated,” declared Global Witness cofounder Charmian Gooch at the time. “It has proved beyond a doubt that voluntary schemes are not going to cut it in a multipolar world.”  

The World Diamond Council (WDC) represents the industry’s voice within the KP. Former WDC president Feriel Zerouki – now the council’s honorary president – acknowledges the KP’s shortcomings, but still views it as “a vital and effective mechanism for our industry, and one we must strengthen.” The main unresolved challenge, she maintains, “is the definition of conflict diamonds. The WDC advanced an expanded definition that would have extended coverage beyond rebel movements to militias, paramilitary groups, mercenaries, and organized criminal networks, and brought diamond mining communities explicitly into the KP’s protective mandate for the first time. It was vetoed on political grounds, not technical ones. That draft is banked, and bilateral meetings continue to seek a change in those positions.”  

The Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition (KPCSC) has gone further. An umbrella of NGOs that acts as the KP’s independent watchdog, the KPCSC is publicly pushing to get IRMA certification for all industrial diamond mines. 

The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) 

For large-scale mining, IRMA sets the global benchmark in industries ranging from gold and platinum to copper and iron, with unannounced audits and a board that includes civil-society leaders.  

In 2025, Gemfields became the first colored-gemstone mining company to commit a mine – its Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM) operation in Mozambique – to an IRMA audit. To date, no diamond-mining companies have done so. 

Fairmined and Fairtrade Gold

While IRMA operates on a global scale, Fairmined reaches deeper into artisanal and small-scale gold-mining communities – largely in Africa and Latin America – to ensure that miners get paid a direct financial premium for their goods. This goes beyond simple compliance and creates a real community impact. Fairtrade Gold operates on similar principles, with a strong emphasis on fair wages and a strict ban on child labor at the mines.  

The in-person mine visits that are a feature of both these organizations make for a far more grounded assessment than paperwork alone. However, the flipside of such stringency is that they only reach a fraction of the wider industry. 

ISO and LEED

In diamond manufacturing, a stamp of approval from globally recognized frameworks like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the US Green Building Council’s LEED rating system can give a company an edge. 

India’s Shree Ramkrishna Exports (SRK), one of the world’s largest diamond manufacturers, holds seven ISO certifications, specifically for quality, the environment, energy, polished-diamond grading, supply-chain governance, occupational health and safety, and food safety for its 5,000-plus employees. It also has the LEED Platinum rating for both its crafting facilities. 

G-Factor for Natural Resources

This transparency tool from Gemfields measures the revenue percentage a mining company pays the host country through taxes, royalties and dividends, making it clear how much of the wealth it extracts from the ground actually goes to the local government. Gemfields has called on other mining companies and governance bodies to adopt the G-Factor program, and one has: Zambia’s chapter of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the global standard for transparency and accountability in the oil, gas and mining sectors across 55 countries. 

“The adoption of the G-Factor methodology has enabled us to condense a 100-page EITI report into a single-page document that captures the contribution of the mining sector at both national and sub-national levels,” says Ian Mwiinga, national coordinator of the Zambia EITI Secretariat. “The G-factor provides a unique opportunity for EITI-implementing countries that want to enhance the use of data to inform public debate in the extractive sector.” 

Technology 

Provenance Proof

In 2017, Provenance Proof by the Gübelin Gem Lab successfully embedded physical nanoparticle tracers in rough Zambian emeralds from Gemfields’ Kagem mine. Two years later, it added a blockchain to track the rough emeralds digitally as well from mine to market. The nanoparticles can withstand the stones’ cutting and treatment processes, and Gübelin can extract the particles from a polished emerald to verify the mine of origin later. 

Tracr

In 2017, De Beers launched Tracr, a blockchain-enabled platform that can trace diamonds from the source to retail. With more than five million individual rough diamonds registered on the platform, Tracr covers over two-thirds of De Beers’ diamond supply by value and is open to the wider industry. Earlier this year, the GIA acquired a 30% stake in the platform.  

Tracr recently teamed up with equipment-manufacturer Sarine Technologies, whose AI-based grading and inclusion-mapping tools sit on the polishing floor at most major diamond manufacturers. The partnership makes it possible to match a polished diamond to its original rough via Tracr and the physical attributes in Sarine’s database, narrowing the chances for substitution along the way. 

Main image: David Polak