When it comes to the RJC, Kyle Abram has one burning question: what measurable good have they done for People and Planet? This piece attempts to clarify what the RJC does and does not do, and asks how ethical jewelers might find solutions to complex issues.

When it comes to Russian diamonds, Kyle Abram questions whether the industry’s actions are “...perhaps performative, given the sheer number of skeletons the jewelry industry is hiding in its closet.”

Fairmined and Fairtrade Gold are the “gold standard” for certified ASM gold. But are their rigid standards a double-edged sword, which creates a barrier to expansion? And if so, what are the alternatives?

I spent two weeks of October in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), touring several small-scale gold mining sites and meeting with a number of supply chain actors involved with the USAID-funded project known as Zahabu Safi.

On May 28, 2021, Germany officially apologized for the state-sanctioned genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples, which took place between 1904 and 1908 in what is now Namibia. This harbinger of the Holocaust occurred after German colonizers had stolen Herero and Nama land — which turned out to be exceedingly valuable, and full of some of the richest diamond deposits ever discovered.

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. To say there’s been a dramatic cultural shift in the year since is just about the biggest understatement I could make. Everywhere you turn, businesses are now pro-BIPOC (Black, Indigeonous, + people of color), anti-racism, pro-LGBTQ+, Anti Asian Hate.