Impact Of Gold Jewellery On The Environment
While most of the gold mined ends up in a country’s gold reserves, a significant amount is used in the making of Jewellery.
According to the World Gold Council, Artisanal and small-scale gold mining make up twenty per cent of the world’s supply of newly mined gold. Artisanal mines are responsible for deforestation in the world’s most sensitive ecosystems, the most threatened to be the Amazon.
The problem with such commodities is their fungibility. Once gold is mined and reaches the global commodity market, there is no way a consumer can trace their gold back to its source.
For a conscious consumer, it's particularly important to know where their gold is coming from, and putting their money into the right industry is equally important.
For someone who understands demand-supply metrics, they know the power of putting their money into the right industry, and only then, will the world start moving towards creating environmentally sustainable ecosystems in their mines.
Resolving this issue on a large scale will require collaboration between mining communities, governments and jewellery manufacturers and other industries that use gold. Advocates say that if the industries can closely work together, there is tremendous potential to not only reduce the worst of gold mining’s impacts but to turn it into a source of sustainable livelihoods that communities can depend on rather than suffer from.
What can we, the consumers, do to reduce our impact on the environment when we get involved with jewellery?
While most of the world is moving towards sustainable ways of living their lives, there is a very small percentage of the world that cares about the environmental impact of their gold jewellery.
In any industry where the environment and ethics are at stake, the consumers have all the power in driving the industry into making better choices.
This post is for the ones who want to truly make a difference. If you want to make sustainable jewellery ownership choices, you can read and follow the tips below -
- Choose jewellery brands that are transparent with their source of jewellery, and their manufacturing process. Many manufacturers only use recycled gold. The best way to reduce your carbon footprint is to use reused gold. These manufacturers enable that.
- Use jewellery that can be used in multiple ways and multiple forms - Toqn is one such product that allows you to use less gold and own more products.
- Choose brands that allow you to exchange your jewellery at no additional cost. This allows the brand to polish, finish and resell the product; stopping the product from going back into the melting and manufacturing process all over again.
Toqn is the brainchild of a group of innovators, who wanted to make a sustainable difference in the Gold Jewellery industry.
Toqn is a combination of 2 products - Sockets and Toqns. Sockets are the bases of jewellery and Toqns are the designs that go on top of the sockets. Every aspect of these products is interchangeable. You can wear a Toqn as a ring today, a pendant tomorrow and a bracelet the day after. This allows the consumer to own less gold, spend less money than they traditionally would have, and now own more combinations of jewellery.
If you are someone who deeply cares for the environment and would like to make sustainable and ethical choices while purchasing Jewellery, Toqn is your go-to product without compromising on design, quality or cost.
Visit www.toqn.in to learn more about sustainable, modular, 18kt gold products.
