The No Dirty Gold Campaign

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Feb 14th 2006 at 7:30AM

We've spent plenty of time talking about conflict gems but what about what they are set in? The No Dirty Gold campaign seeks to educate consumers on what gold mining entails and to compel mining corporations to make sure that gold is produced in more socially and environmentally responsible ways. Now eight retailers Zale Corp., the Signet Group (the parent firm of Sterling and Kay Jewelers), Tiffany & Co., Helzberg Diamonds, Fortunoff, Cartier, Piaget, and Van Cleef & Arpels put an ad in yesterday's New York Times saying that they will work with Oxfam America and EarthWorks to end "dirty gold." The average gold ring, which weighs in at 1/3 of an ounce generates 20 tons of waste and gold mining contributes to air, water and soil pollution and human rights violations.

[via Treehugger]

Tags: dirty gold, ecology, gold, green issues, human rights, oxfam