Stuart Pool: The State of Sustainability in the Jewellery Industry Conference 2016, - Now

Fair Luxury in collaboration with the Goldsmiths’ Centre is hosting The State of Sustainability conference on 9 June 2025. Inviting professionals from across the jewellery, silversmithing and allied industries to the landmark conference, nearly a decade after our first conference in 2016. In light of this, we asked some of the Fair Luxury team to reflect on the changes they have seen in the industry over the last decade.

Stuart Pool, offered his thoughts on his experience in the last decade. Stuart is the director of Nineteen48, a socially enterprising business delivering responsibly-sourced, fully traceable, ethical gemstones from Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Australia and other carefully selected sources to the jewellery trade.

“I think that, whilst the challenges in our industry remain significant, we have definitely made progress since the 2016 conference. 

We see the crucial topics of responsible sourcing and sustainability (and all the other buzzwords) being mentioned much more often at conferences, trade shows and in the press. We are invited to talk at these events rather than being shunned or ignored. 

We've moved from responsible sourcing being a fringe idea to something that many more companies and customers are thinking about. 

We have also gone beyond those fairly simplistic, initial conversations we were looking at in 2016 to more complex and broader areas like carbon emissions and the circular economy. 

Of course, we now have more instances of greenwashing to contend with, but that shows in some way that we're making progress. Companies feel they have to say something and we can hope these words are ultimately backed up with some suitable actions. I feel many more people are on the journey with us.

We have seen some interesting attempts at using technology for tracking and tracing through the supply chain. Also, more projects which are trying to engage with artisanal miners directly.

I'm not sure that we can point at any single thing to show there has been a step change in the industry, but is it really about that? The Fair Luxury mantra has been to do whatever you can, take any small step and keep going in the right direction.

I guess it is about evolution rather than revolution. Can we show at the conference that the jewellery trade is evolving?

On a personal level, I'm satisfied that I've run an ethical business that's managed to keep my colleagues in Sri Lanka in stable employment for a decade or more, earning a fair wage in safe working conditions and enabling them and their families to have decent lives.

With the Moyo Gems project in Tanzania, I've played a small part in promoting the importance of women miners in artisanal gem mining and helping them to build some stability in their communities and beyond. Through the mining association, they are getting recognition at the national level, as well as contributing to their own local economies.

I know that the situation can seem overwhelming sometimes, but that's why we band together in our Fair Luxury community and make sure we aren't facing these issues alone.”

If you would like to attend The State of Sustainability in the Jewellery Industry on June 9th 2025, 1pm – 8pm at The Goldsmiths’ Centre, London you can book tickets here. Beyond this date, we hope you continue to strive to build a more responsible jewellery industry for all involved, and not just that, but encourage others to do so too.