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Home » A Guide to Making Your Jewellery Business More Sustainable
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The jewellery industry can be a dirty place, especially when it comes to mining and even production and distribution. There is a way to combine jewellery making with nature. With many businesses in the jewellery industry, there are only a select few that follow sustainable practices. Sustainability in your business means managing the triple bottom line – profit, people, planet. We are going to discuss how you can transform your existing business practices into sustainable practices and how to review return on investment. Continue to see the checklist on reviewing your existing jewellery business actions.
The first step to sustainability is assessment. Before you can even implement sustainable practices, you must know the current position of your jewellery business. Look into the impact of operations and supply chain on the environment and social issues. Here is a checklist of yes or no questions to use when reviewing your current business practices for areas of improvement and embedding sustainable practices.
Jewellery Design
Raw Materials
Jewellery Production
Distribution
Sales and Marketing
If you answered ‘yes’ to a majority of the questions, your business is headed in the right direction. A large number of ‘no’ answers signifies you should consider implementing sustainable strategies to greenify your business. Besides basing your practices solely around your own businesses’ problems, evaluate global issues too. We will discuss approaches to start implementing sustainability in the next section so continue reading to learn more.
Once you have reviewed your business, you will move into change management. What kind of strategies can be adopted to make your business more sustainable? Making your business sustainable is a long-term deal, and these can be simple fixes or complex technologies. There are no common set of rules or standards you must follow to source responsibility, so it is completely in your own hands.
Look at where you are currently located in terms of sustainability and picture what the future of your company will look like in order to decide which strategies to implement to change existing operations. We are going to focus on human resources management and labour practices, in addition to what other top jewellery companies are doing.
Your business can still create beautiful jewellery pieces while diminishing the environmental footprint. When turning to sustainable practices, source from mines that provide fair wages and safe working conditions for miners. Within company operations, human rights should be protected as well. We provided you with strategies that your business can adopt but may be wondering how this will benefit your business. We are going to discuss the return on investment in the next section.
Once you have applied these sustainability practices, you will be able to see the sustainable return on investment (S-ROI). You are able to assess the efficiency of these operations relative to the cost. Some may wonder how long it takes before you can notice a difference. The answer is that it will take time before you see results and the time frame varies for different projects, but it can occur within months to years. You will start to notice small improvements, but the full investment from purchasing capital will usually not be recouped for many years down the road. If you invest in solar panels or other forms of renewable energy, you will have energy powering your facility for free, in a matter of years. With the startup cost high, your business can raise prices. Studies show that customers are willing to pay up to 15% more for a sustainable product.
What type of returns are there for sustainability initiatives, from a bottom line perspective? Here are types of returns that can be foreseen for companies investing in sustainable practices.
Besides having an increase in profitability, there will be additional affects you will notice.
With jewellery that speaks to the LOHAS market, stronger company branding and profitability, your business will greatly benefit from sustainability. All in all, it is worth the investment for your jewellery business.
If you ask yourself a few questions about your existing jewellery business processes, you are sure to find opportunities for improvement. You won’t be able to see any improvements in your jewellery business unless you take the first step.
We have provided you with actions your business can follow, but your business can take inspiration from what some of the most sustainability-oriented jewellery companies are already doing. Become energy efficient or focus on human rights. By changing your sustainability practices, you can positively impact your ROI and will attract publicity from green-conscious consumers. Not only will your business see profitability, there will be strengthened company branding and higher customer retention rates. What you do today will have a positive effect on the future, so begin taking the first step.
My name is Courtney Wild. I am a serial entrepreneur that is passionate about marketing, photography, and making jewelry. In 2015, I started my handmade jewelry business, Wild Collections, where I sell my products online and in person.
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