October 12, 2021: Cartier, delegated by Richemont, and Kering have partnered with the Responsible Jewellery Council to launch the Watch and Jewellery Initiative 2030 – driven by a common conviction that the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aspirations for a sustainable industry can only be achieved through collaborative initiatives.
The Watch and Jewellery Initiative 2030, for the first time in the industry, aims at bringing together jewellery and watch brands across the globe to embark on a collective journey towards a low-carbon future, ensuring the industry creates positive outcomes for the planet and for people.
This initiative welcomes all jewellery and watch brands with both a national and international footprint, willing to commit to a set of common and ambitious objectives in three spheres: preserving resources, building climate resilience and fostering inclusiveness.
The commitments supported by the Watch and Jewellery initiative 2030 lie at the very heart of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, standing at the crossroads of environmental considerations and the ambition to strengthen positive impacts for people all along the value chain. The initiative itself contributes to Goal 17: ‘partnerships for the goals’.
Building on strong, existing initiatives and organisations in the industry such as the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) and Science Based Targets (SBT), this initiative includes newer areas of focus such as biodiversity protection and materials, science-based climate targets, business model innovation, with the intent of encouraging and enabling industry innovation and transformation.
The President and CEO of Cartier, Cyrille Vigneron, commented on the initiative, saying that as the watch and jewellery sector relies on the earth’s precious resources and people’s know-how around the world within its value chains, the more imperative it is to act together in creating a more positive impact.
Speaking about the partnership, Jean-François Palus, the Group Managing Director of Kering, said that as a brand, at Kering, they believe that luxury is inseparable from the highest environmental and social standards, and that as leading luxury players, it is their responsibility to initiate the changes that are needed to protect our planet.
Sharing her vision for the joint initiative, Iris Van der Veken, the Executive Director of Responsible Jewellery Council said that the 2030 Agenda is about leaving no-one behind, and business can be a force for positive changes and impact by supporting a global economy that porters people, the planet and the natural systems that sustain us. Business as usual in no longer an option, and the RJC is determined to help business be a force for that change through transformative partnerships. By working together they can greatly contribute to the urgent change needed to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in the Decade of Action and create a better fairer world by 2030.
Focusing on three thematic priorities including building climate resilience, preserving resources and fostering inclusiveness; the initiative strongly commits to transparency with the requirement to report on progress on regular basis.
More detailed information on the goals can be found at: www.wjinitiative2030.org
