An inaugural State of the Art Jewelry Summit this week will focus on how the jewelry industry is thinking about and approaching issues also challenging many other business segments, including climate change, artificial intelligence, human rights, and responsible manufacturing.
The June 23 summit is the first event presented collaboratively by the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), the Mineralogical & Geological Museum at Harvard University, and GIA. It will take place at the Cambridge, Mass., museum.
Keynote speakers, panel discussions, and guided conversations will address such major industry issues as sustainability, mining practices, and equity, says co-organizer and RJC executive director Melanie Grant.
“This summit is a chance for us to come together and collectively discuss ways to future-proof the jewelry industry, looking at all the key topics—human rights, consumer desires, renewable energy, sanctions, conflict, art and innovation, even the future of artificial intelligence—and closing with a look at what the younger generation hope to inherit from us, with the Young Diamantaires,” Grant tells JCK.
“I am really excited about this first-ever summit…the prospect of sharing intellectual resources and where that leads,” Grant adds.
Grant will open the summit along with GIA president and CEO Susan Jacques and museum curator Dr. Raquel Alonso-Perez, followed by a keynote from Harvard geology professor Daniel Schrag, director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment.
Morning panels will cover what consumers and collectors care about when it comes to jewelry business practices; using sustainability systems to achieve jewelry business goals; defining and using renewable energy; and how to navigate supply chain challenges such as sanctions.
Alonso-Perez will moderate an afternoon panel on how jewelry businesses can empower the people who live and work in and around diamond and gemstone mines, to help advance these communities’ human rights and the best practices for the industry.
Topics of afternoon presentations also include artificial intelligence within the business world, preparing jewelry businesses for innovations, and keeping future generations invested in growing and learning the industry.
Attendees will receive the RJC’s first ESG (environmental and social governance) toolkit. The summit will conclude with remarks from Charles Langmuir, Harvard professor of geochemistry and director of the Mineralogical & Geological Museum. There will be a reception afterward at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
“Our mission is to unite art, science, and industry so that we might tackle the future together. Growth must be more than economic,” Alonso-Perez said in a statement.
Top: The jewelry industry’s social responsibility will be among the topics discussed at the first State of the Art Jewelry Summit on June 23. (Photos courtesy of GIA)
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