Tiffany & Co.
Saying it is an industry first, Tiffany & Co. announced they will share, starting in October, the “full craftsmanship journey of its newly sourced, individually registered diamonds (0.18 carats or larger).” According to the press release:
A diamond’s region or countries of origin, along with where it was cut and polished, graded and quality assured, as well as set in jewelry, will be shared with Tiffany customers for each newly sourced, individually registered diamond. This information will be available from any sales professional as well as printed on the Tiffany Diamond Certificate.
Unilever
To ensure that the land used to grow crops such as palm oil fruit and soy isn’t connected to deforestation, Unilever is utilizing technology for traceability. According to Unilever:
Unilever is launching a pilot with Orbital Insight, a US tech company that specialises in geospatial analytics. The pilot uses geolocation data to help identify the individual farms and plantations that are most likely to be supplying the palm oil mills in our extended supply chain. The technology leverages GPS data – aggregated and anonymised – to allow Orbital Insight to spot traffic patterns. Where there is a consistent flow of traffic between an area of land and a mill, it suggests a potential link. This means we can get a much clearer picture of where harvested crops are coming from, even down to the individual field. This, in turn, allows us to predict the possibility of issues such as deforestation and, where found, to take action.
Walmart
Walmart is supporting commodity suppliers via an innovative mapped-based resource that utilizes a “jurisdictional approach” to help with deforestation efforts. The new resource hub, which features maps of jurisdictions where key commodities are most likely to be sourced, was developed by World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense Fund, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and The Sustainability Consortium. A jurisdictional initiative (link) is a type of place-based approach where multiple stakeholders collaborate from varying interests (government, local providers, and civil society) for the purpose of “ improved land-use planning and sustainable commodity production at scale.” The new webpage is on Walmart’s Sustainability Hub and helps suppliers understand “where to prioritize their engagement as well as guidance on how specifically to engage.”
Photo by DAVIDCOHEN on Unsplash
