Companies Pledge to Avoid 'Dirty' Gold - NYTimes.com

Several major jewelry retailers, including Sears, Kmart and Blue Nile made a pledge last week to sell gold that has been mined and produced through humane, eco-friendly methods.

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The companies all signed the No Dirty Gold campaign’s Golden Rules for sourcing gold, organized by Earthworks, a nonprofit organization.

Target and Rolex are among the major retailers that have not signed the pledge despite multiple requests, according the campaign.

“A few months ago, we also reached out to our suppliers to create an auditing process,” Mr. Baird said. “The end goal is to track our gold from mine to market.”

A recent segment on CBS’s “60 Minutes”, for example, addressed the large role gold mining profits play in an ongoing deadly war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

One of Blue Nile’s major initiatives is to source recycled gold rather than new gold, said a company spokesman, John Baird.

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In total, 60 retailers have signed the No Dirty Gold pledge, including Zale Corp., Tiffany & Company and J.C. Penney.

Unlike in the diamond industry, no formal certification process exists to ensure conflict-free gold. Earthworks hopes that the No Dirty Gold coalition will help fuel the creation of such a system that “assures consumers and retailers that the gold they are buying has been produced in ways that minimize harm to people or the environment.”

On average, the production of one gold ring results in 20 tons of mine waste, according to Earthworks. Mining has also been directly linked to human rights violations, forest destruction and toxic pollution.