I’m seeing more and more well-known designers stating their shops
and production process is “certified green.” What organization
certifies shops as “green” and what are the requirements? Also, how
can a designer be certified as a “green” company when they use
imported gemstones and beads that were, most certainly, not produced
in a green environment?
You mean besides a myth?
Have you looked at the chemicals and processes we all play with?
Powdered silica is probably the friendliest of them.
It may be that the designer’s studio (as in: room with a computer)
is green, but I’d be stunned if the production shop was both green
and doing anything more complex than wire wrapping.
A friend of mine did some work on a university building to get a
green certification for it (there’s some sort of builder’s council
that certifies such things) and listening to her grousing about both
the requirements to do it ‘right’ and the level of 'greenwashing’
that was going on make me think it’s some designer looking for an
angle.
I’d love to be wrong, but somehow methinks not.
Regards,
Brian
Mostly marketing BS. There are good folks out there that honestly try
to “gogreen” but it is very difficult. Many companies just make up
green creds for their websites and stores for a gullible public that
will believe it. Think “blood diamonds” and the companies that joined
the Kimberley scheme, excuse me, process, that has done little, if
anything, to improve Africa’s diamond human rights issue. It is
important to know what you are buying and selling and from whom you
buy it. I try to buy as ethically green as I can, butI won’t make the
wild claims that some of these companies do. I tell my customers the
truth.
Sam
I don’t know of any “green” certification for jewellery makers but I
do provide a sustainability statement for my customers in particular:
All the silver I use is sourced from recycled sources — either my
own scrap or bought from a metal merchant that sources 100% recycled.
There are 2 that I know of here.
My studio is powered by rooftop solar panels
The metal I use is free of toxic materials such as lead, cadmium or
nickel.
This hardly rates as a “green” certification but we have to start
somewhere.
Since I do my own casting I am fully aware of the hazards of silica
in investment but it is only an environmental hazard during
investment and possibly quenching. Spent investment is relatively
benign.
All the best
Jenny
No Alberic you are correct it is hand crafted (in china) ploy used
by Artisan(look it is capitalized it must be true)to try and get
buyers to think their product is better than someone elses. I
haven;t seen anything as good since fresh frozen turkey
Teri
I have GOT to chime in on this. In addition to House of Bubba, I am
a pipefitter/plumber. I am a union member and therefore work on
commercial projects (read big construction; universities, hospitals,
casinos, etc.) Brian and Sam are both correct, certified green is a
nonsense, feel good, label owners use to look good to the
unsuspecting public. I have worked on many of these certified green
building projects. My favorite example of what nonsense it is was
from an ironworker who saw me caring a piece of scrap iron out of a
building to bring home. He said, “what are ya buildin’ bro?” “An
anvil stand.” was my reply. He went on to tell me how there was an
entire 30 yard dumpster on the site filled with scrap iron which he
and many others wanted to take pieces from (recycle, reuse,
re-purpose, green principles all) but were told by the owner, (in
this case a big general contractor/project management company that
shall remain unnamed) that “garbage cannot be removed from the
dumpsters.” These guys were denied the ability to reduce the job’s
garbage footprint and recycle/reuse perfectly useable steel scrap
because in this day and age of liability lawyers owners don’t want
people (who are trained to walk on steel girders hundreds of feet in
the air by the way) fishing things out of the garbage for fear of a
lawsuit. I have other examples but I thinks that’s the best one.
My other cent’s worth is this, goldsmiths are the original "green"
industry. We have been recycling gold, silver, etc. for thousands of
years, way before it became fashionable to advertise the fact.
Be well,
Duke
My home shop has a scooter motor as a buffer and led lights that are
ruin with a small solar setup. I’m getting closer.
Hi all
My other cent's worth is this, goldsmiths are the original "green" industry. We have been recycling gold, silver, etc. for thousands of years, way before it became fashionable to advertise the fact.
plus we don’t wont to poison ourselves.
Loved the dumpster story. Here is one from Australia when they
replace the sleepers on railway tracks you can’t take them because if
you get caught you get arrested. What do they do with them? Pile them
up and burn them. How smart is that, NOT.
Best jewellery bench I saw was made from 3 railway sleepers bolted
together and the legs were 4" by 4" hard would could hit it with a 20
oz hammer and it would not move.
all the best
Richard
Silica is everywhere, nothing wrong with that, you just don’t want
particles in your lungs. Your solar panels are silica, your windows
and probably your soil.
Now before anyone gets their collective undies into a origami
pattern, this is a joke I’ve told for well over a decade.
Back during Shakespeare’s time, metalsmith/ jewelers were the
original lets go “GREEN”, lets recycle, lets compost artists. This
long before Al Gore was a glee in his mother’s eye. The shops back
then liked to take large barrels and fill them with sawdust (the
start of recycling), That would eventually be thrown out on the
fields (Start of composting) To further recycle the men would pee in
the barrel for a couple of weeks (lack of close bathrooms of any
kind) Any copper they put in that barrel was going to turn green
(beginnings of alchemy and patinas) So you know what we need to do
today? Have Al Gore pee in a barrel!
I know before anyone says it that all of those beginnings happened
in one way or another long before that, but I tell this joke at a
Shakespeare Festival.
As for recycled silver and other metals, How did we get those metals
in the first place? After that when it was reused, it was recycled. I
don’t know of a jeweler out there that dose do something g with their
scrap. Long before the advent of electricity, other forms of energy
were used. We are not being new and inventive to save energy, we are
doing it old school.
Aggie, the retro jeweler
Pile them up and burn them. How smart is that, NOT.
Don’t know about Australia, but here, it seems many of the railway
sleepers are made, like many telephone poles, from creosote soaked
wood, so it doesn’t rot.
There would probably be some toxicity issues involved with reusing
that for indoor construction especially, and perhaps for
workbenches…
Hi all
our sleepers are hardwood in Australia, they are tough and last for
years.
They are planed down to get the dirt off then used.
All the best
Richard