Survey | Share your Practices

Aid the research and further guidance on environmental laws and regulations related to jewellery, silver and gold studio practices by sharing your approach in an anonymous survey.

Lea Bellion, has been researching the environmental impacts of jewellery studio practices for over a year. Using her expertise in CSR (corporate social responsibility), Lea has been liaising with various organisations, including the Environment Agency (England), to explore what good environmental practice looks like.

There is little awareness and therefore adoption of regulations related to the handling and disposal of hazardous materials related to jewellery, silver and gold practices. This includes the safe disposal of pickle, etching acids and oxidisation solutions. Whilst universities and large businesses often have procedures in place to safely manage these operations, there is currently little guidance for small-scale practices to adopt a response that is proportionate to the level of risk their practice poses to the environment. This research aims to gather data from the industry to outline current practices, to then be able to offer guidance of safe and responsible practice, in line with laws and regulations.

Help the Environment Agency better understand our industry, craft, and processes in order to consider how they can best support us as a community. If you are a practitioner (hobbyist, student, educator, or industry professional), please consider sharing your key studio practices likely to have an environmental impact. Again, the survey is anonymous.

The survey has been created by Lea which has been reviewed by various organisations, including the Environment Agency and Guild of Jewellery Designers’ Ethics Good Practice Forum. We’d encourage you to spend 10 minutes to help with this initiative.

The survey will lead to further work into raising awareness for and developing guidance and resources on good environmental practice and regulations related to waste management and safe disposal, for practices at different scales. The results will be shared with trade bodies in our industry and key findings will help update the guidance we share on the Ethical Making Resource.

The Guild of Jewellery Designers will be publishing the results of the survey in due course. In the meantime, Lea is running a knowledge-sharing session on Saturday, 3rd June from 11:00 - 12:00. Register for the session via the link below.

Thank you in advance for participating in this important initiative and we will ensure to share updates.

Karen Westland