Dear readers,
This week, our Lettre looks at fundamental issues and reflects on the future of our industry.
We are all aware that the purchasing dynamics and equilibrium of rough diamonds have already been affected. Our world is moving into a new era and is taking our industry with it. We clearly need to know what kind of diamond industry we want for the future.
We can continue pitting ethical issues against legal restrictions or possibilities. But frankly, such an approach seems a little like postponing the inevitable. We all know that consumers in the West have made their choice. If they are correctly informed, they won’t want to either buy or wear diamonds that come from countries marred by a conflict that is endangering human life.
Of course, it’s true that consumers can be found elsewhere than in the West. Therefore, each company, along with its partners and stakeholders, will have to make a choice, one that does not minimize its responsibility or impact. Whatever decision we end up making (and this will certainly evolve as we set new standards and new benchmarks), it is time to reinvent ourselves.
We also wanted to talk to you about some “lighter” topics, including two events in which Rubel & Ménasché had the pleasure to participate.
The first is an online seminar ‘Diamond: from rough to brilliant’, on June 30 and July 6&7, featuring Diren Ramsamy, Diamond Cutter at Rubel & Ménasché, and Olivier Segura, Gemmologist and Scientific Director at L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. During the conversation broadcast online, both men talked passionately of the technical virtuosity and high level of skill required to cut diamonds.
Then, the very instructive roundtable ‘CSR at the heart of the jewelry industry,’ organized by the UFBJOP on June 16, in which Rubel & Ménasché was represented by Morgane Winterholer, Business Development Director. She notably talked about Rubel & Ménasché’s CSR experience and explained the different stages of preparing the report which our Maison published in 2022. We have put together a report on the roundtable and prepared an article, a kind of toolbox, of all the good ideas that we have gleaned over time. Since, if we are to build an ethical and sustainable diamond industry, every CSR action, from the smallest to the largest, counts!
Happy reading and enjoy your week
Source Rubel & Ménasché
