Seeds for the Planet
Hélène-Paulette Grassin, founder at Paulette à Bicyclette, is the 1st Fairmined certified French jeweler, virtuous interpreter of a new way of doing business
«When I started my jewel activity, it was not an option for me to find a sustainable way to work. I first started with recycled gold but when I discovered the Fairmined standard in 2011, I gradually moved from recycled gold to ethical gold, and now we are Fairmined licensee. In 2014, Paulette à Bicyclette got the Fairmined certification, and was the first France’s ethical jeweler. The main differences during the production between a “green” and a traditional jewelry is that a traditional jewelry uses common gold without traceability, and chooses its stones by paying attention to its quality and beauty. But, as you may know, gold extraction has a catastrophic impact on the planet, because of mercury. Furthermore, human conditions are often shameful for the miners, with forced labor and/or child labor. A “green” jewelry chooses its material also for the quality, but the environmental and social impact of its extraction matters as well. Sustainable jewelry has many good effects, and not only because the gold that we use does not have a deleterious effect on soils, but because it does have a positive impact on miners’ communities. We pay a 4,000 € bonus for each kilo of gold that we buy. This bonus helps the communities to develop themselves, to buy new equipment, to increase the number of infrastructures and access to education for children in artisanal mining communities. The know-how for the realization of the jewels is exactly the same as in a traditional jewelry. It is the materials’ extracting conditions that make all the difference. Knowing that our jewel embodies our values makes it even more beautiful to us».