Introducing the Copenhagen Commitment
Introducing the Copenhagen Commitment
Tuesday, 6 February 2024
6 - 7pm UK time Online
Ever found yourself navigating the complexities of a responsible supply chain alone?
The struggle to trace each gemstone, diamond, and gram of precious metals can be daunting. Copenhagen Commitment understands the challenge—there are no easy answers. It's a movement committed to shaking up the status quo and reshaping the jewellery supply chain. Built on expertise, connections, passion, and perseverance, this movement is about creating a real, positive impact.
We aren’t here to give you easy answers, as they don’t exist in most cases. Copenhagen Commitment is a movement founded to disrupt the status quo and create a change in the jewellery supply chain. It seeks to have a tangible positive impact through the expertise, connections, passion and perseverance of its members:
“Our purpose is to spearhead a global transformation in the gem and jewellery industry, infusing it with equality, transparency and responsible practices. Our aim is to spur the industry into accelerated action, leaving a lasting, positive legacy on our planet and its people.”
In this online event we will explain the need that created this movement, the current working groups, and future opportunities to engage in the movements’ activities.
Who are the speakers?
Svend Wennick is the founder of Wennick–Lefèvre and Copenhagen Commitment. Wennick–Lefèvre provides exclusively unheated coloured gemstones to both independent jewellers, as well as to the high-end market. Wennick–Lefèvre has established a unique supply chain-from the mines in Madagascar, to the cutters in Sri Lanka. The company shares this through a full documentation, which serves to be informative, but more importantly to connect all people through the supply chain in respect and togetherness. As a company and as people, we believe we have a responsibility to help create positive change in the communities and environments that need it most. We do this through our business–by trying to ensure everyone in our supply chain benefits from the gemstones we sell. But we also do it through projects–both large and small–that we believe make a material difference to others and the planet.
Thelma West is a bespoke-only jewellery designer, with an immense passion for natural gemstones and the individual stories behind them. With a career spanning over two decades, from Lagos to Antwerp and now London, Thelma has always liked to push boundaries, innovating and exploring new techniques and materials. Thelma has mentored many aspiring designers, has been a vocal advocate for ethical sourcing and sustainable practices in the jewellery industry.
She was recently one of the key panelists at the State of the Art Jewelry summit held at Harvard university and at the Forbes Under 30 in Botswana. She was also one of the promoters behind the #HandInHand charity auction. Thelma's work has been featured in numerous exhibitions including Sotheby's 'Brilliant and Black' in both the US and the UK as well as Kensington Palace's recent 'From crown to couture' show.
Thelma was listed as one of "5 Women at the Heart of the Jewelry World" by the New York Times and one of "7 London-Based Jewelers Serious Collectors Should Know" by Robb Report. She has also been profiled in countless leading publications such as Business Insider, Forbes, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Vogue US, Vogue UK.
Joy Harvey is an artisanal goldsmith with a focus on sustainability and responsible sourcing, and she is a founding member of the Copenhagen Commitment. In her daily activities for the company she co-founded, La Luce, she strives to maintain a supply chain that isas responsible and controlled as possible and to purchase materials that have a positive impact on the supply chain. With her work, she believes in upholding traditional artisanal techniques while promoting a transparent supply chain and reducing carbon footprint. She only produces one-of-a-kind pieces in her workshop in Italy.
Her belief is that companies shouldn't harm the planet but should be the catalyst for change. This is why her workshop is completely powered by renewable energy that comes directly from a cooperative she is a member of. She uses exclusively Fairmined gold and silver and partners with only a few trusted gemstone suppliers. Her dedication to the Copenhagen Commitment is fuelled by a deep desire to change the extremely unfair jewellery supply chain. Through this collective of like-minded individuals, she believes real change can be implemented and amplified.
Danielle Keller Aviram is a sustainable jewellery consultant, researcher and lecturer. She has been mainly working with jewellery-related organisations and businesses like CIBJO, RJC, FAIRMINED and more developing and implementing their sustainable action plans and strategies, educational content and workshops. At the same time, she has been writing about sustainable jewellery and fashion for blogs and magazines like JCK, Rapaport magazine among others and did lectures and workshops in universities like London College of Fashion, Kolding in Denmark, and Notre Dame University in Beirut.
Join us as we collectively strive for a more sustainable and transparent future in the jewellery industry.
