Family Legacy - The Story of Gold - Sustainability - Designer Bio

SUSTAINABILITY

Committed to enhancing sustainability in the arts Blair Lauren Brown has  supported '1% for the Planet', an organization dedicated to building support among an alliance of businesses that are financially committed to creating a healthy planet. Specifically allocating efforts towards Earthworks an organization working internationally to improve the environmental sustainability of mining as well as social and human rights of workers. 

As an active supporter Blair Lauren Brown was one of the 1st signatories of the Earthworks No Dirty Gold Pledge in 2007, a campaign aimed to educate consumers, retailers and the general public about alternatives to the gold industry's environmental impacts due to irresponsible gold mining. In further efforts towards sustainable production and preserving our resources, the collections are created using sustainably sourced materials all the way down to the packaging and the merchandising. 

• REFINED METAL: All refined metals come from Harmony Metals - a certified refiner of recycled gold and silver. By using recycled gold and silver the collections prevent further depletion of the land as well as other eco-friendly practices. 
• STONES: Any stones used in production are Kimberly Process certified, responsibly sourced and fair trade. 
  
• RAW GOLD: The pure raw gold nuggets come from family owned Alaskan mines that have been in operation for 20 years or more. Many of these mines have had relationships with the Brown family for generations. 
• PRODUCTION: We produce everything locally and in partnership with other small family owned business in New York & Alaska. All of the gold in our J Vic Brown Collection is from Alaska. Pure US gold.
• PACKAGING: All boxes used in packing are post consumer recycled good. Any plastic that is out of our control in the production process is reused. We avoid all other plastic use.
• PRACTICE: Our studio practices conservative processes for metal work. We reuse all scrap in house for our special project pieces and we send the remaining "waste" to be recycled back into the process through a certified green refinery.
• FOOTPRINT: We calculate our carbon footprint and donate to programs to help offset our impact with the help of the Nature Conservancy.
• FUTURE: We are working on a gold collective in partnership with Ethical Metalsmiths - bringing jewelers together to use ethically mined and local gold, giving us 100% transparency on extraction processes. We intend to make this a public facing collective as soon as we have finalized the standards and practices. 

To see our papers on these and other philanthropic endeavors please click here.