We had the privilege of hosting a panel, moderated by WJI2030 Secretary General Iris Maria Alexis Van der Veken and organized by World Jewellery Confederation – CIBJO, on: “Why Climate and Nature Matter to Your Business Strategy.”
As Iris Van der Veken emphasized, “Climate action isn’t just good for the planet; it is good for business. Involvement of private sectors, including SMEs, to address climate change is essential. We are proud to launch the Climate Navigator today for SMEs to help them on their journey. We strongly believe climate action presents opportunities for SMEs to integrate resilience into business, at the very heart of their investment plans and strategies, as they prepare themselves to be future-proof in the evolving regulatory and stakeholder landscape.”
Here’s what our esteemed speakers shared:
Collaborative actions are so needed in our industry because we rely on many shared suppliers with the same challenges and opportunities. To evolve and reduce the impact of the industry, we must collaborate through harmonised platforms like the WJI and CIBJO able to act and drive the change.
Francesca Manfredi, Kering
Integrating climate and nature into your business strategy isn’t just a moral obligation—it’s a competitive advantage. In the precious metals industry, sustainable practices mitigate risks, strengthen resilience, and open up new opportunities in a world that increasingly values environmental responsibility. By prioritising sustainability, we protect not only the planet and human rights, but also the long-term viability and profitability of our business.
Alice Vanni, Italpreziosi
Climate change and biodiversity loss are two sides of the same coin; they’re intertwined through mechanistic links and feedbacks. Action taken to address one could have synergies and trade off effects on the other. Climate change exacerbates risks to biodiversity, while ecosystems and their biodiversity are key for climate mitigation and adaptation.
Davide Tonon, Quantis
Our consideration of a Just Transition needs to recognise the local impacts of decarbonising the economy – particularly those changes that will affect vulnerable people and communities that have limited resources and options. But it shouldn’t be a reason to delay or scale back our ambitions. Rather, to facilitate change and resilience, we need to find and support the development of local capacities, opportunities and resilience. Collaborative initiatives like WJI2030 are therefore very important in not only demonstrating leadership and inspiring companies to commit to act, showing them what is possible, but also in offering concrete guidance and support to those companies taking action.
John Mulligan, World Gold Council
It is clear that integrating climate and nature into business strategy isn’t just good ethics—it’s smart business!
Earlier this week, at our “Forward Faster: Why Collective Action Matters” Leadership Summit at the United Nations, WJI 2030 launched its report on Emerging Practices on Women’s Empowerment Principles implementation in the Watch & Jewellery Industry which included 14 emerging trends led by pioneers & starters. It humbly demonstrates key learnings and insights on how brands, like CHANEL, Gucci, Cartier Women’s Initiative, Pomellato, Monica Vinader Ltd, Mejuri and other suppliers have made progress toward the 7 WEPs encouraging wider industry adoption across operations.
WJI 2030 continues to promote the WEPs framework, and its uptake within the global watch and jewellery industry has not gone unnoticed, with leading brands such as Audemars Piguet signing the WEPs in 2024. The Emerging Practices publication is only a starting point. WJI 2030 has launched the Activation & Acceleration WEPs programme, empowered by Pandora, to accelerate implementation of the 7 WEPs.
The watch and jewellery industry has a unique role to play in advancing gender equality throughout the value chain as women are core to the business, fuelling demand for over 90% of the world’s jewellery according to industry estimates.
While gender equality and DEI initiatives tend to focus on equal pay and inclusive leadership, WJI 2030 goes deeper to demand policies be implemented throughout the entire value chain. Since its inception in 2022, WJI 2030 has focused on mobilizing its members on the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), significantly increasing the number of signatories from the Watch and Jewellery.
Today, 25 September, WJI 2030 held the “Forward Faster: Why Collective Action Matters” Leadership Summit at the United Nations, welcoming over 150 experts from the UN, top industry executives and associations in the watch and jewellery sector, and government representatives to the UN to discuss advancing gender equality within the sector.
We were honoured to have leaders Cyrille Vigneron (Co-Chair WJI 2030, Chairman of Cartier Culture and Philanthropy), Alexander Lacik (CEO of Pandora), Ilaria Resta (CEO of Audemars Piguet), Antonella Centra (EVP General Counsel, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Gucci), and Raj Mehta (Director at Rosy Blue) come together to address one of the most critical issues of our time: gender equality.
Together we explored initiatives across the value chain – from sourcing to retail, with panellists sharing their unique learnings and experiences on this topic and their view on the way forward.
One clear outcome of the panel is that it’s no longer about the why, but the how.