Digital transparency company, Everledger, has launched version 2.0 of its blockchain platform, with an aim to drive sustainable practices in the jewellery industry.
The Everledger platform provides increasing levels of transparency across complex and regulated supply chains.
Founded in 2015, the London-based firm is a pioneer in the industry, creating solutions that harness the benefits of blockchain in tandem with other cutting edge technologies, such as AI and intelligent labelling.
The Everledger platform creates secure and permanent digital records of an asset’s origin, characteristics and ownership across its lifetime, benefiting those industries and companies that face strict requirements to evidence the provenance and traceability of their products.
Security, privacy and convenience
Everledger helps stakeholders in diamonds, gemstones, fine wine, luxury goods and e-waste management to meet society’s expectations for sustainable, verifiable sourcing.
Across the diamond industry, for example, the Everledger blockchain platform integrates and surfaces data from miners, manufacturers, certification houses and retailers, ultimately enabling them to drive a positive social and environmental impact. Consumers therefore have direct access to independent information of a diamond’s characteristics and ownership record via desktop or mobile.
Building on the growing demand for transparency
Everledger has upgraded its platform to meet the needs of clients whose own customers and partners pursue evidenced traceability. For example, US-based retailer Fred Meyer Jewelers uses the Everledger platform to show the journey of its diamonds in its RockSolid collection, which it will extend across 100 stores, starting October.
In the UK, online jeweller Taylor & Hart has partnered with Everledger to produce transparent engagement rings.
Fred Meyer Jewelers Group vice president, Kirsten Darrow, states: “We are excited to be able to offer Rock Solid Diamonds to our customers, as part of our on-going commitment to responsibly sourced and transparent jewelry supply chains. Being able to provide a fully transparent and intimate connection between our customers and their diamonds brings real meaning and value to their precious investment.”
Manufacturers are also positively impacted by Everledger solutions.
“Everledger has presented a thorough understanding of the myriad of exigencies that luxury brands are requiring for greater transparency,” says Bharat Kakadia, executive director of Sheetal Group, a leading diamond manufacturer based in India.
Innovation in Europe
Everledger has recently launched a new partnership with Spanish jewellery designer and manufacturer Facet, supporting the launch of their new collection of blockchain-enabled diamonds, Diamond Byway. This is the first collection of traceable jewellery in Europe, demonstrating Facet’s determination to a more sustainable and socially conscious industry.
José Miguel Serret, founder and CEO, emphasises that: “We are very proud to be a pioneer in Europe in diamond traceability. For more than 30 years we have been fostering increasing levels of good business practices in our supply chain. Now, with the launch of this collection powered by the Everledger platform, we can provide the evidence that our customers in retail and end consumers have long been waiting for.”
Protecting the grassroots
Industries that rely on thousands of individuals and small companies at the base of their supply chains also benefit from the Everledger platform.
In the coloured gemstone space, globally between 80 and 90 percent of stones are mined by individuals using rudimentary tools and limited technology, known as artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM). These miners form an important sector of the economy, and face dangerous working conditions, legal vulnerability, and poor access to information.
Together with Pact and the Tanzanian Women Miners Association (TAWOMA), as well as ANZA Gems and Nineteen48, an ethical gemstone collaboration was formed – Moyo Gemstones – to support the interests of Tanzanian female miners and their communities. Everledger provided the technological backbone for this partnership to bring gemstones to market, through its collaboration with Gübelin Gem Lab on the Provenance Proof initiative. To further facilitate access to small mining communities, Gübelin Gem Lab enabled participants in the programme to have access to the platform at no cost, while Everledger sent experts pro-bono to Tanzania to scope needs, train the community, and help implement the pilot.
Rebecca Villalobos, Pact gemstones program manager, says: “Because women are often disenfranchised in mining, we focus on empowering women miners to work safely, mine better, improve their financial security, and create stable, equitable markets for fair trade. We ensure that they have a voice in developing solutions to their specific challenges.
“Given Everledger’s and Gübelin’s focus on providing a no-cost solution for coloured gems producers and manufacturers, we wanted to work with their platform to create traceability and document retention. Everledger has worked to co-design the project with the miners themselves and consider various technologies that can help the miners in formalization and market access.”
Growth
Everledger has pioneered the use of blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and intelligent labelling technologies for enhanced traceability, security and privacy, with a sharp focus on sustainability. The London-founded independent technology company has grown 300% in the last year, having reached a global footprint with 90 collaborators, five offices, and customers in five continents.
Leanne Kemp, founder and chief executive officer of Everledger, states: “Everledger’s purpose is to contribute greater clarity and confidence in the marketplaces where increased transparency is essential. We help stakeholders along the value chain to make better decisions, which enables ever more knowledge, insight and sustainable business practices. We’ve pioneered this work for the diamond and gemstone industry, and have significant work underway in many other industries such as wine, luxury and insurance.
“We have come a long way in less than four years. But there’s so much more to be achieved! We are very well positioned to support industries in bringing out their efforts for compliance and more transparent and equitable business practices in 2020 and beyond.”
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and TJM Media Pvt Ltd. is not responsible for any errors in the same.
