Sustainable jewelry is made with sustainable materials and produced in a way that is environmentally friendly. Sustainable jewelry includes items made with recycled or upcycled materials, as well as those made with certified conflict-free diamonds and Fairtrade gold.
Sustainable jewelry is often handmade, as this allows for a more personal connection between the jeweler and the customer, and helps to ensure that each piece is made with intention.
No matter what your taste, you can find sustainable jewelry that suits you. And when you wear it, you’ll feel good knowing that you’re supporting sustainable practices and helping to protect our planet.
Sustainable jewelry is not only fashionable but it is also made to last.
So, if you are looking for a new piece of jewelry that is both stylish and sustainable, then look no further than these sustainable jewelry brands.
Resera
Meet Resera, a social impact and sustainable jewelry brand based out of Nashville, TN that employs women who are transitioning out of homelessness. They have created an opportunity to uplift their employees by providing transitional housing, career counseling, financial training, and more.
With each purchase, you directly create a living wage that is vital to each Maker’s transition back into full-time employment and a home of her own. Your support also enables the brand to offer holistic resources including financial coaching, job readiness training, housing case management, and mental health counseling referrals.
Aether Diamonds
Aether Diamonds is a public benefit corporation that extracts harmful CO2 from the atmosphere and transforms it into valuable raw materials and consumer products. They unveiled the world’s first and only carbon-negative diamonds made 100% from air in December 2020.
Listen to the founder Aether Diamonds talk about the mission and vision.
The company aims to extract 100 million tonnes of CO2 from the air over the next ten years. For every 1 carat diamond, they remove 20 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.
All the energy used to power the growth of the diamonds is from clean, sustainable sources. The growing process continues for 3-4 weeks until the exact moment when it’s reached peak perfection. The rough diamonds are then sent to expert craftspeople to cut, polish, and set them into jewelry by hand.
Kipato Unbranded
Kipato Unbranded was founded by 5 young women from different cultures and backgrounds that created a social enterprise that collaborates with local artists, promoting their talents and skills and gives them access to markets.
Kipato Unbranded is about beautifully crafted unique designs. The pieces are made from local materials that include brass, recycled bone, and beads.
“Kipato” is the Kiswahili word for income. This underscores the social justice core of the enterprise. The brand ensure that artists are empowered by their work and receive fair wages for their creativity.
From its’ beginnings, profits from the artists’ work, whether sold in international or local markets, go directly to the artists, creating a model that is sustainable and fair to them.
Solitude
Solitude makes jewelry from real & recycled 14K gold and 925 silver. They have consciously chosen to ditch gold-plated jewelry, because it will wear off eventually and the color will inevitably fade, causing the piece of jewelry to end up in the back of your drawer.
All items are locally made by the team of sisters in Amsterdam.
Their recycled raw materials come from a Dutch supplier who purchases the metals in Germany and Italy. The ultimate goal is to be completely circular: only and solely using ‘old’ gold and silver jewelry of their customers to make beautiful new pieces of jewelry.
As customers provide more gold or silver than needed for their own new jewelry, it might be possible in the future to be a completely independent, transparent and circular business.
Kind Karma Co
Meet Kind Karma Co., a sustainable jewelry brand with a goal of being “the change we wish to see in the world”, founder Laurinda Lee began working with local Toronto youth shelters and organizations to create a group of motivated, underserved young, optimistic about their futures.
Profits from each sale go directly to the new, young artisans and help them fund their dreams of post-secondary education, independent shelter and more.
Kind Karma spreads goodness through the commitment to ethical fashion that gives back and creates opportunity. By employing at-risk and homeless youth to make beautiful, custom handcrafted jewelry, all Kind Karma pieces have a positive impact not only in the community but throughout the world of fashion.
Daria Day
Daria Day is a sustainable jewelry brand ethically sourcing and creating exquisitely handcrafted products. They are deeply committed to elevating the lives of the artisans who create each piece.
They create wearable and functional art for people looking for style and authenticity of the materials used, believing in the healing and connecting power behind each gemstone.
Daria Day works with a group of local miners to source gemstones and silver. They are closely affiliated with the Rupani Foundation, an NGO that has created a rigorous testing process and ensures the gemstones are of the highest quality.
Check out our interview with the founder of Daria Day.
Startfish Project
The Starfish Project helps exploited women and girls experience freedom, establish independence and develop careers. Every week, they visit brothels and invite women and girls to experience freedom from their lives in the sex industry.
The organization equips exploited women and girls with the tools they need to build an independent life through holistic care programs and life skills training.
They also provide specialized vocational training to help the women develop careers in fields such as design, photography and accounting. They have employed and trained over 160 women and served thousands more through community outreach and programming.
Mulxiply
Pronounced “multiply”— the collection is designed in Maine, inspired by the Himalayas, andmade collaboratively by fair-wageartists in Kathmandu, Nepal. They aim to create sustainable change by partnering with indigenous artisan groups to further their economic impact and interrupt the cycle of poverty.
After spending nearly 20 years in fashion and design, paralleled with volunteering alongside humanitarian organizations in the developing world, Tanja Cesh launched MULXIPLY in 2010.
While traveling to India, Nepal, and other parts of Southeast Asia, she was exposed to the horrors of human trafficking and the growing pandemic that affects poor and marginalized women and men the world over.
It was in the moments of sitting in villages, surrounded by women who were sewing or felting to make extra money for their families, where the seeds for MULXIPLY were planted.
She saw a way to combat poverty by creating dignified employment by combining her experience in the fashion industry and the western marketplace with skilled artisans who needed work.
Fair Anita
Fair Anita is challenging norms within the fashion industry and creating supply chains in the most ethical way they can imagine: investing in women and centering makers throughout every part of the process.
They believe accessories should be stylish, affordable, and thoughtfully-sourced. The brand goes beyond fair wages, investing in the individuals who breathe life into each one of the products.
They could not be changing the future of fashion without their artisan partners. As changemakers, they are on the ground making a positive impact both at home and within their local communities.
These cooperatives prioritize the full humanity of each artisan: paying 2-4x minimum wage, plus health insurance and educational scholarships. They’re innovators in using sustainable, often recycled materials, and they’re constantly adapting to meet the ever-changing needs of their beloved communities.
Hathorway
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hathorway is a sustainable jewelry and accessories brand focused on quality, sustainability, and women’s empowerment. As advocates of sustainable and zero-waste fashion, they handcraft all pieces with up-cycled buffalo horns from Northern Vietnam.
Buffalo horns are organic materials, a byproduct of waste, and created through a chemical-free process. While these horns are sourced in Vietnam, each, one-of-a-kind piece is designed and assembled in California to ensure the highest quality. Along with their commitment to sustainable fashion, Hathorway is also a women-owned and women-run business.
They also donate 10% of profits to organizations that help women through education, science, justice, and other advancements of women’s empowerment.