De Beers Makes 12 Sustainability Pledges
November 30, 20
(IDEX Online) - De Beers today unveiled a sustainability charter, with a dozen pledges, including gender parity and carbon neutrality.
The miner and retailer announced its "Building Forever" goals to protect the natural world and improve people's lives over the next decade in its four producer countries - Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Canada - and the 30-plus countries where its brands De Beers Jewellers and Forevermark are sold.
The pledges include equal opportunities for all its workers, detailing the origin and impact of every diamond, carbon neutrality across all its operations and improving the lives of artisanal miners.
"We have both a unique opportunity and a profound responsibility to create lasting benefits for the people and places where diamonds are discovered," said CEO Bruce Cleaver.
We are committed to supporting a lasting positive impact that will endure well beyond the discovery of our last diamond."
The goals in full, to be achieved by 2030, are:
Leading Ethical Practices across Industry
• Extend its Best Practice Principles (a set of leading ethical, social and environmental standards) beyond its value chain to advance industry standards
• Provide the origin and impact of every diamond it discovers and sells
• Deliver scalable solutions to improve the livelihoods of artisanal miners
Partnering for Thriving Communities
• Achieve priority UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) health targets in all its partner communities
• Establish skills partnerships in all its partner communities
• Have supported four jobs across its partner countries for every one job at its operations
Protecting the Natural World
• Be carbon neutral across its operations
• Reduce its water footprint by 50%
• Achieve a net positive impact on biodiversity
Accelerating Equal Opportunity
• Achieve equal opportunity, including gender parity, for employees across its workforce
• Support 10,000 women entrepreneurs and engage 10,000 girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects
• Increase the diversity of creative talent in the diamond jewellery sector
Pic, courtesy De Beers, shows an environmental scientist at sunset in Orapa Game Park, Botswana