CRJP Slams WWF Luxury Brand Sustainability Analysis Report

In a scathing letter, copied to senior WWF officials and CRJP partners in IRMA, the Madison Dialogue and the Diamond Development initiative, the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices (CRJP) CEO Michael Rae severely condemned the World Wildlife Fund’s recently published “Deeper Luxury” report.

Expressing “profound disagreements with the contests of, and omissions from, the report,” the letter also “strongly recommend[ed] that the WWF withdraw the report until such time as its errors of commission and omission are rectified.”

“The CRJP believes the report and WWF-UK, as its publisher, deserve the strongest condemnation for the completely undeserved and unwarranted criticism the report contains regarding a number of CRJP industry members and, indirectly, the entire ‘brand’ of gold and diamond jewelry,” the letter stated.

The industry body also said that it believes the scoring methodology used in the report to be “fatally flawed,” and that it is “very concerned” that none of the industry members mentioned in the report were contacted by the authors.

The WWF report was released on November 29. It examines the environmental and social record of a handful of the world’s top luxury brands and ranks them, on a grading scale of A to F (A being the best and F the worst), on their ethical performance, calculated by WWF’s own sustainability reporting, as well as by the way the companies have been judged in the media and by various NGO’s.

The luxury company that ranked highest in the report, L’Oreal, received a C+. Many luxury firms were given a failing grade. “Despite strong commercial drivers for greater sustainability, luxury brands have been slow to respond. The largest luxury conglomerates have been ranked on their social and environmental performance for the first time, and none scored highly,” says the report, authored by Jem Bendell and Anthony Kleanthous.