Thursday, September 4, 2008

Day 136 of our Green Year: Buying Ethical Jewelry

Layla and I are not big on jewelry, but sometimes it does not hurt to buy yourself something nice on occasion. However, with jewelry you have to be very careful because of the mining procedures used to get the minerals for the jewelry, and the way workers are treated at various diamond mine sites around the world.
As a result, Layla and I will be only buying certain jewelry at certain times.

First, we will try to only buy jewelry that is second-hand. Then, we are not taking anything away from the environment because we are reusing something that has already been produced. As well, we are reducing waste and saving money by buying it cheap.

Second, if we do buy a diamond ring, maybe for our anniversary in June, we will buy a diamond that comes from the diamond mines in northern Canada. These mines use environmental standards and workers are given the utmost in human rights. I know they are because I used to work for a company that operated the diamond mines, and I traveled to them on several occasions.

Lastly, we will use our purchase questions to determine if we really need to have something like a diamond ring in the first place.

On top of that, jewelry we do not need will be given away so others can go green while they look good.

On a cool note, our blog is now listed on the website EcoStreet, which is a website that helps alert others to green messages, ideas and campaigns. It is great to be on this website and it shows that our green message is spreading