Ep175: Block Chain - Responsible Jewelry Sourcing - Your Story

Blockchain isn’t just about BitCoin. In fact, cryptocurrencies were made possible because of Blockchain technology! So what does this have to do with the jewelry and fashion industry? Blockchain helps give a digital papertrail of each step in the manufacturing and sourcing process of a piece of jewelry. So this means customers know exactly where the materials are coming from starting from where the metals are mined! Crazy, right? To explain it much better than I can, I interviewed three blockchain experts while I was traveling to Chicago! I have Mark Hanna, the CMO of Richline Group. Mark has been in the jewelry space for over 45 years and has experienced all facets of management, manufacturing, marketing and sales and compliance. Then there’s Jennifer Dawes who launched her collection Jennifer Dawes Designs in 2000, and has since evolved to become one of the main proponents of sustainable, responsible jewelry while also creating pieces that are magical to wear. Finally, we have Cristina Villegas. She’s the artisanal mining and sourcing expert or the Director of Mining at Pact. She’s sharing a little bit more about blockchain to find out how Pact's using it, and then our conversation took a little bit of a turn when we started talking about child labor and what Pact is doing about that. So let’s talk about the future of sustainable sourcing in jewelry!