By prioritizing Scope 3 emission reductions through cross-industry collaborations and innovative partnerships, Mejuri, a leading fine jewelry brand, aims to maximize its sustainability impact and provide a replicable model for other small enterprises
Estimates of greenhouse gas emissions indicate that at least 70% come from companies’ supply chains, and recent government regulations — such as the European Union’s new benchmarks on increasing transparency of actual corporate emissions — are taking note of that fact.
Mejuri, one of the leading global fine jewelry brands, made the decision to prioritize reducing its Scope 3 emissions — those that may come from its supply chains — over emissions coming from Scope 1 and 2 sources. Not to say that Mejuri isn’t working on reducing those emissions as well, but company leaders know that meeting its reduction targets depend on a focus on Scope 3.
Indeed, an analysis of the company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory revealed that Scope 3 accounted for 97% of its total, which is consistent for the jewelry industry at large. “Only 2% to 3% of the emissions came from Scopes 1 and 2,” says Holly McHugh, Mejuri’s vice president for sustainability and social impact. To put this in perspective, efforts by Mejuri in 2023 to reduce Scopes 1 and 2 emissions equated to a 40% reduction in just those emissions, compared to 2022. However, this only accounted for 1% of their total emissions for 2023. McHugh says that Mejuri will continue to address Scope 1 and 2 emissions, however, the company knows it will see more impact when working on Scope 3.
Mejuri’s commitment to prioritizing its value chain emissions is part of its larger sustainability strategy that is focused on people, planet, and product, according to McHugh. These initiatives include:
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- pursuing its people goal by supporting the company’s growing team and community through authenticity, belonging, and connectedness for the internal team and the communities in which it and its upstream and downstream suppliers operate;
- achieving its planet goal by committing to being climate positive by 2030 through both restoration and conservation in the company’s material choices; and
- carrying out its commitment to product, by seeking “100% traceability of our precious materials,” McHugh explains, adding that this is accomplished through Mejuri’s ability to trace the history, distribution, and location, of the materials it uses in the areas of human rights, labor (including health and safety), and the environment.
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Co-investing across industries is key to emissions reduction
The innovation in Mejuri’s approach comes from pursuing partnerships by co-investing within its own industry and alongside other sectors and knowing that the power to influence outcomes within its supply chain is achieved through collaboration. For example, the jewelry industry has leverage in gold mining because 50% of all gold is purchased by the industry. However, jewelry-makers only represent about 20% of purchases of silver.
“As an industry we have some leverage to push the gold industry to do things in a way that that jewelry industry cares about, but we don’t have as much impact in the silver industry, making it harder to push for greener silver,” McHugh says, adding that the jewelry industry also needs other industries at the table for titanium. “We need the automotive and aerospace industries involved to achieve bigger impacts on the titanium industry.”
“For us, we understand that the only way again to get this level of impact is to work with organizations where we’re hitting above our weight”
Regeneration Enterprises, a new company set up with support from Mejuri and Apple as founding members, alongside other engineering & mining companies, is one of the mechanisms that Mejuri is counting on for its Scope 3 emissions reductions.
Regeneration aims to clean up legacy and abandoned mines, many of which were active 50 to 100 years ago, and in which inefficient methods were used for the mining of one mineral. Today, most mines involve the mining of multiple minerals, and decades-old, orphaned, and abandoned mines left behind rock tailings and waste that have valuable minerals in them. For instance, re-mining, cleaning up, and finishing up work in mines in the Yukon territory and Alaska has produced gold inputs for Mejuri’s recent launch of a new product line.
In 2023, the collaboration through Regeneration resulted in the repair of 1,150 linear meters of stream and 20 acres of habitat in Alaska and the Yukon Territory. “For us, we understand that the only way again to get this level of impact is to work with organizations where we’re hitting above our weight” in the estimated 100,000 legacy mines in North America, says McHugh.
To collect the data on its Scope 3 emissions reductions, Mejuri is in the process of conducting a life-cycle assessment of the gold from Regeneration partner mines in order to capture the emissions impact from re-mined gold. Then, the company will compare that to the impact of recycled or newly mined gold. McHugh is hopeful that that the gold from Regeneration’s re-mining will identify fewer emissions than recycled gold.
Guidance for small enterprises
McHugh also encourages companies of similar sizes to take a similar approach in their own Scope 3 transparency and emissions reduction for an increased global impact. More specifically, McHugh advises company leaders to focus on operationalizing sustainability through engagement, training, and providing cross-functional partners with the information and knowledge that can help advance the company’s sustainability goals.
“It’s my job to get the right information into the hands of our designers and product development teams and our product supply and new store teams, to help them understand how to make the best [product] decisions” with suppliers that enable emissions reduction, she says.
Further, McHugh says she think small enterprises should join industry and cross-industry partnerships to co-invest and gain a greater return on investment (ROI) in sustainability efforts and spending. Indeed, this often stretches the money that a company puts towards sustainability go even farther. The NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business also recommends co-investment as a key mechanism for increasing ROI for investments in sustainability.
In addition to Regeneration, Mejuri is also part of the Responsible Business Alliance’s responsible mining initiative, the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance and the Watch & Jewelry Initiative 2030.
These collaboration efforts and partnerships “make sure that we’re all having a much more positive impact on the entire industry because none of us can do it alone,” McHugh adds.
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