“Understanding our impact on the environment, societies and communities in which we operate is integral to our important consumer protection mission,” said GIA President and CEO Susan Jacques, speaking about the launch of the first GIA (Gemological Institute of America) sustainability report on Friday, June 2, at the JCK Las Vegas show. “It is vitally important that we all act on our responsibility to the planet and its people, advancing the positive aspects of the gem and jewelry industry, and mitigating the negative.”

This first GIA sustainability report and strategy was developed in reference to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. It includes baseline achievements for 2022 on a range of social, environmental and governance (ESG) programs as well as GIA’s 2025 sustainability strategy, Championing Transparency.

“To move from the concept of sustainability to concrete actions, it is vitally important to understand where we are and where we want to be, to develop a clear strategy and action plan,” said Johanna Levy, GIA vice president for ESG programs. “At GIA, this means working on our own operations - which we talk about in our report – and to support the industry in its sustainability journey through education and research.”

This inaugural report includes ESG data for all GIA affiliates in the nine countries where the Institute has operations and ambitious, measurable targets, including:

• Reducing GIA’s greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030
• Building sustainability content into GIA’s education programs
• Providing no-cost basic gemology training to 15,000 artisanal miners
• Advancing sustainability in the industry through traceability of gems and verification of pre-owned jewelry

GIA will report on progress toward these targets in its 2023 sustainability report.

An overview of the GIA 2022 report, Bringing Clarity to Sustainability, is available at GIA.edu/ESG. The full report is available here.

Bringing Clarity to Sustainability is GIA’s first sustainability report. The report explores the four areas listed above.