Style and substance: Tracking Monica Vinader’s sustainability journey
How the jewellery brand beloved by everyone from Bella Hadid to Meghan Markle became an industry leader
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Style and substance: Tracking Monica Vinader’s sustainability journey
How the jewellery brand beloved by everyone from Bella Hadid to Meghan Markle became an industry leader
Jewellery designer Monica Vinader likes to do things differently. When she founded her brand in 2002, the jewellery market was divided into two distinct categories: fine jewellery and fashion jewellery. Recognising the need for something in-between the two, Vinader joined forces with her sister, Gabriela, to realise their vision of approachable luxury. After two decades in business, the pair’s hunch has paid off, and the brand’s elegant, wearable styles are beloved by celebrities and tastemakers alike.
But aside from building a global brand, Monica Vinader’s mission has also been to set the industry standard for sustainability, demonstrating best practice solutions and setting a positive example for her peers. In April this year, the brand won Jewellery Business of the Year at the 2024 Positive Luxury Awards, their seventh award in a sustainability category since 2021, when they first won Retail Jeweller’s Ethical Sustainable Jewellery Business of the Year. Here, we dive into a few of Monica Vinader’s recent developments in the sustainability space, and learn more about where they’re going next.
Don’t Forget Your Passport
People often describe sustainability as a journey, so it makes sense to remember your passport. That’s the mindset at Monica Vinader, where over 400 pieces of jewellery now carry a Product Passport. This enables customers to trace their pieces from design through to material sourcing and manufacture, ensuring supply chain accountability. By 2025 they aim for 75% of their jewellery to have Product Passports.
Material World
A special piece of jewellery will be passed down through generations, but even a new piece can tell a story from a past life. For Monica Vinader, that story starts with the materials, using 100% recycled silver and gold in their designs. The brand offers an industry leading 5-year warranty and a buy back scheme with a gift card incentive for any silver and gold jewellery pieces – even those from other brands. These are recycled to ensure nothing goes to landfill, and pieces can be returned in Monica Vinader stores or online. The brand has also recently introduced lab-grown diamonds into their range, which are created using 100% renewable energy, and offer unparalleled traceability.
A Countryside State of Mind
Part of Vinader’s commitment to nature comes from the fact that for over two decades the brand’s design studio has been based in leafy Norfolk. It’s here that, in 2022, they pioneered their first nature-regeneration effort, a project called ‘Monica’s Meadow’, aimed at restoring degraded farmland near their Holkham office. The meadow is flowering for the first time this summer.
A Look into the Future
This year is a big one for the business: they're implementing an action plan to significantly reduce their Scope 3 emissions (those resulting from the supply chain and third party businesses, rather than simply the brand’s own operations). They’re also aiming to power 100% of their offices, stores and warehouses with renewable energy by the end of 2025, alongside creating a human rights impact and risk mapping system across their internal operations and supply chain by Summer 2024.
