De Beers has announced 12 ambitious sustainability goals for the coming decade, including achieving gender parity throughout its workforce, supporting 10,000 women entrepreneurs in its diamond producing partner countries and being carbon neutral within its own operations by 2030.
The 12 goals are part of De Beers’ Building Forever framework – a sustainability approach embedded in the business’s commercial strategy and focused on maximising the positive impact of diamonds on their journey from discovery to retail.
The goals were developed to galvanise De Beers’ employees, partners and consumers around the world – from its four producer countries to the more than 30 countries where its brands De Beers Jewellers and Forevermark are found – to achieve a shared vision for a better future.
The goals are based around four pillars: leading ethical practices across industry; partnering for thriving communities; protecting the natural world and accelerating equal opportunity.
Leading Ethical Practices across Industry
By 2030 De Beers will:
– Extend its Best Practice Principles (a set of leading ethical, social and environmental standards) beyond its value chain to advance industry standards
– Provide the origin and impact of every diamond it discovers and sells
– Deliver scalable solutions to improve the livelihoods of artisanal miners
Partnering for Thriving Communities
By 2030 De Beers will:
– Achieve priority UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) health targets in all its partner communities
– Establish skills partnerships in all its partner communities
– Have supported four jobs across its partner countries for every one job at its operations
Protecting the Natural World
By 2030 De Beers will:
– Be carbon neutral across its operations
– Reduce its water footprint by 50%
– Achieve a net positive impact on biodiversity
Accelerating Equal Opportunity
By 2030 De Beers will:
– Achieve equal opportunity, including gender parity, for employees across its workforce
– Support 10,000 women entrepreneurs and engage 10,000 girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects
– Increase the diversity of creative talent in the diamond jewellery sector
Bruce Cleaver, CEO, De Beers Group, said: “As the world’s leading diamond company, and in recognition of the United Nations’ call for a ‘Decade of Action’ to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals, we have both a unique opportunity and a profound responsibility to create lasting benefits for the people and places where diamonds are discovered. This is why our Building Forever sustainability framework is central to our business strategy, and why we have set ourselves these 12 ambitious goals.”
“People have always been able to give and wear our diamonds with pride, and by announcing our 12 Building Forever goals and sharing our progress along the journey, they can have a deeper connection to the active role their De Beers Jewellers or Forevermark diamond has played in protecting the natural world and improving people’s lives,” he added.
Katie Fergusson, Senior Vice President, Sustainable Impact, De Beers Group, added: “Born deep within the Earth more than one billion years ago, and first discovered by humanity thousands of years ago, diamonds have a deep connection to the natural world and the communities near where they are found. We have made significant progress in recent years as we have sought to deliver positive outcomes throughout the sector and in our partner communities, but we recognise that there is still so much more we can do. On our journey to 2030, we will continue to innovate, challenge ourselves and learn from our partners as we work to achieve these ambitious goals.”
The 12 Building Forever goals, and the operational plans, investments and milestones that underpin them, are the outcome of a multi-year programme to stretch the organisation’s vision of the positive lasting impact it could make. It has involved all parts of De Beers’ business, as well as both long-term and new partners, aligns with national and community development priorities, and has been embedded in operational and leadership scorecards and incentive structures.
De Beers is already employing dynamic innovations and technology to support the delivery of its goals, including the blockchain-based Tracr™ platform, a range of innovative mining technologies and the ground-breaking CarbonVault™ initiative, which captures carbon from the atmosphere and locks it away in kimberlite, the rock in which diamonds are found.
De Beers will continue to work alongside key organisations that provide guidance and expertise as the company pursues its 2030 goals, including Fauna and Flora International, Peace Parks Foundation, UN Women, WomEng, Stanford Graduate School of Business and government partners.
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