CRED

Precious Metals

Oro Verde™: The Most Loved Gold in the World

Fair Trade Gold and Platinum

The Corporación Oro Verde is a collective of community, sustainability and environmental organisations from the Choco region of Columbia. Together they work with 12 Afro-Columbian communities to support small-scale alluvial mining operations. Oro Verde™ have pioneered an environmentally sustainable, socially responsible form of artisanal mining that seeks to preserve the unique and vital virgin rainforest ecosystems while providing a fair, regular source of income to miners, their families and their communities.

Oro Verde™ created the first Certified Green Gold programme in the world. Mines, miners and metals are independently audited by IIAP. This process ensures that all the Gold and Platinum sourced by Oro Verde™ is independently certified as Fairly Traded. As founder members of the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), Oro Verde™ and CRED have been working with the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) towards the creation of the world’s first “Fair Trade Gold” standard.

We love Oro Verde™ here at CRED; we love them and we love what they stand for. We have been partnering with them since 2003, and we were the first retailer in Europe to sell Oro Verde™ certified Green Gold. Their two-track approach of supporting indigenous mining communities while restoring vital ecosystems is exactly the ethical, responsible focus that we seek in all we do. We are proud to say that all our Gold and Platinum is Oro Verde™ certified Fair Trade, and through CRED Sources we help to supply other designers, jewellers and retailers with this ethical eco gold.

Silver

Our Gold and Platinum are sourced from our partners Oro Verde™, and are therefore certified Fair Trade. Our silver is not. Despite much searching, we have not been able to find an artisanal supply of silver that is both ecologically sustainable and benefits miners. We continue to work at this, but until we get there we will continue to use our own 100% Recycled Stirling Silver, sourced from here in the UK. We believe this is a better ethical alternative than using silver from mines that damage the environment by using chemicals such as mercury and arsenic.