Pact works on Mine to Market initiative with Cartier and Goldlake GroupPact’s Corporate Engagement program is working with Cartier, the luxury jeweler and watch maker, and its partner Goldlake Group, an entrepreneurial Italian gold mining company, on their newly announced policy to source ethical gold directly from Goldlake's Eurocantera mining operation in Honduras, Central America. You can read more about it here and here: read Cartier's Gold Sourcing Announcement, read Goldlake Group's Company Profile.Cartier is one of the few large companies in the luxury industry who have made genuine and meaningful steps to show their commitment to contribute to sustainable development through their core business by explicitly linking their brand to a mining enterprise that is demonstrating ethical production of gold. “Pact’s deep knowledge of the mining industry and of the gold value chain was a significant contribution in making our agreement with Goldlake a success,” said Pamela Caillens, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Cartier.Goldlake’s Eurocantera’s mine in Honduras has a partnership with artisanal miners in its local community who produce more than 30 percent of the mine’s total gold output. This partnership is an example of an inter-dependent business model that brings communities into the core of the mineral economy, rather than leaving them on the margins of development. Eurocantera also has a zero waste, zero pollution operation and a tree planting program that will result in a greater cover of forest in the area than when they arrived. “We strive to do business in the right way, to be a responsible corporate citizen and to help our neighbors,” says Daniela Colaiacovo, founder and director of Goldlake Group. “Working with Pact showed us how our business makes a real difference in the lives of the communities neighboring our mines and how our approach to business can be a relevant in the new socially conscious economy.”Pact’s Corporate Engagement program develops, demonstrates and promotes groundbreaking business models that place marginalized communities at the heart of economic value chains and that explicitly link small and large businesses for mutual economic benefit. Over the past five years, Pact has increasingly focused on the extractive industries, with a special focus on artisanal and small scale miners and entrepreneurial medium sized mines, and on facilitating an ethical precious metals and gems value chain from mine to luxury market. Pact works with jewelers and retailers to develop policies and sourcing programs that recognize ethical mining businesses in their supply chain. In addition, we enable mining companies to design programs and implement business models that demonstrate practices that make a real difference in the lives of the communities affected by their operations. Value is created for business and sustainable social benefits for communities when Pact can build bridges between communities and companies, and between businesses at different ends of economic value chains. “By coming together in this partnership, Cartier and Goldlake have shown leadership and how business can be a force for community-driven development. This is ‘not-business-as-usual.’ It is a way of doing business that, if replicated, will shift the economy to be more equitable and give a greater voice to those who have been marginalized for too long”, says Assheton Stewart Carter, Pact’s vice president for corporate engagement.Pact is a US-based development non-profit with offices in 23 countries around the world, assisting more than 12,000 organizations in 53 countries. |
