Beyond Greenwashing: A Clearer Guide to Jewellery Sustainability Claims

Sustainability language is everywhere. Words like “ethical,” “sustainable,” “recycled,” “responsibly sourced,” and “carbon neutral” are used across jewellery, fashion, beauty, packaging, travel, and almost every consumer category.

These words can be meaningful. They can also be confusing.

When sustainability claims are too broad or undefined, customers are left to fill in the blanks. Does “sustainable” refer to materials, emissions, labour practices, packaging, product lifespan, certifications, charitable giving, or all of the above? Does “ethical” mean a company has reviewed its supply chain, uses recycled materials, supports local production, protects workers, or simply has good intentions?

At Pyrrha, we believe sustainability communication should make things clearer, not more complicated. It should help people make informed decisions. It should explain progress honestly without suggesting that progress is the same as perfection.

This guide is part of our ongoing commitment to transparency: sharing what we have learned, clarifying the language we use, and helping customers and other businesses ask better questions about sustainability claims.

 

WHY CLEARER SUSTAINABILITY CLAIMS MATTER

Sustainability claims influence how people shop, what they value, and which companies they trust. They also shape the expectations we set for one another as businesses, customers, and communities.

When companies are specific about their impacts, evidence, and limitations, it becomes easier for customers to understand what they are buying. It also encourages businesses to move beyond vague language and toward measurable, accountable practices.

Clearer claims can help:

• Customers make more informed choices
• Businesses communicate more honestly
• Industry peers identify stronger practices
• Suppliers, certifiers, and partners align around clearer expectations
• Sustainability work becomes part of everyday decision-making, not just marketing

This matters because sustainability is not a single achievement. It is a continuing process of reducing harm, improving systems, disclosing impacts, and making better choices over time.

 

REGULATORS AND CONSUMERS ARE RAISING THE BAR

Expectations around sustainability claims are rising on two fronts.

Regulators increasingly require companies to prove their claims. In Canada, 2024 amendments to the Competition Act require environmental claims to be supported by adequate and proper testing or substantiation based on internationally recognized methodologies, with significant penalties for claims that cannot be supported. In the European Union, the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive prohibits generic claims such as "sustainable" or "environmentally friendly" unless they are substantiated, and restricts carbon neutrality claims based on offsetting. Initiatives and efforts such as the ECGT Directive will be integral in shaping the landscape of sustainability claims and communication for businesses and consumers in the coming years.

Consumers are becoming more discerning too, and they reward companies working to improve. PwC's Voice of the Consumer Survey found that 80 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainably produced or sourced goods. Research from McKinsey and NielsenIQ found that products making sustainability-related claims averaged 28 percent cumulative growth over five years, compared with 20 percent for products that made no such claims.

"The era of the vague claim is over," says Kristy O'Leary of Decade Impact, the consultancy supporting Pyrrha's B Corp certification work. "Regulators in Canada and the EU are now asking the same question customers have been asking for years: can you prove it? The companies that will do well are not the ones with the boldest claims. They are the ones that can show their work, including the parts that are still in progress."

The direction is consistent: claims need to be specific, and they need to be verifiable. Which raises the obvious question; what happens when they are not?

 

A NOTE ON GREENWASHING

Greenwashing happens when environmental or ethical claims make a product, practice, or company appear more responsible than the evidence supports. This can lead customers to make choices they think are sustainable, but in reality are not. Over time, this can erode consumer trust in a specific product, business, or industry.

Sometimes this is intentional. Other times, it happens because a complex issue has been reduced to a simple phrase and can be easily misunderstood. A claim may sound clear on the surface, but the reality behind it is often more nuanced.

“At this stage in the evolution of sustainability, businesses should be able to substantiate the claims they make.” Says O’Leary, “If a company cannot back up its environmental, social, or economic impact claims through recognized standards or verifiable evidence, it should avoid using green language altogether.”

A product may contain recycled material, but that does not automatically make the entire product “sustainable.” A company may offset emissions, but that does not replace the need to reduce emissions. A certification may provide important accountability, but it may not address every social or environmental issue connected to a product.

The goal is not to make businesses afraid to talk about sustainability, but to make those conversations more accurate, transparent, and useful.

“Brands sometimes worry that precision will make their story less compelling. In practice it is the opposite," O'Leary adds. "When your claims are backed by verifiable data, you can communicate with more confidence, not less. You won’t be blindsided with a customer comes with a hard question – on social media or elsewhere. You are inviting the question, because you know the answer holds up. That confidence is something customers can feel.”

 

COMMON JEWELLERY AND SUSTAINABILITY TERMS, AND WHAT THEY ACTUALLY MEAN

Plated, vermeil, and solid metal

These terms describe how a piece of jewellery is made. They affect durability, care, price, and how long a piece may last.

Plated jewellery usually means a thin layer of precious metal has been applied over another metal. Plated pieces can be more accessible in price, but the surface layer may wear over time depending on thickness, use, and care.

Vermeil is a specific type of gold-plated jewellery that usually uses sterling silver as the base and a thicker layer of gold than standard plating. It can offer a balance between precious materials and financial accessibility, but it still needs thoughtful care to preserve the surface.

Solid metal means the piece is made from the same metal throughout, such as solid sterling silver or solid gold. These pieces are generally more durable over time and may be easier to repair, polish, or refinish.

Why this matters: Customers should understand the characteristics of the jewellery they are purchasing. Different types of metal require different levels of care. Longevity is part of sustainability. A piece that is made to last can be repaired, and if cared for properly, is less likely to be replaced prematurely.

Recycled metal

Recycled metals can reduce reliance on newly mined materials and help keep valuable resources in circulation, but “recycled” should still be explained.

Recycled metal can refer to pre-consumer metal that is scrap from manufacturing processes that has been collected and re-refined, or metal that is extracted and refined from post-consumer objects like electronics or old jewellery. Often recycled metal is a mix of these two streams.

Recycled metal claims should include what type of metal is recycled, whether the claim applies to the full piece or only part of it, and how the recycled content is verified.

“Sustainable” versus “ethical”

“Sustainable” and “ethical” are often used together, but they do not mean exactly the same thing.

Sustainable usually refers to environmental impacts. This can include materials, waste, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, packaging, product lifespan, and end-of-life considerations.

Ethical usually refers specifically to human impacts. This can include labour conditions, sourcing practices, supplier accountability, human rights due diligence, wages, worker safety, and community impacts.

Companies that use these terms should provide information and resources supporting these claims, so that customers can understand them fully.  If a company describes a product as sustainable, customers should be able to clearly and easily identify why; by using sustainable materials, or if the methods of production produce less emissions than industry standards. If a company describes its sourcing as ethical, customers should be able to see what policies, processes, certifications, or due diligence practices support that.

Carbon neutral

Carbon-neutral claims can be difficult to evaluate because they depend on boundaries, calculations, reductions, and offsets.

A carbon-neutral status means producing net-zero carbon emissions in a company’s operations. This can be achieved by eliminating 100% of carbon emissions, which is very difficult, or by investing in projects that work to remove equivalent amounts of carbon from the atmosphere to counterbalance or “offset” emissions produced by a company.

Carbon neutrality should never be used as a shortcut around meaningful climate action. The most meaningful climate work starts with understanding emissions, reducing them where possible, and transparency about the role offsets may play.

Customers should look for a clear carbon-related claim that explains:

• What emissions are recorded
• What time period is covered
• What methodology was used
• Whether offsets are used
• What reductions have been made before offsets are applied
• What the company is doing to reduce future emissions

 

WHAT TRANSPARENCY LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE

Pyrrha’s sustainability journey has never been about a single claim or achievement. It has been a process of learning, improving, measuring, reporting, and refining the way we communicate.

Like many businesses, we have had to think carefully about how to explain complex work in a way that is both accessible and accurate. Sustainability reporting, due diligence, certifications, material choices, supplier practices, and climate commitments all involve details that can be difficult to summarize in a product description or a short piece of copy.

One of the most important lessons we have learned is that transparency is not only about sharing what is finished. It is also about being honest about what is in progress.

Many of our sustainability efforts have been in progress for years, but through certifications we have worked towards formalizing and aligning our processes with industry and internationally recognized standards. Pyrrha has been a certified B Corporation since 2014, a member of the Responsible Jewellery Council since 2020, and Butterfly Mark certified by Positive Luxury in 2023. Pyrrha also is a 1% for the Planet member, a Living Wage Employer, and is certified carbon neutral through the purchase of annual offsets through Carbonzero. All these certifications are ongoing, requiring continuous improvement and recertification.

Pyrrha annually calculates our GHG emissions, published on our Sustainability Page for transparency on our emissions reduction progress. We are continuously working to improve our calculations and reporting, getting more detailed every year as our business grows and standards evolve. Our Sustainability Page acts as the main resource for our customers to learn more about our responsible and sustainable business practices.

We know these tools do not tell the whole story, but they give customers a clearer way to understand what we are doing, what we can support with evidence, and what we are still working to improve.

For us, transparency is closely connected to trust. Customers should not have to decode vague sustainability language. They should be able to understand the basis for a claim and how it relates to the product, the business, and the broader impact.

"Brands like Pyrrha are years ahead, and it shows in the stories they can tell," Kristy stresses. "When you have done the work this long, you are not writing marketing copy. You are telling a documentary brand story, with receipts, and you can take customers, industry partners, even naysayers - behind the scenes. Any business can start earning that position. Deep sustainability work builds self-awareness, and self-awareness is what lets you tell stories that move your customers, your partners, and even your competitors to action. Your bold stories make the industry up their game."

 

A PRACTICAL STARTING POINT FOR OTHER BUSINESSES

Any business can begin improving its sustainability communication by reviewing the claims it already makes.

A helpful first step is to gather every environmental or ethical claim used across the business. This might include website copy, product pages, packaging, advertising, wholesale materials, customer service responses, social media captions, sustainability reports, press releases, and internal sales materials.

From there, businesses can ask:

• Is the claim specific?
• Is it supported by evidence?
• Is the evidence current?
• Does the claim explain its scope?
• Could a customer reasonably misunderstand it?
• Does the claim imply a broader impact than the company can support?
• Is there a public source, report, certification, policy, or methodology that customers can review?
• Does the language acknowledge limitations where needed?

A vague claim does not always need to be removed. Sometimes it just needs to be made clearer.

For example:

Instead of saying: “Made with recycled materials”

A clearer version might be: Cast in 100% recycled sterling silver

• States what portion of the product is recycled (the cast piece)
• States what material is being referred to (sterling silver)

 

PRODUCT CARE AND LIFESPAN

Sustainability does not end when a piece is purchased. How jewellery is worn, stored, cleaned, repaired, and passed on also affects its overall impact.

Customers can extend the life of their pieces by:

• Storing jewellery separately to reduce scratching and tangling
• Keeping pieces away from moisture, lotions, perfumes, and harsh chemicals
• Cleaning pieces according to the material and finish
• Repairing or refinishing pieces when possible
• Choosing pieces they expect to wear for years, not just for a season

For businesses, care guidance is part of responsible communication. Information on caring for the specific materials in their jewellery should be provided to customers.  Helping customers care for what they already own supports longer product life and more responsible consumption.

 

CERTIFICATIONS ARE USEFUL, BUT THEY ARE NOT THE WHOLE STORY

Certifications can help companies formalize their efforts, compare their practices against external standards, and create accountability. They can also help customers identify businesses that have completed an independent review process.

A certification may show that a company has met a defined standard at a point in time, but it does not mean every impact has been solved. It does not remove the need for continued due diligence, better data, supplier engagement, emissions reduction, or transparent reporting.

Certifications also come with additional operating costs, including membership fees and dedicated time to go through certification processes. This may be a barrier for smaller businesses to become certified, but it does not mean they can’t adopt practices and policies that align with various certifications and adopt more responsible business practices.

For customers, certifications can be a helpful signal.

For businesses, they should be a foundation for continuous improvement.

 

PUBLIC RESOURCES CAN HELP MOVE EVERYONE FORWARD

Businesses do not need to start from scratch. There are public tools, standards, and frameworks that can help companies improve their sustainability practices and the way they communicate them.

Useful starting points include:

• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
• Guidance from consumer protection and competition authorities on environmental claims
• Climate accounting and emissions reduction frameworks
  • Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
• Human rights due diligence guidance
  • UN Declaration of Human Rights
• Certification standards relevant to a company’s size, sector, and impacts
  • B Corp standards are publicly available for download, and break down their requirements based on company size
  • The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) is an industry-specific certification body that holds jewellery and watch businesses to a high standard of responsible business practices
  • Positive Luxury posts reports and guides on their website that can help businesses work towards their ESG+ requirements
• Industry-specific responsible sourcing resources
  • The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a great resource for responsible sourcing in minerals sector. The RJC aligns their responsible sourcing requirements with the OECD guidance
• Public sustainability reports from companies willing to share their approach
  • Pyrrha annually reports our carbon emissions on our sustainability page, and we post our human rights due diligence efforts annually as well

We believe this kind of knowledge should be easier to access. When companies share what they have learned, including the challenges, they make it easier for others to improve.

 

SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING AND DUE DILIGENCE

Public Reporting can move sustainability from intention to accountability for companies.

Sustainability reports help explain environmental impacts, goals, progress, and areas where more work is needed. Due diligence reporting explains how a company identifies and responds to human rights risks in its operations and supply chain.

 The process of reporting itself can also add value by revealing gaps, improving internal decision-making, and creating clearer expectations for the future.

For Pyrrha, reporting is part of a broader transparency commitment. It helps us communicate what we are doing, where we are improving, and where challenges remain.

 

HOW CLEARER CLAIMS SUPPORT BROADER IMPACT

Clear sustainability communication supports more responsible consumption and production. It helps customers make better-informed decisions. It encourages companies to back up their claims. It reduces the risk of misleading environmental language becoming normal. It also supports climate education by helping people understand the difference between reduction, offsetting, reporting, and accountability.

This work connects closely to several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including:

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Clearer claims, better reporting, and longer product lifespans support more responsible production and more informed consumption.

SDG 13: Climate Action

Transparent climate communication helps customers and businesses better understand emissions, reductions, offsets, and the limits of carbon-related claims.

SDG 15: Life on Land

Responsible material choices and reduced reliance on newly extracted resources can help lower pressure on ecosystems affected by extraction and land use.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Openly sharing knowledge, frameworks, and lessons learned helps other businesses, customers, and stakeholders participate in broader change.

 

OUR COMMITMENT TO CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

We do not see transparency as a finished project. We see it as a practice.

That means continuing to review our claims, update our reporting, improve our sourcing practices, communicate more clearly, and listen to the questions customers and stakeholders are asking.

It also means being honest about complexity. Jewellery supply chains, climate impacts, human rights risks, material sourcing, and product longevity cannot be reduced to a single label. Responsible businesses should be willing to explain the details.

Our hope is that this guide helps customers ask better questions and helps other businesses communicate with more care.

Sustainability claims should not rely on trust alone. They should make trust easier to verify.