In its latest bi-annual sustainability update, Mejuri celebrates over $1 million USD in contributions through its Empowerment Fund and unveils the Mejuri Design Excellence Award. Partnering with top art and design schools, Mejuri will provide $10,000 to support aspiring jewelry designers in Canada and beyond. We chatted with Holly McHugh, VP of sustainability and social impact at Mejuri, to learn more. —Noa Nichol
With the Empowerment Fund now surpassing $1 million in contributions, how have these funds made a tangible difference for women and underrepresented communities?
To date, the Fund has partnered with organizations such as Design Thinking Africa, Indspire, and UNCF to provide 127 scholarships and bursaries. These scholarships and bursaries have provided access to skills through traditional or non-traditional education. In doing so, we believe that these individuals will have more power to design the life they want. For example, Design Thinking Africa teaches precision gemstone cutting and polishing to women in Zambia to uplift them and their communities. By teaching value added skills in the jewelry supply chain, it both mobilizes women in Zambia through education and helps to create transparent jewelry value chains that pour value back into Zambian communities through the jewelry sector.
Can you tell us more about the new Mejuri Design Excellence Award and its impact on emerging jewelry designers?
We understand that creative individuals often leave school saddled with debt and creative industries are notoriously difficult to access. Our hope is to support the next generation of artists in the jewelry industry, so these individuals can focus on their creative pursuits without the burden of financial stress leading to them designing the life they want. It can also help lead to more groundbreaking and unique designs, and will ensure the long-term sustainability and growth of the jewelry industry by fostering new talent and skills.
Mejuri is aiming to be climate-positive by 2030. What are some specific challenges Mejuri faces in reaching this ambitious goal?
Our ability to reach our goals depends on collaboration both across the jewelry industry and across other industries–particularly if we want to see real and lasting change. That’s why we’ve joined the Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030, which will expand our partnerships and accelerate impact, and why we became founding members of Regeneration, supporting re-mining and environmental restoration. Our Climate Positive goal comprises GHG emissions reductions as well as creating a positive biodiversity impact. We have submitted our science-based GHG emissions reduction target to the Science Based Target initiative for review and we are working on our biodiversity mapping to better track our progress against international, scientific frameworks.
How does Mejuri ensure the traceability of materials like Salmon Gold, recycled metals, and gemstones, and why is this important for sustainability?
Given the global nature of the jewelry industry, traceability and transparency across borders presents a difficult challenge – there are many steps from mine to market – but it’s a challenge that’s well worth taking on. Even further, our traceability ambitions and approach are unique to each material, which reflects the different challenges in their respective supply chains. We work closely with our suppliers to monitor and help ensure responsible practices, and have developed our Social & Environmental Accountability Program to monitor our suppliers against our Supplier Code of Conduct to help ensure we are partnering with trusted suppliers who share our commitment to human rights, fair and safe labor practices, environmental protection, and ethical business conduct. The full traceability from mine to finished product of our Salmon Gold collection was accomplished through a close partnership with the refiner, who batch processed the gold separately and ensured this through their proprietary traceability solution. Traceability allows us to understand what happens at every stage within the process to ensure we are making the right decisions for people, our planet and our product.
In what ways has Mejuri engaged with the community through events and volunteer initiatives, and how do these efforts align with your sustainability
At Mejuri, we are committed to making a meaningful impact on the communities where we operate, including our stores, corporate offices, and fulfillment centers. Since setting this goal, we have focused on creating opportunities for our team members to engage directly with local communities through both in-store events and volunteering initiatives. In 2024, we hosted nine impactful in-store events across six locations, drawing over 4,600 attendees.
In September, we launched our second corporate-wide volunteering initiative during Give Back Week bringing together team members from our corporate offices, fulfillment centers, and retail locations in New York and Toronto. During this week, our staff assembled educational resource kits, including chemistry and STEAM materials, along with handmade bookmarks, which were donated to local nonprofits to support inclusive and accessible learning for 315 children in our communities. In total, our team dedicated 92 hours to volunteer projects this year, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to giving back.
Through these efforts, we continue to strengthen our connection with the communities we serve, ensuring that we contribute to a brighter, more inclusive future for all.
How do you see Mejuri’s focus on circularity and recycled materials shaping the future of the brand and the jewelry industry?
At Mejuri, we are committed to achieving 100% circularity by designing products and packaging with their entire lifecycle in mind. This includes creating pathways for repair, resale, and recycling to preserve resources and reduce environmental impact, aligning closely with our Climate Positive goal. Circularity is integrated into all aspects of our business, from product design to operations, focusing on reduction, reuse, repurposing, and recycling.
Our first priority is ensuring every product we produce has an end-of-life solution. We are actively developing a repair program set to launch in 2025. We’re partnering with repair centers to extend the life of our products, and items beyond repair will be recycled. Additionally, we continue to prioritize materials that can be reused or reprocessed, with 93.8% of our gold and 92.3% of our silver sourced from recycled materials. We’ve also made strides in regenerative practices, with 282 oz. of gold sourced from re-mining of waste at legacy mine sites in North America. This is part of our work as a founding partner of Regeneration, we have integrated Salmon Gold into our supply chain, supporting habitat restoration while enhancing traceability in our gold sourcing. In June, we launched a successful collection made from this nature-positive material, with plans to increase our use of Salmon Gold for further collections in the future.
We are also focused on reducing waste in our operations. Since launching our Terracycle program in 2023, we’ve diverted 1,875.39 lbs of plastic waste from landfills, with 708.78 lbs recycled in the first half of 2024 alone. Through these efforts, we aim to continuously improve our waste diversion and reduction practices across all areas of the business. Our packaging also aligns with circular principles, focusing on recycled, biodegradable, and recyclable materials. In 2024, 14% of customers chose reduced packaging at checkout, and we’re redesigning our packaging to prioritize sustainability and reuse.
We have to ask – what favourite Mejuri pieces are you wearing on repeat at the moment?
How can I possibly choose just one? Between the Salmon Gold collection and the innovation of lab-grown diamonds powered by renewable energy, it’s such a tough decision! I’m consistently drawn to my textured hoops crafted from Salmon Gold, and I always look forward to seeing these remarkable collections each year. In our new collections , I am loving our Bezel Lab Grown Diamond Zig-Zag Ring. Launching our Lab Grown Diamond collection was an initiative I was particularly proud to be a part of; it is a way to make high quality diamonds more accessible to our customers, without compromising our traceability efforts. Since responsible sourcing is a core tenet of Mejuri, we wanted to take the time to ensure we were launching lab-grown diamonds the most sustainable way by sourcing 100% SCS Certified Sustainability Rated Diamonds. This standard involves a rigorous supplier vetting process to certify that a diamond producer is carbon neutral, and uses responsible and ethical production processes. In some exciting news, this year, we achieved 100% traceability for our pearls and lab grown diamonds, putting us on track to do the same for the rest of our precious materials by 2030.
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