NYC based, jewelry designer, Christina Malle tries to empower people to ask questions about where gold, silver and gemstones are from. She says the more frequently that consumers pose questions, the sooner we will have transparency and traceability in the jewelry supply chains.

Why is this important? To enable accountability, practically non-existant today. The current opacity in the “luxury” sector means that predatory practices towards miners and environmental degradations continue essentially unchecked. She strives to add beauty to the world — via jewelry — but not at the expense of people and planet. The first step is asking where materials are from, how they got here and their impact on people and planet along the way.

Produced by Kitty Pilgrim, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud@ Radio Free Rhinecliff