Responsibility
2023 Responsibility Report
OUR RESPONSIBILITY MISSION
Our fundamental mission is to be a progressive jewellery house, paving the way for a more responsible future. Over the past year, our responsibility journey has made significant progress, reinforcing our belief in our responsibility to lead meaningful change within the jewellery industry.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
In 2023, we became a Maison member of the Watch and Jewellery Initiative 2030 and achieved Responsible Jewellery Council COP certification. We also became participants in UN Global Compact and signatories of the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles. Here are our 2023 achievements at a glance.
RESPONSIBILITY ROADMAP
In 2023, we laid out 24 sustainability milestones to achieve by 2025, striving to forge a brighter future for both Tom Wood and the broader industry. As the year concludes, we've surpassed expectations, meeting 17 of our 24 objectives already in year one.
While we take pride in our progress, we're not resting on our laurels. We aim to continually challenge ourselves, thus we're elevating our ambition by adding new targets — unveiling Tom Wood’s Responsibility Roadmap 2.0, comprising 88 goals.
In our renewed commitment to redefine our roadmap, we're intensifying our focus on industry collaboration and aligning with global benchmarks. We've proudly joined the UN Global Compact, endorsed the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles, achieved RJC certification, and become integral members of the visionary Watch and Jewellery Initiative 2030.
This year's experiences have sharpened our strategies, leading us to set more audacious timelines for certain objectives while granting extended timelines for others. We concentrate our responsibility efforts where we can make the most impact, driving positive change through our commitment to People, Product, and Planet.
Advancing into 2024, we are eager to maintain our momentum and accelerate our journey towards a responsible future. Our dedication to sustainability is unwavering, driven by a commitment to operate responsibly across all aspects of our business.
KEY GOALS FOR 2024
1. High focus on learning:
As a result of our global expansion, we’re becoming increasingly international. This proves a challenge to our learning programs as we want to ensure we keep our personalised approach to learning to an international audience. In 2024, we aim to launch an online training platform - ensuring we don’t lose anyone along the way on our responsibility journey.
2. Traceability:
In 2024, traceability will be top priority. Building on our traceable metals, we have set goals of reaching 30% traceability of our coloured gemstones, and 100% traceability of diamonds.
3. Embracing circularity:
2024 is the year we bring our ideas regarding circularity into action, starting with a closed-loop project set to launch later in the year, and bringing improvements to our care & repair programs.
4. Continuous carbon reduction:
Despite an ambitious growth plan, we’ve set a goal to continue our trend of reducing our carbon footprint. In 2024, our aim is to reduce our overall footprint by another 10%.
5. Utilising our voice:
We believe it’s our responsibility to continue the conversation around responsibility. Where we historically have taken a conservative approach, in 2024 we aim to use our platform more to talk about the work we do, the challenges we encounter, and the solutions we find along the way so that we can inspire others the way we’ve been inspired.
UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a global call to action aiming to eradicate poverty, safeguard the planet, and guarantee peace and prosperity for all by 2030. With 17 goals addressing critical global challenges like poverty, inequality, climate change, and environmental degradation, the SDGs serve as a comprehensive framework for sustainable development.
The challenges of our industry are too big to solve alone. The jewellery industry, traditionally competitive, is facing sustainability challenges too vast for any single company to tackle individually. While competition is a natural element within the sector, we believe sustainability to be an arena for collaboration, not competition.
WATCH AND JEWELLERY INITIATIVE 2030
Tom Wood is proud to join the Watch and Jewellery Initiative 2030, a transformative effort initiated by Cartier and Kering, in partnership with the Responsible Jewellery Council.
Driven by the shared conviction that global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aspirations for a sustainable industry can only be achieved through collaboration, this initiative unites key stakeholders in committing to three ambitious, common objectives: building climate resilience, preserving resources, and fostering inclusiveness.
Founded by Kering and Cartier, WJI 2030 aims to unite industry competitors in addressing key sustainability issues, creating shared goals, frameworks, and methodologies. As part of this visionary group of 21 Maison members, we collaborate monthly, setting aside competition to forge meaningful, collective progress. As both Tom Wood and our initiative progress, we will continue to share our insights and encourage others to do likewise, aiming to accelerate our collective stride towards sustainability.
Our holistic approach to sustainability is focused on three main pillars: product, planet, and people.
PEOPLE
We want to foster a culture of transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability. At Tom Wood, we regard social and environmental responsibility as two sides of the same coin. Behind every Tom Wood product are individuals we are committed to. Ensuring fair, safe, and healthy working conditions for our team and across our supply chain is our paramount responsibility.
Our culture
On our responsibility journey, Tom Wood prioritises not only environmental responsibility but also the cultivation of an inclusive and diverse workplace. Recognising our employees as our foremost asset, we are committed to fostering a space where everyone can flourish - professionally, economically, and socially. We believe our approach not only enriches our workplace but is instrumental in driving our company forward through innovation, engagement, and employee satisfaction.
Inclusion & Diversity
Our aim is to become an employer of choice, known for being an inclusive luxury brand with a diverse and engaged workforce. We believe that a diverse workforce fosters greater creativity, innovation, and smarter decision-making. We actively and systematically promote equality, inclusion, and diversity within our workplace, focusing on our recruitment processes, promotions, benefits, and pay, as well as career development at personal, departmental, and organisational levels.
We’re proud to have at least 50% representation of women in our management teams. This is a target we’ve reached and intend to keep in the future. We want to reflect this in our board as well, leading to a decision in which ⅓ board members will be female from 2024.
Our jewellery suppliers
We value cooperation and believe that the challenges facing our industry must be addressed collectively. Only through collaboration can we foster the sustainable innovation and systemic change necessary for our industry to implement the essential improvements for future generations. As a company, we have consciously chosen to partner with suppliers who share our commitment to sustainability and accountability within their supply chains. As we expand our due diligence efforts, we encourage our suppliers to grow alongside us.
PRODUCT
At the core of our business is the creation of high-quality products, mindful of the environmental footprint left by their creation. Our sustainability initiatives focus on minimising this impact from design to production, embedding sustainability and durability into each jewellery piece.
Our materials
Silver and gold are the most utilised metals in our jewellery. Over the past year we completed our transition from virgin to recycled metals, reducing our emissions by over 90%.
Our gemstones and diamonds originate from all over the world and are sourced through our trusted, suppliers certified by the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) certified suppliers. We exclusively purchase polished natural diamonds which have been sourced following the principles of the World Diamond Council’s System of Warranties.
Design & Innovation
Each piece of jewellery is made with sustainability and longevity in mind. We are committed to integrating sustainability further into our design processes, actively searching for innovative solutions that enhance both our products and manufacturing techniques. At Tom Wood, we believe in the synergy between traditional craftsmanship and digital innovation, demonstrated by our investment in an in-house lab equipped with 3D printers and laser engraving machines.
Traceability
In creating jewellery that we love, it’s equally as important that we feel good about where it comes from and how it's made. We've already achieved 100% traceability for our precious metals and are on course to attain 30% traceability for our gemstones and complete traceability for our diamonds by the end of 2024.
Responsible production
Our production is only as responsible as our suppliers. All our main jewellery manufacturers are certified members of the RJC, having undergone the Code of Practices audit. Having undergone the audit ourselves in 2023, we’ve identified the framework as being a solid foundation for any sustainable business.
PLANET
We are resolute in our commitment to the green transition, focusing our efforts where our environmental impact is most significant.
Our emissions
Tom Wood’s overall Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in 2023 was 356 tCO2e. This is a 22% reduction from 2022. tCO2e is a unit that is used to calculate greenhouse gas emissions.
Scope 1: Direct emissions
Emissions from owned or controlled facilities. Emissions from owned or controlled facilities.
Scope 2: Indirect emissions
Emissions from the generation of purchased energy used by the organization. Examples: purchased electricity, heat and steam.
Scope 3: Indirect value chain emissions
Emissions that occur in the company’s value chain, including both upstream and downstream emissions.
Upstream refers to emissions which derive from the activities of suppliers of the company, such as emissions from purchased goods and services, transportation of goods to warehouse and business travel.
Downstream emissions are generated after a product leaves the company’s ownership, such as transportation of products to customers, use of sold products and end-of-use activities.
Jewellery production
In 2023, our jewellery production saw a significant 79% reduction in GHG emissions, dropping from 147.7 tonnes of CO2e to just 30.8 tonnes.
This was chiefly achieved by transitioning to 100% recycled metals. While we had already incorporated 64% recycled materials in 2022, 2023 marked the completion of our shift to exclusively using recycled gold and silver. For plating metals, we transitioned to recycled rhodium mid-year, resulting in a 56% use of recycled rhodium for the year. The balance, 44%, was virgin rhodium, reflecting the period before the transition was fully implemented.
Jewellery makes up 19% of our total GHG emissions in 2023.
SUPPLIER CODE OF CONDUCT
We promote the adoption of the highest social standards across our supply chain requiring all suppliers to adhere to the principles expressed in our Supplier Agreement and our Supplier Code of Conduct. Our Code of Conduct is based on ILO Conventions, the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Our supplier Code of Conduct promotes sustainable business practices and accountability across our supply chain. We review and revise our Code of Conduct on an annual basis ensuring that it always aligns with the highest standards. In 2022 we revised our Code of Conduct with reinforced focus on high-risk areas in the jewellery industry, such as:
• Human and labour rights
• Health & safety
• Environment
• Responsible sourcing
• Transparency and traceability
Our Supplier Code of Conduct is available to the public in its entirety here.
TRANSPARENCY & THE NORWEGIAN TRANSPARENCY ACT
We advocate for our customers to make well-informed choices regarding their purchases. We are committed to offering as much detail as possible about each stage of our supply chain. To this end, we ensure full transparency concerning our evolving ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives, fair labour practices, and ethical business standards.
In June 2021, Norway's Parliament enacted the Norwegian Transparency Act. This Act mandates companies to ensure human rights and decent working conditions within their operations and supply chains. We wholeheartedly support this initiative. Although the Act does not require the disclosure of manufacturer details, we choose to promote complete transparency.
To set a precedent, we share information about the manufacturer of every Tom Wood product on our website. In 2023 we reported on the Act for the first time.
GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
Tom Wood is committed to maintaining responsible business standards throughout our supply chain, and has developed a grievance mechanism to address any stakeholder’s grievances relating to our operations.
Tom Wood is committed to reviewing and addressing any incident or grievance in a timely manner, and where further investigation is deemed necessary, find resolutions. As a company that follows a stern Code of Conduct, Tom Wood will handle all grievances with utmost respect and care.
This is our procedure:
The grievance is received, logged, and treated as strictly confidential and acknowledged to the relevant stakeholder.
Grievances should be submitted with as much detail about the alleged violation as possible and with any evidence if documentation is available.
Tom Wood will not retaliate in any manner against anyone who may report a grievance. Grievances should be sent by e-mail to responsibility[@]tomwoodproject.com or by mail to Tom Wood AS C/O Head of Sustainability, Sofienberggata 19, 0558 Oslo, Norway.
This is an excerpt of our Annual Responsibility Report for the calendar year 2023. Its purpose is to provide our stakeholders with a comprehensive insight into our responsibility initiatives within our business operations and supply chain.
The report has been prepared by Tom Wood’s sustainability team in collaboration with Cemasys, who empower us with impact data and analytics for continuous improvement in the field of supply chain engagement and decarbonisation.