Sustainable luxury: the new black gold. Materials, coatings and processes for sustainable jewels

The aim of the research is to investigate how sustainable design can help prestigious goldsmith companies struggling - due to the recently soaring price of gold - in identifying new strategies selecting materials for their jewel creation, so that the firms may preserve their market positioning as well as retaining their target audience, and focusing on new more eloquent and environmentally bearable opportunities. In fact, last years have been characterized by an increase in gold price and an economic crisis that is affecting many companies, in particular SMEs. On the other hand several reports and articles have extended the debate on sustainable consumption to luxury products: authors underline that luxury product manufacturers depend no longer uniquely on their name and their identity, but consider also, according to the demands of their consumers, the social and environmental dimensions. This research is applied to an Italian goldsmith company selected for a European research project (2011-2013), aimed at supporting French and Italian SMEs into conceiving innovative environmental sustainable products and processes, which should be assumed as the key drivers for future development. The rationale behind this research and collaboration lied in several aspects, such as demonstrating that luxury lives in the project and not only in materials, improving the environmental profile of jewels is possible by probing materials to be paired with gold, enhancing innovation in jewels production, strengthening jewel brand identity and confirming the relationship with the legacy of traditional company’s jewels.