Humanists for Social Justice and Environmental Action supports Human Rights, Social and Economic Justice, Environmental Activism and Planetary Ethics in North America & Globally, with particular reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other Human Rights UN treaties and conventions listed above.

Tuesday

No Dirty Gold action alert: Costco

No Dirty Gold action alert
UN TREATY: UDHR, CCR, ILO's "Convention on Safety and Health in Mines" (not signed by Canada, Australia, Russia, Peru)

Right now, Costco -- one of the top 10 jewelry retailers in the United States -- has an opportunity to be a leader in the fight against dirty gold.
Democracy in Action petition on responsible metals sourcing here.

Eight of the other top 10 jewelry retailers have already joined the fight against irresponsible mining -- including Target, Tiffany & Co., and Sears. Jewelry retailers are important because jewelry demand accounts for about 80% of annual mined production of gold. Because of its size, Costco is the kind of company that can, with its purchasing decisions, significantly move the mining industry. With that power comes a responsibility to provide its customers with products that come from ethical sources .

(and in a related move: check out Costco's Facebook wall today (May 16). A group of clean gold activists bombed their wall with the message "No Dirty Gold". And this social media stunt may be enough to finally make Costco join the No Dirty Gold campaign.
Costco is one of a dwindling number of major jewelry retailers who has yet to join the No Dirty Gold campaign and make a commitment to sell gold mined without child or slave labor, environmental harm, and community displacement. In gold mining around the world, the use of child labor and dangerous pollutants is unfortunately far too common. Earthworks' No Dirty Gold campaign fights these abuses in the industry by holding retailers like Costco accountable for what goes into the products they sell. But despite receiving letters from over 27,000 Change.org and Costco members, Costco still refuses to make a company-wide commitment to ethically-sourced gold.
Change.org petition to Costco here

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