Signet, mum or dad firm of bijou retailers Kay and Zales, streamlined its environmental, social and governance technique in 2023 to deal with 11 objectives quite than 44.
Some commitments set simply two years earlier, together with a pledge to hit internet zero by 2050 and a sequence of variety, fairness and inclusion objectives, have been dropped through the paring. The driving imaginative and prescient for the overhaul: set near-term targets for 2030 that have been prudent and achievable, in line with Signet’s sustainability crew.
“One of many advantages of this refinement is it helps your entire firm be actually centered on our roadmap for sustainability and be actually clear,” mentioned Anna Bryan, senior director of ESG reporting and communications on the $6.7 billion firm’s planetary impression.
The shift is exhibiting up in Signet’s worker retention charges, that are 20 factors increased than the trade common for jewellery retailers, mentioned Colleen Rooney, chief company affairs and sustainability officer for Signet. “We really feel prefer it provides worth to the group in lots of kinds,” she mentioned. “It undoubtedly attracts expertise.”
Recycling and reuse
A dominant theme of Signet’s refined focus is accountable mining and sourcing practices, a longstanding precedence for the co-founder of the Accountable Jewellery Council.
The world’s largest diamond retailer can also be prioritizing using recycled supplies and incorporating extra repurposed gems and valuable metals into its new designs, a technique additionally embraced by rivals Tiffany and Pandora, which has switched completely to recycled silver and gold.
The 2-decade-old Accountable Jewellery Council is advocating extra round sources throughout the jewellery provide chain to scale back the environmental and human rights impacts of mining, together with new requirements launched in February that apply to lab-grown diamonds. Signet is nicely on monitor with commitments requiring all suppliers to ado pits code of conduct (100%) and to be licensed by the council (91 %).
“With jewellery, ‘recycling’ is completely different than it’s with different merchandise since diamonds and gold don’t in any other case get thrown away,” mentioned Paul Zimnisky, principal with analysis and consulting agency Diamond Analytics. “However as pure gems and valuable metals get rarer, I believe we are going to see extra repurposing on this approach. I believe it’ll turn out to be extra widespread.”
Signet hasn’t set particular objectives for rising the variety of jewellery collections that use repurposed supplies, however up to now it options six — greater than 200 separate items — below the Zales, Rocksbox, Kay and Ernest Jones retail manufacturers. It additionally resold 65,000 items collected from prospects throughout its most up-to-date fiscal yr: Signet’s Zales, Kay, Jared and Diamonds Direct manufacturers provide a retailer credit score to those that commerce in jewellery whereas upgrading to a brand new piece.
The corporate has recovered 22,589 troy ounces of gold, 18,089 troy ounces of silver and 52,031 carats of diamonds, in line with its 2025 sustainability report. The worth of the recovered metals is not less than $35 million.
“We’re so very lucky to work in an trade the place the uncooked supplies have worth and will be resmelted, repurposed,” mentioned Bryan. “It’s such a bonus in terms of retailers which have merchandise that don’t have a transparent path or avenue for recycling.”
New emissions objectives
Signet’s commitments for decreasing greenhouse gases are nascent. Its emissions objectives for the 2031 fiscal yr have been solely set in March: a pledge to chop emissions from operations (Scope 1) and electrical energy use (Scope 2) by 11 %, and a dedication to scale back the carbon footprint from suppliers (Scope 3) by 17.5 %.
Signet makes use of an open-source target-setting and reporting methodology printed by the Heart for Sustainable Organizations, which executives mentioned permit for faster changes as market situations or useful resource availability adjustments.
“We acquired actually acquainted with the methodology, and we’ve this ongoing communication with the operations crew and with the true property crew about levers we are able to pull or actions we are able to take,” Bryan mentioned. If the crew desires to regulate its eventualities, it may well accomplish that extra simply. “We will get faster outcomes than if we have been working with an out of doors marketing consultant and needed to rebase or transform.”
Scope 1 and a pair of account for 78 % of Signet’s reported emissions stock for FY25; the info it contains for Scope 3 is slim and contains waste from operations and gasoline/energy-related actions.
To scale back its electrical energy consumption, Signet is prioritizing vitality effectivity conversions such because the set up of LED lighting in shops. It’s additionally searching for methods to construct clauses associated to the adoption of renewable vitality into leases. That’s easier to do for some manufacturers comparable to Jared and Diamonds Direct, which generally function in unbiased buildings. Signet is exploring methods to collaborate with different tenants in procuring malls, the place Kay and Zales usually are positioned.
To chop its Scope 3 impression, Signet expects 85 suppliers doing not less than $5 million in enterprise with the retailer to start out disclosing emissions and set annual discount targets, practices required below updates by the Accountable Jewellery Council. The corporate mentioned greater than 40 % of its provide chain makes use of not less than some renewable vitality within the manufacturing course of.
“Footprint particulars are tough to establish for industries with deep and sophisticated provide chains,” mentioned Zimnisky. “Nonetheless, the diamond and jewellery trade has made vital progress within the space in recent times. It’s encouraging to see such a worldwide provide chain work collectively on this approach.”
