Greg Valerio Profile
Award winning ethical jewellery and social entrepreneur Greg Valerio MBE has been described as:
“Maverick, pain in the arse, social entrepreneur, out of the box, radical, passionate, emotional, idiot, unmanageable, direct, to the point, breath of fresh air, rebel, visionary, scruffy, non-conformist, looks like a bum, economic disruptor, jewellery heretic, dangerous bastard.”
due his unfaltering commitment to human rights, ecological justice and fair-trade practices in marginalised communities.
Born in 1967 in Canada, Valerio didn’t set out to become a jeweller. He was expelled from Chichester High School for Boys with the prophetic words from his head of year ‘Valerio, you’re a natural born trouble maker, just make sure you make trouble for the right reasons’. He spent his teenage years during the 80’s immersed the in theatre and on the streets of London. His experiences opened his eyes to the plight of the poor and planted the seeds for a yearning to work in social justice. These values would later become the foundation of his pioneering work in the jewellery world.
In 1991, following education trips to Tanzania and Ethiopia aged 24, Valerio founded Christian Relief Education and Development (CRED), a development and human rights education network on the south coast of England. Working with young adults in schools and colleges, he became a regular facilitator for activists focused on human rights, the environment, and fair trade. In 1996, Valerio combined his activism with entrepreneurship and founded CRED Jewellery, Europe’s first jewellery company to retail fairly traded Oro Verde gold and ‘green’ platinum collections from The Chocó region of Colombia.
Monitoring supply routes of raw materials, Greg became determined to make transparency and traceability his mantra. “Jewellers often ignore the stories of their sources,” he said at the time. “This is an industry running scared of the truth, but with the financial resources to put it right.” In 2003 he partnered with Natural Resources Institute of Greenwich University, he published Towards an Ethical Jewellery Business, a piece of ground-breaking research which set the baseline for transparency and traceability in the jewellery supply chain.
He was the first international jeweller to visit Colombia’s pioneering small-scale mining initiative Oro Verde, which supported sustainable indigenous gold and platinum mining methods without the use of mercury. These on-the-ground lessons shaped Valerio’s vision for a jewellery industry that prioritises traceability. In 2004, CRED Jewellery launched the first ever ethical jewellery website, offering wedding bands crafted in Oro Verde gold, proving that fair trade in jewellery was not just possible, but accessible.
In 2005, alongside a collective of artisanal miners from Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, Valerio became one of the Founding Board members of the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), an NGO mineral consultancy that works to transform the ASM sector into a socially and environmentally responsible activity whilst improving quality of life for artisanal miners, their families and communities.
Valerio went on to make one of his most significant contributions to the jewellery industry to date: helping to establish the Fairtrade Gold offering to the worldwide jewellery trade. Working closely with the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) and other International Fairtrade Organisations from 2010 to 2014, Valerio drew on his experiences as the original ethical jeweller and a founder of ARM to work right across the gold supply chain in coordinating the International Gold programme; from advising on the content of the Fairtrade and Fairmined Gold standard to connecting Fairtrade with refiners, manufacturers, Assay Offices, trade associations and government bodies.
The launch of the standard and its certification in 2011 continues to guarantee gold that has been mined in a socially & environmentally responsible manner, promising miners a fair price and a premium to invest in their communities. “Fairtrade Gold isn’t just about ethical sourcing,” Valerio says. “It’s about creating a paradigm shift in the jewellery industry. It’s about putting people and the planet at the centre of our jewellery profession.” It’s no surprise that this triumph saw Valerio hailed Global Campaigner of the Year in The Observer Ethical Awards that year.
From keynote speeches at conferences to articles in broadsheets and endless conversations with governmental policymakers, Valerio’s advocacy for stronger regulations and greater accountability in the mining sector has, at times, involved raising his voice. His 2013 book, Making Trouble: Fighting for Fairtrade Jewellery, chronicles this journey and offers a searing critique of the industry’s failures while providing a roadmap for change.
This tireless noise led to widespread recognition by 2016; the year Valerio was awarded an MBE in The Queens New Year’s Honours list for services to Fairtrade Gold and artisanal gold mining communities in South America and Africa, followed closely by an Honorary Doctorates from Winchester & Chichester University for services in the field of social justice, social and environmental responsibility in business practices.
Over more than three decades, Valerio’s work has taken him to remote mining communities across the globe, from Greenland to Sierra Leone, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nepal & India. To this day, he vividly recalls standing in a Rajasthani garnet mine – which he described as the “Gateway to Dante’s Inferno” – and feeling deeply moved to confront the slavery & exploitation he was witnessing. His efforts have consistently focussed on connecting these communities with ethical and transparent supply chains, enabling them to sell their materials at a fair price and under safe conditions.
In Uganda, for example, Valerio’s Mercury-Free Fairtrade Gold Programme – launched in partnership with Environmental Women in Action for Development (EWAD) and the Belgian government – secured Fairtrade certification for the Sayonja Artisanal Community Mining Cooperative, Africa’s first certified Fairtrade Gold source.
Since 2013, Valerio has worked closely with UK-based charity Peace Direct and The Centre Résolution Conflits (CRC) in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to develop PeaceGold. Building on over 10 years of partnership between the two organisations, PeaceGold is the ground-breaking initiative turning gold into a source of peace, prosperity and community development in Ituri Province. PeaceGold’s work to date has helped miners in Ituri Province to achieve the necessary protections of labour and human rights to access international standards for legal gold production and sales, supported local community development and wellbeing, eliminated the use of mercury, tackled child labour in and around mining sites, and supported the reintegration of ex-militia back into work and community.
In November 2024, Valerio unveiled the PeaceGold Ethical Jewellery House in Bishop Auckland; a retail space, inviting customers to learn directly from Valerio about PeaceGold’s mission and social impact, shop jewellery from a curated selection of ethics-orientated jewellers, and learn the art of jewellery craftsmanship through in-house jewellery-making workshops with goldsmith Kate Seow. “PeaceGold is a community interest company on a mission to promote ethical jewellery practice and design, and to open up the genius and creativity of the jewellery trade to the wider public,” Valerio said on launch.
Rooted in Christian beliefs in justice & peace for the common good, Greg Valerio describes his approach to campaigning, business and life as “faith in action.” He remains at the forefront of the ethical jewellery movement, challenging industry norms, pushing for greater accountability and urging jewellers to see themselves as stewards of both art and ethics. With plans to build an international network of ethical jewellers adopting PeaceGold for use in their jewellery creation and tell “the best gold story in the world,” he’s only just getting started.
