The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) is entering 2026 with a refreshed leadership team at the heart of its standards work, signalling an important moment for jewellers who trade on trust, transparency, and ethical provenance. The London-based standards organization has appointed two new Co-Chairs to its Standards Committee—Sara Yood, President and CEO of the Jewellers Vigilance Committee (JVC), and Eduard Stefanescu, Sustainability Manager at C.HAFNER GmbH + Co. KG—alongside a slate of new committee members drawn from across the global jewellery and watch value chain.
For Canadian retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers, these appointments matter because they shape the Codes of Practice, Chain of Custody, and Laboratory Grown Materials standards that increasingly define what “responsible jewellery” looks like in the eyes of regulators and consumers alike. As more markets tighten rules around due diligence, human rights, and environmental disclosure, the RJC’s Standards Committee is the forum where expectations are translated into practical, auditable requirements for businesses from mine to retail.
Legal rigour meets industry reality
In her role at JVC, Co-Chair Sara Yood is widely known for her work at the intersection of jewellery, law, and consumer protection. Bringing that legal and regulatory lens into the Standards Committee will help ensure that the RJC’s texts keep pace with rapidly evolving rules on issues such as anti-money laundering, sanctions, marketing claims, and supply chain due diligence.
For Canadian jewellers selling into the United States or sourcing through American intermediaries, that alignment is increasingly critical. A misstep in claims around origin, “conflict free” materials, or lab-grown marketing can quickly turn into a reputational or legal risk. Strengthened standards—and a committee with deep legal experience—provide a clear framework to follow and a degree of protection when questions arise.
Yood has emphasised that revising standards is painstaking work, with each clause passing through many hands before approval. That level of scrutiny may feel distant from a retail counter in Toronto, Vancouver, or Calgary, but it is precisely what allows RJC members to tell customers, regulators, and banking partners that their claims are backed by a credible, multi-layered process rather than marketing spin.
Circularity, refining, and the future of precious metals
Co-Chair Eduard Stefanescu brings a complementary perspective from the world of refining, recycling, and precious metals innovation. As Sustainability Manager at C.HAFNER, and an active leader in European precious metals federations, he works daily on issues such as circularity, traceability, and the environmental footprint of metals.
That expertise is increasingly relevant as jewellers field more questions about recycled gold, closed-loop sourcing, and the real impact of “green” metals. Customers want to know not just what a piece looks like, but how it was made, where the materials came from, and what the environmental trade-offs are. By embedding circularity and metals stewardship more deeply into RJC standards, the committee can give jewellers a practical roadmap for answering those questions with confidence.
Stefanescu has underlined the opportunity for the jewellery and watch sector to address global challenges through standards that embed environmental protection, labour rights, and supply chain transparency rather than treating them as optional add-ons. For companies investing in ESG strategies, having that thinking built into RJC standards helps ensure that audit work, supplier engagement, and reporting all pull in the same direction.
A broader, more diverse committee table
Beyond the two Co-Chairs, the refreshed Standards Committee brings in new voices from some of the industry’s most influential organisations across mining, refining, manufacturing, trading, and marketing. Representatives from major producers, refiners, grading laboratories, and industry councils now sit alongside each other, connecting the committee directly to daily realities throughout the global supply chain.
Crucially, the committee also includes non-industry members and guests from consumer advocacy, research, and civil society. Legal and consumer protection expertise, think-tank research on extractive industries, and specialists in gender and community impacts all have a seat at the table. Their presence strengthens the multi-stakeholder model and helps ensure that standards reflect not only industry priorities but also the expectations of governments, communities, and shoppers who increasingly demand to know the story behind their jewellery.
At the same time, the RJC is publicly thanking outgoing members for their years of service and leadership. That continuity—honouring the foundations while refreshing the roster—underscores that standards are not static documents but living tools that must adapt as supply chains, technology, and social expectations evolve.
What changes from 1 January 2026
The new Co-Chairs and committee members officially take up their roles on 1 January 2026, following a transition meeting in London in mid-December. While no immediate overhaul of the Code of Practices or Chain of Custody has been announced, the strengthened committee is expected to guide future updates on topics such as heightened due diligence in high-risk regions, clearer guidance on laboratory-grown materials, and deeper expectations around climate, nature, and circularity.
As 2026 approaches, the message for Canadian jewellers is clear: ethics, compliance, and sustainability are no longer side projects. They are core components of brand value, risk management, and long-term growth. The RJC’s strengthened Standards Committee is one of the key places where the rules of that game are being written—and it is a conversation the Canadian trade cannot afford to ignore.
