Responsibility Report 2022
ALine GmbH
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Human rights, promotion of responsible business practices
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Community development
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Countries of origins
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· Tanzania
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· Madagascar
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Full Circle Initiative
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Research of treatment of gemstones
Actions
HUMAN RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBLE BUSINESSPRACTICES
ALine GmbH have implied our Code of Practices which relates to general compliance requirements, responsible Supply chains and Human rights, Labor rights and working conditions, health, safety and environment. Our COP can be found on our website and is shared with our partners.
As a company we continuously act on various topics. This includes but is not limited to encouragement of becoming an RJC member, completing our KYC document, mindful use of recourses (turn off unnecessary lights or appliances, recycle and re-use packing material, save water, etc).
Our values and goals are greatly in line with those set by our clients and we improve our practices as we go.
Our partners and ALine GmbH have made big progress in writing the utmost information on our documents, namely country of origin (where it was mined) and country of cut.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
ALine GmbH actively supports a circular economy where we share our profits with groups in the country of origin.
In 2022 ALine GmbH has rewarded a partner in Sri Lanka for their tremendous efforts in suppling our demanding orders in calibrated stones. The donation was used for a company excursion and party for the whole factory (more than 120 people), additional remuneration for the workers directly involved with the projects and school supplies for all children connected to our partner.
During the second trip to Tanzania (read more about it below) a heartwarming visit to the UKWAMA Children's Home in Mahenge led to a donation of USD 5000.-. The funds have been used to build new sanitary installations and support this local institution to better care for the orphan children.
COUNTNRIES OF ORIGINS
ALine GmbH feels a strong connection to the country of origins and CEO Alexander Leuenberger has visited two important sources in the last year:
TANZANIA
ALine GmbH has focused more on gemstones from Tanzania. For this reason Alexander Leuenberger made another visit to the trading and mining places in Tanzania.
The main goal was to better understand the local rough stone market, the mines, and the local regulations. In addition, new contacts have been opened and existing relationships were deepened.
Because most local suppliers sell their rough stones productions to Sri Lankan buyers, we started to build close relationships with said buyers. They sell us highly selected, cut gemstones out of these rough parcels. A fair pricing system has been put in place which allows each company in this traceable supply chain to make a fair profit.
The close to the sources allowed Alexander Leuenberger to be the first foreigner to be able to visit the newly discovered mines of blue Spinels in the Mahenge region.
Samples and mining information have been submitted to the Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF and lead to a joint publication in The Journal of Gemmology, 38(5), 2023, titled Cobalt-bearing Blue Spinel from Lukande, near Mahenge, Tanzania.
MADAGASCAR
The main focus of Alexander Leuenberger’s two visits to Madagascar were to increase the collaboration with existing suppliers and mine owners.
Unfortunately, productions were very small. Additionally, the few companies we work with suffered from frequent export bans, high taxes and corruption. Most buyers in Madagascar export their stones illegally, our partners suffer the consequences of stricter rules and regulations enforced by the government. The additional rules contain but are not limited to: higher taxes on cut stones to export, extreme, bureaucratic effort for the release of an export permit.
Even if the result of these two trips wasn’t as wished, we continue to increase the collaboration with our local suppliers.
FULL CIRCLE INITIATIVE
Our Full Circle Initiative, overseen by Wyss Academy for Nature, in collaboration with University of Berne and ESSA Forêt University of Antanariavo, continues to expand. The main goal of the project is to create local innovations and innovative ways to conserve rainforests and improve the well-being of local communities.
A joint field visit of the Swiss and Madagascar team has been conducted in the Northeast of Madagascar. to learn about the advancements of our CSR project.
ALine GmbH has continued to support the project with important financial means and working power.
Beside matters regarding local sustainably, the project focuses also on value chain development and circular economy.
RESEARCH OF TREATMENT OF GEMSTONES
We have put a lot of effort to support the SSEF in their research of undisclosed and ongoing irradiation of Sapphires and Rubies from Sri Lanka. Additionally, we actively informed key clients and other suppliers about this market-threatening treatment.
Challenges
Challenges for ALine can be reduced to two main subjects: formulizing new goals and guaranteeing supply of goods.
ALine GmbH struggles to formalize new goals connected to human and labor rights, wastage, etc. We feel that the company has paid attention to these goals since the beginning, unrelated to RJC certification. This is why we do not see points with relevant improvement potential on our level. For a small company like ALine (less than 10 employees) the administrative burden of formulizing and monitoring goals which do not generate a significant impact is not aligned with our theory of change which focuses to maximize the impacts of our interventions.
We therefore try to focus our attention to our partners abroad. We reckon that repeated discussions, nudges to spark new ideas are working the best to help our suppliers understand the importance of recycling, reducing energy usage or declaration of all necessary information.
ALine GmbH noted that certain topics are more a question of mentality. Pushing too much can have negative impact on the curated relationship and jeopardize supply of our stones.
The sourcing of new material has become another challenge. The market is more transparent than ever, and suppliers close to the source have been selling gemstones throughout the value chain, even directly to privates. Especially the Chinese Market and Sri Lankan Dealers have become serious competitors and are often less strict about good governance topics such as proper customs declarations.
We are lucky that we found partners that are interested in long-term relationships and are are slowly adapting a working culture aligning with our requirements.
We positively note that we feel some of our suppliers have been positively influenced by us and have started the process of becoming RJC (certified) member on their own.
ALine GmbH is a proud member of the RJC and the ICA.
Please refer to our Code of Practices to read about our commitments about ethical, social and environmental business practices.
