Theimportance of responsible resourcing is growing as organisationsincreasingly take the evaluation of environmental and social performancebeyond their own operations and integrate it into supply chain andpurchasing decisions. This trend is being driven by specific issues such as climate change, conflict minerals andensuring fair labour practices. It is also beingdriven by leading organisations that want toimprove the environmental, social andgovernance performance of the companies theydo business with. Some governments are alsointerested in the opportunity responsiblesourcing may offer for furthering economicdevelopment, environmental stewardship andsocially responsible practices.The means of defining socially andenvironmentally responsible materials, productsand production practices is evolving, but modelprogrammes and standards have beendeveloped. Outside of our industry, the ForestStewardship Council’s (FSC) forest certificationand chain of custody (CoC) system and thestandards developed by the Roundtable onSustainable Palm Oil are examples of howindustry has worked with stakeholders to takeon the challenge to define leading practices.Within our industry, the Responsible JewelleryCouncil (RJC) and the Aluminium StewardshipInitiative (ASI) have undertaken similar efforts to define and drive leading practice.