BE CARBON NEUTRAL: Reclaimed Silver Jewelry with a Message
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA 
on 08.17.07
"Global warming" or "carbon neutrality" aren't usually the first words that pop to mind when you say "silver jewelry," but that's what the BE CARBON NEUTRAL collection of special edition jewelry is going for. Mentioned by TH pal Summer Rayne Oakes on a recent House & Garden magazine video podcast (we mentioned it yesterday), the collection of jewelry is made from reclaimed silver in a carbon-neutral production shop in Manhattan by jewelry designer Anthony Aletto. Featuring a range of jewelry including rings (pictured above), pendants, necklaces, bracelets and more, the purchase of each product results in the neutralization of one month of your carbon emissions.
While TreeHugger agrees that carbon offsets are not a silver bullet-solution to climate change, nor an excuse to cover up your continued pumping of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere at will, we like the business model. Distilling global warming down to a personal level is tough -- it's a big, big problem -- so providing tangible context in the form of beautiful jewelry is beneficial to anyone who thinks the problem is too big to deal with and doesn't know how to help, and to anyone who wants to buy jewelry (and for whom plastic or cork won't do the job) while considering the planet's best interests at the same time. Hit the jump for more details and more pics, including what Al Gore looks like wearing a piece from the collection. ::BE CARBON NEUTRAL
In addition to the offsets that come with a purchase, an e-greening guide accompanies each new piece to its new home, in the hopes that it will help inform and inspire its wearer to greater green goodness. The guide to lowering your carbon footprint is based on research done by Green Design, a sustainable design firm, and Live Earth's Global Warming Survivors Handbook by David de Rothschild (here's Part 1 and Part 2 of TreeHugger's interview with David de Rothschild). To this point, attempts to "sex up" global warming, to raise awareness and try to inspire more people take action, have been at least partially unsuccessful. Will jewelry be the way to bring climate change to the masses? Al Gore thinks it might (see below); we'll have to wait and see if the rest of the world agrees. ::BE CARBON NEUTRAL
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ughhhhh ... so vain, does it hurt their arms being bent all the time patting their own backs.
"Altruism is selfless concern for the welfare of others."
Thanks for covering Collin! Project is very exciting. We've done a bunch of pre-launches for Be Carbon Neutral, but it'll officially launch in September. We're still refining the project as we go.
I've worked in the fashion industry for a long time and have noticed that dedicated shoppers lack an awareness of the impacts of their choices as consumers. Thanks for posting this - Be Carbon Neutral really gives shoppers the option to make a difference in style!
This jewelry is a nice bridge between the fashion conscious consumers with the environment. Fashion that makes a green statement! I hope to start seeing this jewelry being wore here in DC where I live, as I think it would be a refreshing to see people represent their cause by
wearing it on their sleeves.
I have a windmill from Be Carbon Neutral like Gore's pictured above. It's such a great conversation piece (and it actually spins!). The more we can bring renewable energy into our daily conversations, the more we raise awareness, the more those "out there" technologies become commonplace and accepted. Getting people comfortable with change isn't easy and this is a super simple way to begin that shift.