Pleading Signet’s CSR Case

1. Single-stone tracking — Individual diamonds that have been tracked to the four major producers: De Beers, Alrosa, Rio Tinto and Dominion Diamond Corporation.

2. Parcel tracking — Parcels of diamonds verified to have been supplied by those major producers, even if the individual stones have not been tracked.

3. Mixed sources — A mixture of diamonds derived from various sources, with a percentage of goods coming from identified ones.

4. Other identified sources — Diamonds from a producer country or mine that is not affiliated with the top four companies.

Bouffard said the program would help Signet figure out what percentage of diamonds were bought from the four largest mining companies, which in turn would indicate how much of the supply was coming from the artisanal sector. That knowledge would enable Signet to work more with artisanal miners through organizations such as the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI), he explained.

“It’s not about tracking diamonds as much as it is understanding the source of supply,” he said. “We want to work with all sectors of the supply chain.”

Signet expects to have better information about the source of its diamonds a year from now — in time for its next CSR report. And since the company is one of the largest buyers of diamonds in the market, its findings would present a picture of the industry’s wider supply chain.

In today’s retail environment, such efforts are essential, Bouffard stressed.

“Consumers, especially millennials, before walking into a store, make the assumption that the goods are sourced responsibly,” he said. “We’re giving them the assurance that we meet their expectations. We have to meet their expectations.”

It’s a narrative the company has repeated within the industry over the past few years as it has led the charge to develop a practical system that provides those guarantees.

It’s therefore somewhat ironic that the other areas of Signet’s CSR program have been called into question.

The contrast between the company’s responsible-sourcing work and the sexual harassment allegations it is fighting — the most serious of which date back to the late 1990s and 2000s, according to a Washington Post report — suggest that Signet is a vastly different company today than it was a decade or two ago. Yet a company is always responsible for its actions — past, present and future. That goes as much for Signet’s stature in the public eye as for the legal consequences it is expected to endure.

The awareness that the industry is vulnerable to such reputational risks should force everyone in the supply chain to take Warren Buffett’s advice and “do things differently.”