MEDIA
Thirty years on the record.
The trade press has followed this argument since it was a joke. Here is the paper trail.
WHERE THE WORK HAS BEEN COVERED
The Outlets.
( CLICK ON LINKS BELOW )
START HERE
Selected coverage.
Start with these seven.
PeaceGold from DRC is set to soar
Maria Doulton on the SigraFi agreement, the eleven Ituri cooperatives, and why a commercial route to market beats a premium. The clearest account of the model anywhere.
PeaceGold wins Community Initiative of the Year
The Professional Jeweller Awards 2026, at Olympia — the trade's own recognition of the work, thirty years after it told me it was impossible.
Turning Peace into Gold
The partner's own account — Centre Résolution Conflits, ex-combatant reintegration, the cooperatives and the 1% social fund.
The Golden Promise: making sense of the fair trade gold market
The major American trade feature on Fairtrade and Fairmined gold, certification and labelling.
Jeweller, activist, advocate and 'pain in the neck'?
The long interview — Oro Verde, Fairtrade Gold, Greenland, and the fifty grams of gold that started it.
Jewellery the latest ethical buying must-have
Broadcast coverage from the years when traceable gold was still considered fanciful.
Fairtrade gold pioneer Greg Valerio awarded an MBE
The honours list, and what the trade made of it.
WATCH AND LISTEN
Film, video and interviews.
FILM · 2016
Greg on the GoldKacha, a portable gold-processing tool built for small-scale and artisanal miners. Filmed by Appropriate Process Technologies.
Fairtrade Mining: the GoldKacha
PANEL
Ethical Making and Studio Practice
Filmed discussion at the Goldsmiths' Centre with Ute Decker and Jos Skeates.
PODCAST · 2025
Liturgical Rebels, episode 26
Long-form on Fairtrade gold, faith, social enterprise and where PeaceGold goes next.
WRITING
Books, reports and columns.
Towards an Ethical Jewellery Business
Research with the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich. A baseline for supply-chain transparency before anyone was asking for one.
2003
A Golden Opportunity
CRED Foundation report recasting the debate on the economic and development benefits of artisanal gold mining. Photographs mine.
2009
Ethics column, The Jeweller
A regular column for the National Association of Jewellers' magazine, across five years.
2011–15
Making Trouble: Fighting for Fairtrade Jewellery
The book. Lion Hudson, now published by SPCK, in paperback and ebook.
2013
Creating a Prosperous and Inclusive Gemstone Industry in Greenland
Fair Jewellery Action report by Samuel Lowe and Ian Doyle. I sat on the advisory board and wrote the foreword.
The Hidden Cost of Jewellery
Speaker at the Human Rights Watch launch.
2013
2018
“The resources of the land should benefit the people of the land, and the ruby story of Greenland is a living example of this precise point”
THE FULL RECORD
Coverage by publication.
Grouped by outlet, oldest argument first. Some archive pages sit behind a trade subscription.
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The Ecologist — Ethical jewellery: what to ask and what to buy - 2012
National Jeweler — Gem-A conference on global ethical challenges - 2014
JCK — Fair trade jeweler Greg Valerio honored by Queen Elizabeth - 2016
Sussex Express — CRED Jewellery founder Greg Valerio handed MBE for promoting fairtrade gold - 2016
National Jeweler — US retailer carrying bridal line using Fairtrade gold - 2017
Reflective Images — Valerio joins the first US Fairtrade Gold jeweller - 2016
Jewellery Monthly — PeaceGold launches jewellery-making courses at the Ethical Jewellery House - 2025
South West Durham News — Jeweller shortlisted for award - 2025
Benchpeg — PeaceGold announces open evening to launch its Jewellery Hub and Community Workshop - 2025
Jewellery Focus — SigraFi signs responsible gold supply deal with PeaceGold - 2026
MINING.COM — SigraFi raises $35M to connect artisanal gold to institutional markets - 2026
Merca2 — PeaceGold consolida el oro artesanal trazable del Congo - 2026
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RECOGNITION
Awards and honours.
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Named among the UK jewellery industry's trailblazers and innovators, twice.
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For services to social justice.
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For social and environmental responsibility in business practice.
BIOGRAPHY
Greg Valerio MBE.
SHORT · 62 WORDS
Greg Valerio MBE is a jeweller, campaigner and author, and the founder and CEO of PeaceGold. He founded CRED Jewellery in 1996, Britain's first high-street ethical jeweller, coordinated Fairtrade International's gold programme through the launch of Fairtrade Gold in 2011, and in 2013 co-founded PeaceGold, which brings traceable artisanal gold from eastern Congo to market. His book Making Trouble tells the story.
LONG · 242 WORDS
Greg Valerio MBE, founder and CEO of PeaceGold, is a jeweller, campaigner and author who has spent more than thirty years arguing that the people who mine gold should share in what it becomes.
Born in Canada, he was expelled from school and spent his teenage years in the theatre and on the streets of 1980s London. In 1991 he founded CRED, a development education network, and in 1996 CRED Jewellery, which became Britain's first high-street ethical jeweller. In 2004 he turned fifty grams of Oro Verde gold from Colombia's Chocó into four wedding rings — one of the first fully traceable mine-to-market chains in the trade.
He was a founding board member of the Alliance for Responsible Mining in 2005 and co-founded Fair Jewellery Action. From 2010 to 2015 he coordinated Fairtrade International's gold programme, through the launch of Fairtrade Gold in 2011. He has campaigned for Inuit miners' rights to Greenland ruby, and led a mercury-free gold programme in Uganda that certified Africa's first Fairtrade Gold source.
In 2013 he co-founded PeaceGold with Centre Résolution Conflits in eastern Congo. In 2026 PeaceGold signed a supply and finance agreement with SigraFi and was named Community Initiative of the Year at the Professional Jeweller Awards.
He was the Observer Ethical Awards Global Campaigner of 2011, was appointed MBE in 2016, and holds honorary doctorates from Winchester and Chichester. His book Making Trouble: Fighting for Fair Trade Jewellery (Lion, 2013) tells the story.
FOR JOURNALISTS
Writing about this?
I answer press enquiries myself, within a week.
Available on request: high-resolution photographs from the mines in Congo, Colombia, Uganda and Greenland; the PeaceGold traceability model explained in plain terms; and interviews in person, by phone or on film.
I will also say when something is outside what I can evidence. The campaign has never needed exaggeration.
