Mejuri

Mejuri, a Canadian-based luxury jewelry brand, was founded by Noura Sakkijha back in 2015 because she saw a jewelry industry that was built for men gifting women and not women celebrating themselves. “To me, the truest expression of Mejuri is mutual uplift: all of us supporting each other, and you, our community, feeling empowered to invest in yourself and, in turn, the community around you.” The label´s mission is focused on ensuring women a positive fine jewelry buying experience that reflects her individual personality, her daily agenda and her goals.

Mejuri sells exclusively online to eliminate traditional retail markups. The label is committed to fair pricing and fine jewelry without the traditional industry markups. To make luxury accessible, the brand works directly with the best jewelers around the world, remove the middlemen and sell directly to you. By working in partnership with jewelers, the label gets the very best quality at the best price. All so that you can wear fine jewelry every day, not just on special occasions.

Each piece in Mejuri´s assortment starts with the in-house design team. Sleek, modern sculptural designs and patterns are an inspiration which are sometimes complemented with gemstones and diamonds. Each design goes through countless versions in partnership with the master jewelers to perfect settings, lengths, chain links, clasps, ring comfort, earring fit—no detail goes unnoticed or undiscussed—until the piece is exactly right. The expert jewelers use the highest quality materials from precious metals—from certified recycled gold and 18k gold vermeil, to ethically sourced diamonds and AAA-grade gemstones. Mejuri´s jewelers span the globe: for example the sterling silver and gemstone experts are in Seoul, South Korea, and the craftsmen behind many of the gold chains in Arezzo, Italy. Mejuri´s 14k gold fine jewelry is an alloy that is specifically mixed to be worn every day, forever. In comparison to 18k gold, 14k gold is far more durable so you can sweat, shower and sleep in your pieces. It will scratch less and will continue to maintain its champagne-hued shine. Similarly, the gold vermeil is a premium material crafted to last—and superior to gold plating due to its thick layer of 18k gold over sterling silver, which is in and of itself a highly enduring precious metal. In comparison, gold plating is typically a thin layer of gold over a less durable metal such as copper or brass.

Mejuri was built within the framework of sustainability, impacting both our planet and people, from those who source the precious metals to the master jewelers crafting the pieces, to you. When designing and creating the jewelry you love, it’s done by balancing these two areas rather than sacrificing one for the other. Along the entire production ecosystem, from sourcing and manufacturing to branding, to mitigating impact on the environment, supporting and empowering the partners and giving back to the community, sustainability is at the core of Mejuri. To do this for the long-term, full transparency across all of the activities is required, including where all materials come from, how they were processed, the working conditions the pieces were made in, and the label´s overall contribution to climate change.

To create true sustainability in fine jewelry traceability is needed. Anyone can claim to make jewelry from recycled gold, but unless you know exactly where your gold is recycled and the waste stream it came from, is the claim true? How can you measure and continue to reduce impacts on the environment? How can you guarantee the labor conditions along each step were safe and fair? At Mejuri every material used and every piece of jewelry created can be traced back to its original source, which allows the brand to positively influence each step and properly balance impacts on people and planet. 

In many cases, the systems behind the fine jewelry industry, from mine to market, don't align with Mejuri´s values of transparency and empowerment. Environmental degradation, conflict fueled by mining, and risks of poor working conditions are all core issues that need to be exposed and effectively addressed with modern solutions and perspectives.  Traceability and transparency are key to avoiding unintended negative impacts at any stage of the creation process and holding ourselves accountable to the highest sustainability performance. This level of transparency and accountability is the future of modern luxury and Mejuri is committed to driving this change forward.

At the moment Mejuri is committed to gold that is 100% traceable and in partnerships with manufacturing partners. The ultimate goal is 100% traceability of all materials across the supply chain. Mejuri conducts due diligence on the supply chain and prioritizes suppliers who are certified by the Responsible Jewelry Council, which is the most comprehensive international framework for compliance with best practices around health and safety, human rights, fair labor, governance and environmental protection in the fine jewelry industry. Only diamonds that are compliant with the Kimberley Process are selected, which ensures the diamonds used do not fuel armed conflict in high risk countries. But these frameworks are not always sufficient to affirm the right thing is being done for the planet or people because they can’t always guarantee traceability from mine to market. Mejuri´s traceability goal goes further. By the end of 2021, the label is committed to ensuring that 100% of the gold is traceable. 70% of the 14k solid gold products will be made with certified recycled gold and 30% will be newly mined.

Without traceability to a certified recycling partner and verifying that the gold is certified as genuine recycled content, so-called ‘recycled gold’ could be newly mined gold re-sold as recycled at a higher price. Without traceability to a certified recycling partner and verifying that the gold is certified as genuine recycled content, so-called ‘recycled gold’ could be newly mined gold re-sold as recycled at a higher price. 

Why does Mejuri not aim for 100% certified recycled gold? That would be better for everyone, right? But Mejuri´s commitment is equally account for the planet and people, and while there is a shift to recycled gold, mining remains a necessary livelihood for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. That’s why the label works with suppliers who are maximizing positive impacts on mining communities while complying with the highest environmental standards possible to minimize the impact in that respect. This applies to all precious metals and stones that come from the earth.

To further reduce its carbon footprint, Mejuri conducted a full Life Cycle Assessment in partnership with Climate Positive Consulting in San Francisco to get a credible and detailed baseline of how much carbon is emitted and water used across all activities as a company, from creating collections to keeping the lights on at the warehouse. By the end of 2021, the brand will share science-based targets for reducing our overall carbon and water use footprints. These targets will be based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment of the carbon and water footprint from end to end. The reduction targets will be set in line with the Science Based Target Initiative to ensure Mejuri is doing its part to reach the international climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

In June 2020, a fund was established to support women with the tools to empower themselves. As a community, women empower everyone around them, promoting collaboration, fairness and equality. Mejuri´s mission for the fund is to give these tools and that choice to the next generation so that they might take on leadership (and the world) on their own terms. Since then, 37 women and non-binary people have received scholarships from the Empowerment Fund with a total of 188,000 USD donated to the charity partners in the past two years. “I know from my own experiences that arming someone with education gives them optionality in the future to take control of their lives. There is nothing I believe more. And despite what we as women are often told, it isn’t and never has been selfish to take care of yourself and to invest in your future.” –Noura Sakkijha, CEO

Based: Toronto, Canada

Ships to: Worldwide.

Products: Luxury, sustainable jewelry.

Mission: Fine jewelry for every day, for our damn selves.

URL:  Mejuri

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