The SkyJems ethical sourcing framework

"Ethical" is the most abused word in the jewellery business. Every website uses it and very few websites explain what it means operationally. This page is how SkyJems defines it — in specific, dateable, falsifiable terms.

The foundation: three generations at origin

SkyJems is a third-generation coloured-gem house. The supplier relationships that run the business were built in person, over decades, by people who had to show up:

• Bogotá, Colombia — 1979 to present. David Saad's father began travelling to Bogotá for emerald in 1979 and operated a Bogotá office continuously from 1985 to 2016 — 31 years. The emerald suppliers SkyJems works with today are, in many cases, the same families the Saads bought from in the 1980s and 1990s.
• Bangkok, Thailand — 1998 to present. David has been travelling to Bangkok for 28 years. Bangkok is the global centre for coloured-gem cutting and the trading hub where rough from Africa, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, and Myanmar is sorted and cut. Knowing the cutters matters because the cutter decides what a stone becomes.
• Sri Lanka (Ceylon) — 1998 to present. 28 years of direct sourcing. Sri Lanka is the world's oldest continuously producing sapphire source and remains the reference standard for untreated blue and fancy-colour sapphire.

Direct relationships at origin do two things that a mass-market supply chain cannot:

1. They remove several layers of middlemen, which reduces the cost to the final buyer and also reduces the points at which misrepresentation can enter the chain.
2. They give SkyJems first-person information about how a stone was produced — who cut it, what treatments were done, what the mine-of-origin story actually is — rather than having to accept a paper trail at face value.

What SkyJems commits to, in writing

Every SkyJems gemstone sale is governed by the following standards:

1. Treatment disclosure before purchase. Every coloured gemstone listed or quoted by SkyJems is described with its treatment status — untreated, heat-treated, oil-treated, irradiated, diffused, glass-filled, dyed, etc. If SkyJems does not know the treatment status with certainty, the listing will say so. No stone is described as "natural" in a way that elides a known treatment.
2. Independent laboratory reports for significant stones. Stones above approximately 1 carat, and any stone for which origin or treatment is material to the value, are shipped to GIA (usually GIA Hong Kong, client 25922011) or to another reputable lab (SSEF, Gübelin, AGL, GRS, CGL) for independent grading. The lab report is supplied with the stone.
3. No conflict-origin stones. SkyJems does not source from suppliers whose material originates in conflict zones or from operations known to be associated with armed-group financing.
4. No labour-violation suppliers. SkyJems does not work with cutters or suppliers who use bonded labour, child labour, or documented labour-rights violations. Where possible this is verified through direct relationship and long-term observation rather than paper certification alone — paper certification in this industry is routinely falsified.
5. Recourse when something is wrong. If an origin or treatment representation is later shown — by an independent laboratory — to be inaccurate, SkyJems refunds or replaces the stone, or arranges additional certification, at SkyJems' cost. This is the recourse clause from the buyer safety guide, restated here because it is load-bearing.

What "ethical" does not mean at SkyJems

Because the word is so overused, a few disclaimers about what is not claimed here:

• No quantitative environmental-impact score per stone. Such scores, when published without a documented, third-party-verifiable methodology, are misleading. When a methodology is built and audited, it will be published. Until then, environmental considerations are discussed qualitatively per gem type.
• No invented scarcity numbers. SkyJems does not claim "only X commissions per year" or "fewer than Y% of stones evaluated are selected" without an operational record to back it up.
• No blanket "conflict-free" certificate for coloured stones. The Kimberley Process applies to rough diamonds, not to coloured gems. Claims of conflict-free coloured gem sourcing should be read carefully — SkyJems' claim is grounded in direct supplier knowledge over decades, not in a third-party certification scheme that doesn't exist in this sector.

What this means for you, as a buyer

When you buy a coloured gemstone from SkyJems, you are buying four things at once: the stone, the written treatment disclosure, the independent laboratory report where applicable, and the institutional memory of a family that has been at origin since 1979. The first is what you pay for. The other three are what makes the first worth paying for.

Verification

The claims on this page can be verified against:

• GIA Hong Kong laboratory — SkyJems client 25922011 (1630931 Ontario Limited).
• The independent reviews page — eBay, GemRockAuctions, Google, 1stDibs feedback records.
• The About David Saad page — full credential and heritage detail.

Last updated: 2026-04-19. Author: David Saad.