Ingle & Rhode was a company based in London, England, that specialised in the design, manufacture and sale of jewellery whose components could be traced to sources certified free of the taint of being produced in substandard working conditions or in a war zone.
Origin
The firm was begun in 2007 after television documentary producer David Rhode had difficulty finding an engagement ring with a diamond that was "conflict-free" and a band whose gold component was procured with an eye to its environmental and ethical effects.
"His response was extreme, but timely," wrote reporter Josh Sims in The Independent: "He and "a university friend and former management consultant, Tim Ingle, have launched Ingle & Rhode, the United Kingdom's first "fine jewellery business" to "stress its ethical credentials—as all the materials they use can be traced back along the supply chain" to the source.[1]
Rhode said that "there's no reason why ethical considerations shouldn't apply to jewellery," adding that "The last thing most people would want . . . to think that someone or somewhere was being horribly exploited in the making of it." He said setting up Ingle & Rhode was difficult because tracing the origin of gold is "anything but transparent."[1]