A small piece can concentrate very large environmental decisions once you analyse materials, finishes and distribution.
The LCA turned the impact of every material and stage into concrete criteria for better design, production and distribution.
Where this project comes from
JOIDART is a locally-made jewellery brand with a workshop in Osor (Girona), deeply rooted in its territory and with growing international reach. Its pieces sell in shops at leading museums around the world — including MoMA — and in markets that are particularly attentive to traceability, sustainability, and consistency between what a brand says and what it does.
In that context, sustainability stops being an aspirational story and becomes a real requirement. This project grew out of the need to align the brand’s local, artisanal essence with rigorous data on the environmental impact of its pieces. To do that, we chose one of its bestsellers — the Embòlic earrings — as the starting point for understanding what lies behind every object that travels the world carrying aesthetic, cultural and material value.
What it changes, and why it matters
The Life Cycle Assessment made it possible, for the first time, to quantify the real environmental impact of an iconic JOIDART piece. Although it’s a brass jewellery item plated in gold, bronze and silver — where gold makes up only a tiny fraction of the total weight — the results were striking: gold accounts for between 80% and 90% of the environmental impact in most categories, particularly mineral and metal resource depletion.
Although it makes up only a tiny fraction of the weight, gold accounts for 80–90% of the impact in most categories.mpacto en la mayoría de categorías.
That finding mattered. It showed that small quantities of certain materials can have disproportionate consequences, and that impact isn’t always where intuition would place it. The study also surfaced other relevant hotspots, such as how much packaging weighs in some impact categories, and the contribution of certain international logistics routes.
How we do it
At Spora, the project was approached as a full cradle-to-grave LCA, following ISO 14040 and 14044 and the Environmental Footprint methodology. We analysed every stage of the life cycle: raw materials, artisanal processes at the Osor workshop, energy consumption, packaging, international distribution, use, and end-of-life.
This approach made it possible to break impacts down by material, process and stage, giving a clear, actionable reading. Beyond measurement, the LCA became a design and decision-making tool — for choosing materials, finishes, packaging and logistics strategies with a deeper understanding of their environmental implications.
Limits, lessons, and the future it sets in motion
This exercise leaves one central lesson: knowing your impact doesn’t weaken a brand, it makes it stronger. The LCA isn’t about simplifying or glossing over — it’s about supporting complex decisions with honesty and rigour.
The future this project sets in motion works in two directions. First, feeding these results into internal decision-making, reinforcing the lower-impact processes that are already part of JOIDART’s DNA. Second, building transparent, honest communication that can explain the impact of each piece without promising perfection — treating sustainability as a path of continuous improvement.
In this way, a deep understanding of impact doesn’t dilute the brand’s local, artisanal identity — it strengthens it, giving it credibility in an international context where consistency is no longer a bonus, but a basic requirement. Measuring with rigour makes it possible to communicate sustainability without simplifying it, and to strengthen the brand’s international credibility.