Ethical Trading

Ethical trading means different things to different people.

For some people ethical trade is a general term for all types of business practices that promote more socially and environmentally responsible trade.

For me ethical trading is at the heart of my business. It guides my personal responsibility towards my customers and it drives me to establish business relationships with my world wide suppliers based on mutual respect and common values.

So what does this mean in practice? What are the values that I hold dear to my heart?

I trade in the Earths natural resources in the form of crystals, minerals and fossils.

I grew up on a small island on the south coast of England. My parents house was situated in the rural north of the island – surrounded by farm land – and with the sea shore less than a mile away much of my youth was spent beachcombing. I think I was probably looking for pirate treasure – but in reality started collections of shells, interesting rocks and occasionally fossils. In my teens my uncle introduced me to the wonders of unearthing metal objects using metal detectors and trowels – and so started another collecting hobby – coins and jewellery – often found on the beach or fields and woods in the local area. These hobbies strengthened my connection with nature and the natural world.

In my final year at college I undertook an engineering project which complimented my interest in astronomy by building a reflecting telescope (what teenager growing up in the early 1970’s didn’t want to be an astronaut at some stage?). I can still remember the awe inspiring sight that simply took my breath away the first time I pointed the telescope towards the night sky at the end of the project.

I feel very fortunate and humble to have returned to my childhood hobbies – via an unlikely series of events and careers including 20 years in computer engineering and technical support, 5 years in community mental health services and 4 years owning and managing a crystal shop and healing centre with my wife Chrissy.

Since 2007 I have combined all the skills I have picked up on this journey and put them into running my internet crystal, mineral and fossil business Spirit Of ISIS. My moral code is simple – treat everyone and everything with respect and honesty. My spiritual code is simple – thought creates form – its not the other way around, our personal reality is created from our thoughts and inherent beliefs.

I also believe we are the universe with awareness of itself. Simply put we are the consciousness of all that is, borne of the stars and destined to return to them.

My thoughts on health and happiness are very simple – the body is designed to heal itself but stress and genetic causes can prevent this natural process. Unmanaged stress can cause unhappiness and unhappiness is not our natural state of being. For me major causes of unhappiness are attachments to and identification with anything external to our inner being.

Peace, contentment, unconditional self love and power are natural states of being – our journey is to find a method that connects us to this state of being, finding balance, grounding and centeredness. I believe that crystals and meditation can help us connect to our natural state of being.

So – for me – is selling crystals or minerals unethical? – is it raping the land of finite resources? I don’t believe so.

Simply put fossil carbon based fuel removed from the earth is finite – refining and consumption releases the energy contained within producing carbon based gases which will one day return to the earth but in less quantities (remember the classic E = MC²). That for me is raping the land of finite resources.

The earth is a crystal and mineral producing factory. The earth is also the raw material – the elemental constituents – that under the ideal conditions of heat, gasses, pressure and time – produce the 2000+ recognised crystals and minerals found within the earth.

Once a crystal is removed from the land the refining, consumption and use does not generally speaking involve releasing energy from the elemental constituents as in the refining and consumption of oil or gas. So when the crystal is finally parted from its custodian and returned to the earth all its elemental constituents will be returned.

I think it is important to clarify the major industries involved in the removal of minerals from the earth.

Commercial industrial mining – multinationals that claim rights to an area of land for the purpose of removal and refining of the raw material held within the land right. This area of mining is primarily involved in oil, gas, precious or base metal and mineral ore extraction and the refined material is traded on world markets, and even less logical - the idea of the material is speculated and traded on the world futures and derivatives markets. Many believe companies involved in these industries are unethical in aspects of their operations through:

• the removing of indigenous peoples and habitat
• the shear volume of rock that has to be removed and refined in order to produce grams of refined material
• the environmental damage caused through the refining process
• the poor health and safety regulations and records for its agents and workers
• poverty wages for workers
• conflict funding

Commercial industrial gemstone mining – this area of mining is primarily involved in precious gemstone extraction and the raw material is cut and polished and sold through multinational gemstone dealers. This material will be used in the jewellery trade and includes diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds etc., as well as industrial diamonds. Again many believe companies involved in these industries are unethical in aspects of their operations for the same reasons above.

Neither of these industries produces material that I sell – and I would and do question the ethics of these industries.

My business is my customers – if I fulfil their needs efficiently, effectively and ethically my business will continue to grow. So I am my harshest critic – I always look at my business from my customers point of view – and I enjoy and encourage reviews and feedback.

So – how do I meet my responsibilities to my customers – ethically?

Firstly through the adherence to UK laws defining and protecting consumers rights – including:

Sale Of Goods Act 1979
Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000
Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003

Clear contract of sale – checkout my Conditions of Use webpage for full details. If any part is unclear please let me know so I can clarify the terms.

Every crystal, mineral or fossil is unique and therefore sold as seen.

I attempt to fairly and accurately represent every crystal with a representative photograph(s) and video. True colour representation cannot be guaranteed due to the technical challenges inherent in the photography and visual display process, but I select the most representative photographs.

I attempt to fairly and accurately describe every crystal with its recognised mineral name, composition, source location (if known), weight and/or size.

Some product is sourced from companies who own trade names. It is not always possible to accurately know the exact composition of Trademarked Word Mark name protected product.

I do question the ethics of mineral branding through trade name – word marking, especially when the branding is associated with rarity, vibration healing properties or vastly inflated prices.

Where possible I only sell natural product – as opposed to synthetic or commercially manufactured product. Synthetic product is usually associated with the gemstone jewellery trade – where synthetic crystals can be passed off as natural. I also try not to knowingly sell dyed, heat treated or irradiated product. This process is usually used to alter the colouration or clarity of the untreated natural product.

However – there are crystal specimens which I will stock due to customer demand that have been produced synthetically for example chalcanthite and bismuth. I also stock treated quartzes that are generally known as aura quartz (aqua aura, angel aura etc). Again I stock these due to customer demand. This will be identified in the crystal description.

What do I think of the ethics of synthetic product? – as long as it is identified as such then no problem – much synthetic gemstone product is far visually superior. But it’s not for me, so I avoid it and would not recommend it for crystal healing use.

And finally I try to give value for money for my customers. I am earning my living from my business, and this is my only source of income, so of course I have a margin to maintain on every sale. However – you will not find any practices that give you a false sense of value for money. My prices are the best I can offer – with honesty.

I do occasionally offer reduce priced items for sale in my bargain basement – but these are because the product is in my opinion sub-standard. I will describe what I believe to be wrong with them and offer them for sale at a reduced price. As I hand pick most of my stock, this is a rarity.

So – how do I establish business relationships with my world wide suppliers – ethically?

Ideally I’d like to be able to deal directly with the people who mined the crystals, so I could be sure that they were being produced under fair conditions, but for a business as small as mine, it just isn’t feasible.

Most of my crystals, minerals and fossils are sourced from importers or individuals and small manufacturers or agents of local fair trade cooperatives or small community industries, providing much needed employment. It is estimated that this kind of cottage industry represents 0.001% of the commercial industrial mining industry’s total output. The relative low value of the raw material produced by these manufacturers and the low demand compared to commercial industrial mining does lessen the chances of exploitative and unethical processes.

However – one can never be complacent so questions relating to the removing of indigenous peoples and habitat, the shear volume of rock that has to be removed and refined in order to produce refined material, the environmental damage caused through the refining process, the poor health and safety regulations and records for its agents and workers and poverty wages for workers are always asked.

Crystal specimens are generally hand mined and carefully extracted from surface or underground seams. Mechanical or explosive extraction of these materials would certainly destroy them or render them unsalable. Raw minerals sold as rough material or manufactured for tumble polishing or lapidary cut and polishing for jewellery will most likely be extracted from quarries using heavy duty mechanical equipment.

A crystal or mineral, especially cut and polished material, may have gone through many processes and entered many hands before being shipped around the world to end up in my custody to be sold in my crystal business. It is for this reason that I energetically cleanse all crystals in my custody. This I do by passing a vibration over the crystal whilst holding a clearing intent.

My business is based on reliability and trust – my trust of the suppliers I trade with; and my customers trust that I am open and honest in my trade with them.

That is the Spirit Of ISIS policy in Ethical Trading.