BACKGROUND
THE VIERI RECIPE
"ITALIAN ROOTS MEET SUSTAINABLE DEMAND: A PORTION OF DOLCE VITA WITH ACTIVISM, THAT'S WHAT VIERI STANDS FOR."
"MY MISSION: TO RUN A COMPANY THAT PROVIDES MORE JOY OF LIFE, PLEASURE AND SENSUALITY WITH ITS PRODUCTS, BUT PRODUCES RESPONSIBLY AND ACTS SUSTAINABLY. BECAUSE LUXURY AND SUSTAINABILITY ARE NOT EXCLUSIVE OF EACH OTHER, THEY ARE EVEN CONDITIONAL."
Guya Merkle, founder of VIERI
Status Quo: It is the year 2024 and around 25 to 30 million people, including 1 million children, work in small gold mines under health-damaging conditions.
Serious human rights violations, illegal logging and child labor are just some of the problems associated with gold mining. The gold miners are constantly exposed to highly toxic chemicals that damage the nervous system and internal organs - This can even have fatal consequences. This risk is currently rewarded with just under $3 per day.
We have made it our goal to be part of the change. In our own personal way. Using recycled gold does not change the status quo. Nevertheless, we are convinced that it makes sense to use what is already there. In addition, we would like to actively shape the impact in the countries of origin. Because gold will always be mined. We therefore support the Earthbeat Foundation by investing in its diverse work towards sustainable change across the entire industry.
THE SOLUTION?
VIERI ETHICAL FINE JEWELERY
One step closer to a revolution: We only process recycled gold and rely 100% on gold from urban mining, i.e. gold from secondary sources such as outdated electrical appliances.
In order to bring about real change locally, we pursue a holistic approach that cuts across all business areas. We donate part of our profits to theEarthbeat Foundation , which aims to use gold as a raw material in a future-oriented, sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.
1930 - 2007
OUR HERITAGE
Our story begins in the 1930s, when Rudolf Merkle (Guya's grandfather) founded a jewelry wholesale company in Pforzheim. His wife, the Italian Eva Gaietta, was his greatest inspiration when it came to designing particularly elegant pieces of jewelry. When Rudolf Merkle died in 1965, Guya's father Eddy Vieri took over the company. He was just 17 years old at the time.
With youthful enthusiasm and an impressive mix of southern German sense of duty and Italian charisma, he decisively drives the success of the family business. And once again a woman is not entirely uninvolved: Eddy's spouse Kate was behind the fashionable designs that even captivated clients from Japan and the UAE in the 80s.
Although Guya grew up with her family's jewelry craft, she initially didn't have much access to it herself. When her father died suddenly in 2007, she agreed to continue his passion and work, but success did not materialize. It was only after the traditional family business failed that the young woman became genuinely curious: what had fascinated her ancestors so much about this luxurious material?
2007 - PRESENT
GUYA'S VISION
In search of answers, she completed an in-depth study of “Jewellery Essentials” in London, but it was only a private trip and a visit to a small mining community in Peru that gave the decisive impetus for a major rethink: Guya was deeply touched by the inhumane and environmentally destructive conditions that she found in the gold mines and decided to take up her father's legacy again - but not without developing her very own vision: to revolutionize the jewelry industry in the long term and to courageously oppose conventional gold mining.
In 2012, Guya founded her charitable foundation, the Earthbeat Foundation . In 2015, her own jewelry company, VIERI Fine Jewelry, was born in Berlin. She deliberately adopted the name VIERI, after all her roots are part of her own history. Since 2019, the annual WORLD GOLD DAY has completed the entrepreneur's holistic concept.
COUNTDOWN UNTIL THE NEXT WORLD GOLD DAY 2024
WORLD GOLD DAY is an initiative to promote dialogue about gold as a resource worldwide, to create awareness of the topic and to establish long-term alternatives. This is especially true for the people in the Global South, who are still dependent on conventional gold mining.
