For those in the business of gold, turning green is increasingly important – that is the belief of Michael Kowalski, chief executive and chairman of Tiffany & Co. Mr Kowalski is so convinced of the need to address environmental issues that he has spent 10 years developing the company’s environmental strategy. Until recently, this was something of a stealth project, but prompted in part by the need to address issues from reports such as last year’s WWF publication on luxury, Mr Kowalski has decided to discuss tree-hugging and 24-carat strategy in the same breath.

“There is so much work to be done, so much complexity surrounding these issues of environmental responsibility, that our philosophy has always been to work quietly behind the scenes,” says Mr Kowalski. “There is a sense that those trying to act responsibly have been targeted by the most extreme NGOs, because such companies are clearly the most amenable to their arguments,” he says, in a not-entirely-covert reference to the WWF. “So we made a conscious decision to build a record of activity before we spoke out, to have a history to point to.”