An Oscar-winning actress will take to the red carpet wearing Chopard’s new sustainable emerald high jewellery collection on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival.

Now in its 69th year, the 2016 edition of the festival runs from May 11 to 22 in Cannes, France.

The new jewellery is part of Chopard’s Green Carpet collection and is being launched under a collaboration with Gemfields, the world’s leading supplier of responsibly sourced coloured gemstones. 

It also marks a new milestone for the Swiss luxury jewellery and watch house’s ‘Journey to Sustainable Luxury’ initiative. 

The official partner of the Cannes Film Festival since 1998, Chopard will launch its collaboration with Gemfields during a lunch on May 14, hosted by Chopard Co-President and Creative Director Caroline Scheufele, and Colin & Livia Firth of Eco-Age.

A brand consultancy specialising in sustainable solutions, Egco Age is Chopard’s partner in delivering its ‘Journey to Sustainable Luxury’ through its Green Carpet Challenge (GCC) principles of sustainable excellence. 

At the lunch, Chopard will unveil the new Green Carpet high jewellery within its Red Carpet Collection, showcasing the Gemfields emeralds. Chopard said it will also work with Gemfields to “set the agenda for a new global standard for coloured gemstones”.

Chopard has however not revealed the name of the actress who will wear the emerald jewellery, so fans of the brand will just have to wait for opening night on May 11, to see who she is.

A family owned independent company and a member of the UK-based Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) since 2010, Chopard has adopted a policy of sustainable business development and does its utmost in limiting its impact on the planet’s limited resources.

Chopard’s Journey to Sustainable Luxury was launched in partnership with Eco Age at the 2013 Cannes festival.

Under the initiative, Chopard committed to sourcing responsibly throughout its supply chain, thereby bringing together ethics and aesthetics, and helping the people in its supply chain who are all too often overlooked. 

The Journey started with Chopard forging a philanthropic relationship with the influential South American mining NGO, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM). 

Chopard thus became the first luxury watch and jewellery company to support and enable mining communities to reach Fairmined certification.

The world’s leading supplier of responsibly sourced coloured gemstones, Gemfields is the operator and 75 per cent owner of both the Kagem emerald mine in Zambia (believed to be the world’s single largest producing emerald mine) and the Montepuez ruby mine in Mozambique (one of the most significant recently discovered ruby deposits in the world). In addition Gemfields also holds a 50 per cent interest in the Kariba amethyst mine in Zambia, as well as controlling interests in various other gemstone mining and prospecting licenses in Zambia, Mozambique, Colombia, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Sri Lanka.

Gemfields has a proprietary grading system and a pioneering auction and trading platform to provide a consistent supply of quality coloured gemstones to the global downstream markets.