Former Summer Fellow Kristin Sippl Authors Paper on Sustainability Standards for Gold

Kristin Sippl, a 2011 Graduate Summer Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently authored a paper on the evolution and impacts of sustainability standards for gold as part of a special issue of the journal Ecological Economics.

In the paper, Sippl examines transnational certification standards in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), a sector that supports the livelihoods of millions in the Global South but is also a leading cause of mercury pollution. She compares ASGM certification programs designed by a pair of NGOs — Northern-based Fairtrade International and Southern-based Alliance for Responsible Mining — and reveals key misalignments between program designers and targets.

Sippl earned her PhD in Political Science from BU in 2016. The paper stems, in part, from her research as a Graduate Summer Fellow at the Pardee Center in 2011, where she explored transitions away from mercury use among artisanal gold miners in developing countries.