Guest Opinion: The Environmental Impact of Lab-Grown Diamonds
Diamonds are diamonds wherever they come from, right? Depends on whether you’re asking a jeweler, a bride-to-be, or someone concerned with the sustainability practices of mining and manufacturing. While it may be difficult to tell a lab-grown diamond apart from a natural diamond, there are some major differences in their origins that might influence the purchase you choose to make, and from whom you choose to purchase it.
Sustainable diamonds. That term has a nice ring to it. In general, lab-manufactured diamonds compare favorably to the methods used to mine natural diamonds. They don’t cause the same level of environmental damage as mining, which requires the removal of earth and consumes freshwater and fossil fuels. Air pollution and acid mine drainage from mining can contaminate water sources, and unethical diamond mining practices can result in human rights abuses and destroy ecosystems. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that for each diamond recovered by mining, 200- to 400-million times as much rock must be extracted.
However, when looked at as a standalone industry, the methods used in a diamond manufacturing lab also raise concerns.
Manufacturers market their lab-grown diamonds as sustainable, suggesting they are a more responsible option for some consumers. But how accurate are these designations? Greenwashing can happen in any industry, even diamonds, and when a company uses the term “environmentally friendly,” the definition can be vague. You want to ensure that the company you’re buying from can legitimately stand behind its sustainability claims.
Here is what’s happening in the controlled environment of a diamond lab:
The process is relatively straightforward – and so is the impact on the environment. If the diamond maker uses renewable energy, the process is more sustainable than diamonds made using fossil fuel energy.
If you are considering the purchase of a sustainable diamond, we applaud your conscious decision to minimize your footprint. After all, when you’re giving someone a piece of jewelry you hope they’ll be wearing for decades to come, you want to feel good about seeing them wear it. It helps if you know that you made an informed decision about where to purchase it.
How a lab-produced diamond is created matters, because some lab practices may not be any better than traditional diamond mining side effects, as awful as they can be. Here are the items that many consumers consider in their search:
A study comparing lab-grown and mined diamonds by consultancy Frost & Sullivan found that mining diamonds produces 4,383 times more waste than manufactured gems, uses 6.8 times as much water, and consumes 2.14 times the energy per carat produced. Lab-brown diamonds also avoid all the sulfur oxide and more than half the nitrous oxide emissions associated with mined diamonds.
Just because a diamond is grown in a lab does not automatically mean it is sustainable. Don’t hesitate to ask questions of a jeweler, gemologist, or manufacturer about their production process or where they source their carbon. Companies that focus on environmental responsibility will have these answers readily available because they work to improve their manufacturing practices every day.
If lab-grown is your choice of gem, keep the following in mind:
Do your research and only work with a jeweler you trust. Diamonds are a large, important purchase, and though you may want the most sustainable gem, its origins may not be as straightforward or as environmentally responsible as they are portrayed. There is always an argument to be made that lab-grown diamonds are more sustainable than traditionally mined diamonds. But who you buy the diamond from and the unique practices they use to track the origin of their gems will tell you the true story of the diamond’s production.
The amount of energy required to create lab-grown diamonds is immense, albeit consistently found to be half that of mined diamonds. Some companies are working to use renewable energy and capture CO2 from the atmosphere to make their gems, but more need to make this transition to reduce their climate impact.
Similarly, among traditional diamond mining companies, some have made efforts to offset the industry’s social impacts. These include building schools and remediating environmental impacts in regions where diamonds are mined. Given the long history of the diamond industry’s indifference to human impacts, it is better to take the mine out of the process.
There is something to be said about the one-of-a-kind stone forged from the earth – that’s what makes them so rare, valuable, and expensive. For people who are committed to sustainability in all aspects of their life, they may find themselves deciding not only between natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds — but whether they are willing to purchase any kind of stone at all. If you do opt for a diamond, choose lab-grown stones made using 100% renewable energy to lower your jewelry’s environmental impact.