Pandora says lab-grown diamonds the ethical choice. Not so, say diamond miners. Who’s right?
- Tobias Kormind, of online retailer 77 Diamonds, says diamond miners have largely eliminated shady dealings, and notes that lab-grown stones need a lot of power
- Still, he credits Pandora for a decision he believes is born both of a commitment to sustainability and economic opportunity as lab-grown diamond prices fall
The different directions are as sharp as the angles on a multifaceted brilliant.
Pandora, the Danish company that makes more jewellery than anyone else in the world, most of it inexpensive, has announced it will no longer use naturally mined diamonds.
Instead, as a “testament to our ongoing and ambitious sustainability agenda”, said chief executive Alexander Lacik this month, Pandora would use only diamonds grown in laboratories. He used the occasion to announce the Pandora Brilliance range featuring lab-grown diamonds set in rings, bangles, necklaces and earrings.
Not so fast, responded a diamond industry group a few days later, objecting to a “false and misleading narrative” in the Pandora announcement.
The Natural Diamond Council, the World Jewellery Confederation, the World Diamond Council and the Responsible Jewellery Council jointly said the diamond industry employs tens of millions of people around the world and many communities in developing nations rely on income and welfare from diamond mining.
