Pandora A/S, which makes more pieces of jewelry than any other company in the world, is to stop using mined diamonds as part of a broader strategy to drop raw materials associated with unethical production methods.
Despite decades of reform, the global jewelry market remains tainted by reports of human rights abuses at mines and factories.
To address such concerns, Tiffany & Co last year started providing customers with details of newly sourced, individually registered diamonds that trace a stone’s path back to the mine.
Photo: Reuters
Yesterday, Copenhagen-based Pandora said that it would only use diamonds manufactured in laboratories.
The company is set to release its first collection using lab-made stones in the UK, and would expand to other markets next year.
The decision to shun mined diamonds comes less than a year after Pandora pledged to stop relying on newly mined gold and silver.
By 2025, its entire production would only use recycled precious metals as part of a plan to ensure that its operations are carbon neutral within four years.
Pandora’s lab-made diamonds are grown from carbon with more than 60 percent renewable energy on average, a ratio that is set to rise to 100 percent next year.
The company is taking a stand on its raw materials as investors increasingly focus on sustainability.
Nordea’s asset management unit recently said that it plans only to hold securities that live up to environmental, social and governance standards across all its portfolios.
To be sure, Pandora uses relatively few diamonds in its production. The firm, which has branded itself a maker of affordable trinkets, last year used mined diamonds in about 50,000 pieces of jewelry out of about 85 million pieces.
Lab-made stones cost about one-third the price of mined ones and the switch would make diamond jewelry accessible to more consumers, it said.
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