The World's Biggest Jewelry Maker Will No Longer Use Mined Diamonds, Cites Move Toward Sustainability and Affordability Pandora will not use mined diamonds in its jewelry anymore; instead, it will manufacture diamonds in its labs.
By Fatma Khaled
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Update (5/6): This story has been corrected to clarify that Pandora will buy lab-grown diamonds. A correction has also been made to acknowledge the company's shift to lab-grown diamonds as a result of changes in technology.
Pandora said in a statement on Tuesday that it will no longer use mined diamonds as it plans to adopt affordable and sustainable solutions to manufacture its jewelry.
Instead, the Copenhagen-based company will buy lab-grown diamonds.
The company's decision comes as advances in technology have put lab-manufactured diamonds in "a price range that enable us to offer affordable diamond jewelry to our customers," Pandora's spokesperson Johan Melchior told Entrepreneur.com.
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It also aligns with the company's plans to be carbon neutral and use only recycled materials in its silver and gold by 2025, Melchior added.
Pandora is releasing its first collection of lab-made stones called Pandora Brilliance. The collection includes rings, bangles, necklaces and earrings, with each featuring a lab-created diamond handset within sterling silver and gold.
The lab-made diamonds in the collection, which will be available in the U.K. starting Thursday, have been grown with over 60% renewable energy on average, the company said. The collection will be made with 100% renewable energy, when it launches globally in 2022.
"It's a new collection of beautifully designed jewelry featuring lab-created diamonds. They are as much a symbol of innovation and progress as they are of enduring beauty and stand as a testament to our ongoing and ambitious sustainability agenda," Alexander Lacik, Pandora's CEO, said in a statement. "Diamonds are not only forever, but for everyone."
According to Bloomberg, the jewelry market has been impacted by reports of human rights abuses in mines and factories, but Melchior would not confirm whether the issue influenced the company's new direction. He told Entrepreneur.com that Pandora would prefer not to have an opinion on the matter.
Last year, Pandora said in a company statement that it would stop using mined silver and gold entirely by 2025.
The jewelry company would "only buy from recycled sources. This will cut carbon emissions by two thirds for silver and by more than 99% for gold," the statement read.
Global diamond sales fell 15% in 2020 due to a global lockdown, according to a report by Bain & Company. Sales in the diamond industry declined the most during the first and second quarters of 2020.
