Page 78 - Sharp Spring 2021

“A rare natural diamond is definitely an investment, but you shouldn’t look at it as that.
You should buy natural or lab-grown diamonds because they’re sentimental and people love jewellery.”
“There is a very strong argument that these could possibly be more sustainable than earth-mined jewels, in that there is no permanent damage being done on the earth when creating them,” says Ebrani.
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently stepped in to release a set of guidelines regulating both the name of the products and their proclaimed qualities. Now, you can’t call them diamonds, and you must disclose their synthetic provenance. Though there is no Canadian equivalent to the regulatory body, as a general statement, the FTC’s rulings are considered law across the world.
Producing a jewel in a lab obviously doesn’t involve the blowing up of mines that plenty of natural diamond critics constantly refer to, but the synthetic business isn’t as green as one might initially assume. Back in 2019, the FTC sent letters to several companies warning them not to use the words “sustainable” and “eco-friendly” in their marketing copy, given that such environmental claims could not be verified by any of the companies. It’s worth noting, though, that in 2018 the regulatory body declared that a diamond should be considered one whether lab-grown or earth-mined.
“People who sell genuine diamonds aren’t happy with the false claims made about the green nature of synthetic jewels because they aren’t being made by some high-paying jobs done by people in white lab coats,” says Eddie LeVian, co-owner of jewellery company LeVian. “They build these factories with hundreds or thousands of boiler-type machines that create high temperatures and pressures and release fumes and gases into the atmosphere, all done in sweatshops that pollute the environment. The natural diamond never does that.”
LeVian also points out that “traditional” jewellery makers tend to find their diamonds in poverty-stricken communities where the mining operations end up creating jobs. “Many of the mines are also run by major worldwide conglomerates that actually invest money to reforest areas or turn them into lakes or something resembling a natural condition,” he explains.
Another battleground at the root of the diamond wars is the price tag: synthetic ones cost, on average, about 50 to 75 per cent
less than their natural counterparts. That price mostly takes into account the cutting process, which is just as costly and laborious as the one involved in the shaping of an earth-mined piece.
“The process takes time,” explains Ebrani. “You can’t say ‘I want to make a rough that looks a certain way’ and [immediately] get it. The technology hasn’t gotten to that point yet.”
Given the magnitude of the jewellery industry (in 2019, the global diamond jewellery market was approximately $100 billion), legal and ethical arguments surrounding lab-grown diamonds have, unsurprisingly, grown louder. The potential to disrupt the industry is clearly there, and both camps know that. In 2017, the global production of lab-grown diamonds was estimated to have been a bit more than 14.6 billion carats, and that number has been steadily growing ever since.
And yet, both types of jewel purveyors seem to agree that customers should be given the choice, albeit after being presented with the truth about each product. “The whole point is the rarity of [a real diamond], which is supposed to symbolize the preciousness
78 SHARPMAGAZINE.COM SPRING 2021