Eco Fashion Trend of the Week: Conflict-Free Diamonds

This lab-grown diamond is conflict-free (unless you count price haggling!) Image from Wikipedia.

Ever since the 1930s when De Beers launched ads aimed at young couples in love, diamonds have been the most recognizable, widely accepted proof of love and commitment in our culture. Unfortunately, most diamonds aren’t mined with green technology. Many are mined with forced labor, often by children, and are used to finance violent rebel movements. Thus, many diamonds you find in commercial jewelry stores are actually “blood diamonds.”

The romance of a diamond would be ruined for a lot of people if they understood the diamond’s potential relationship with terror, torture, rape, slavery, extrajudicial killings, poverty, exploitation and more. Green technology is overlooked during mining. In order to obtain a single 1.0 carat diamond, about 1750 tons of earth must be moved.

Even in conflict-free mines, like those in Canada, green technology is often ignored. Mines are built in fragile ecosystems, destroying the environment and threatening the natural habitats of a variety of species and native people.

In order to get a truly conflict-free diamond obtained with green technology, you have to be willing to ask questions. What is your diamond’s serial number? It should be laser-engraved on the gem. Truly conflict-free gems pass through a strict monitoring system that tracks its history from the mine, through the factory, to the consumer–almost like a UPS package.

Thanks to green technology, we can also now grow premium diamonds in labs. In controlled environments, the quality of the gem can be monitored and guaranteed. Plus the stone’s history is indisputable.

While cultural symbols like diamonds aren’t easily changed, the way we go about obtaining them can be. You dollar is your vote, and demanding certified conflict-free diamonds tells the diamond industry that just because you’re in love, you’re not willing to wear rose-colored glasses to overlook their practices.

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