The Sustainability (?) of Lab Grown...

This is a thought-starter primarily for myself, then I'm going to report back. The question being around the assumed sustainability of lab grown over natural diamonds. I'm calling it into question, at least for now.

Lab grown, is a great option for affordability. It's really just a 'motorised', time-condensed version of the process that the earth will cycle carbon through in order to produce a diamond. So as an alternative to ease the sting of the diamond premium, absolutely choose a lab grown.

However, the lab grown alternative has been a point of focus for couples recently, who have a disposition for sustainable industry practices.
It's a natural assumption that I feel has gone at least, slightly unqualified.

I'm posing this hypothesis and then, I will begin to rummage around to see what I can find out.

'The diamond industry has rightfully felt market pressures to be better, and in order to retain credibility, we, as the consumer have slapped an accountability to 'show your papers' - prove to us that your are taking measures to improve on your environmental impact.

The issue is - the lab grown industry has just got out of diapers. So with its snotty nose, it is handled with kid gloves and we haven't truly looked at the processes, especially in relation to energy consumption. In other words, we were happy for an alternative to come onto the scene and we are yet to have any market demands. My curiosity peaked when I saw a photo of the massive warehouses that mill these diamonds out... Geez. It doesn't look pretty.

So let's just take a deep dive and see what we can uncover.'


I'll report back ;)