New Diamond Certification Standard Tracks Sustainable Diamonds
Guest Writer Kyle Roderick is the author and photo editor of BEJEWELED: The World of Ethical Jewelry (Rizzoli, 2019) Her Instagram gallery @bijouxreview has been reporting in detail on sustainable jewelry since 2014.
Kyle Roderick. Photo credit: @bijouxreview
New Scientific Diamond Certification Standard tracks and verifies sustainable diamond from mine to finger
The 2006 film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo Di Caprio dramatized how illegal diamond mining operations financed warlords who committed atrocities against civilians in Sierra Leone, bringing the horrors of conflict diamonds to global attention. Ever since then, people have felt compelled to ask retailers and designers for documentation regarding origins of diamonds they are interested in buying.
According to sustainable marketing consultant Nancy Trent, founder and president of New York-based Trent & Company, “Jewelry lovers of all ages, genders and sexual orientations are seeking transparency and corporate accountability with respect to environmental responsibility, worker rights, human health and Fair Trade practices.” Trent, whose jewelry-related clients have included The International Jewelry Design Guild, Philip Stein Watches and The Jewelry Accessories Show of New York, prophesies, “Only those designers and retailers who clearly address consumers’ ethical concerns and answer the urgent environmental questions of current and future generations will forge a sympathetic connection with diamond jewelry shoppers, build trust and see their diamond jewelry sales grow.”
Despite marketing assurances that a given diamond is conflict-free, caused minimal environmental impacts and was produced safely without breaking labor laws or violating human rights, without a rigorous and science-based, uniform industry standard for responsibly sourced and ethically produced diamonds “such claims are unverifiable, hollow and ultimately self-defeating,” Trent observes. “Many customers, including teens, are smart enough to know when they are being greenwashed by a diamond jewelry website, advertisement or Instagram post. The diamond and jewelry industries need to realize that today’s environmentally aware kids are their future customers, and tailor their diamond jewelry lines and marketing accordingly.”
While other global industries, such as organic agriculture, long ago convened international multi-stakeholder groups to create consensus-based; scientific sustainability standards to meet customer demands for transparency plus social and environmental responsibility (the certified organic USDA was established in 2002), members of the diamond and diamond jewelry industries have finally come up with their own standard in 2020.
Developed after years of internationally coordinated scientific research, meetings, and multiple draft documents, the Certification Standard for Sustainably Produced Diamonds (entitled SCS 007) represents the first comprehensive, multi-stakeholder sustainability standard for both natural diamond and lab-grown diamond sectors. In addition to industrial-scale, naturally mined diamonds and laboratory produced diamonds, SCS 007 also applies to cutting and polishing facilities as well as grading laboratories that take temporary custody of diamonds during their journeys. The standard is being managed by SCS Standards, the standards development arm of SCS Global Services.
Notably, the standard focuses on the sustainability of the diamond production operation, rather than whether it was sourced from a mine or a lab. As Stanley Mathuram, vice-president of SCS Global Services, explains, “SCS 007 provides the first unified, industry-wide statement of responsibility to workers, communities and the environment. Our plan,” he continues, “is to donate a percentage of certification fees to fund and train smaller, artisanal diamond operations so that they can formalize their operations and also benefit from this standard.”
Initial stakeholders include such global jewelry brands as Swarovski, the U.S. jewelry store chain Helzberg Diamonds, (a Berkshire Hathaway company) WD Lab-Grown Diamonds, Goldiam Since 1938, LUSIX Lab-Grown Diamonds, GreenRocks Created Diamonds and Nouveau Diamond.
Certifying sustainably mined and laboratory grown diamonds under one standard enables the industry to resolve many of its diamond marketing dilemmas, says Soraya Cayen, owner of the Carmel, CA. high luxury jewelry salon Cayen Collection, which was voted by the Womens’ Jewelry Association as one of the top five jewelry stores in the United States. As Cayen relates, “Now the industry can start educating consumers about this new standard and explain some of the world-changing economic, ethical and environmental benefits that are associated with sustainable diamonds.”
A female diamond mine employee in South Africa. Photo credit: Natural Diamond Council
“The fact that this standard can provide objective metrics for benchmarking and qualifying sustainability is an historic advance for the jewelry industry,” says Birmingham, England-based Fei Liu, who served for several years as a guardian of the Birmingham Assay Office, which is controlled by a group of 36 elected “Guardians of the Standard of Wrought Plate" in Birmingham. As a designer whose Fei Liu Fine Jewellery brand is sold in over 40 stores in the U.K., Liu also designs bespoke diamond jewelry for private clients. Some of his diamond jewelry pieces have been appraised by members of the U.K.’s Jewellery Valuers’ Association at over one million British pounds each.
“In addition to providing criteria that establish strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) benchmarks of performance, SCS 007 serves to guide participating producers to work toward achieving net zero impacts for any human health and environmental impacts linked to diamond production, including full climate neutrality,” Mathuram explains. (The current draft of the standard has identified 15 core impacts linked to diamond production.) “Offsetting these impacts is a fact-based measure of sustainability,” Mathuram continues. “While this objective is achievable by those in the diamond and jewelry trades, it is also precedent-setting. By providing detailed documentation,” he ventures, “it will demonstrate to consumers that those in the diamond and jewelry trades are actively addressing their concerns.”
Various companies have introduced block chain ledgers and other auditing mechanisms to provide provenance assurance. Many of their origin claims, however, have weakened under examination because of underlying flaws in the methodologies used. As Dallas, Texas-based gemologist Benjamin Guttery, G.G. notes, “A block chain record is only as accurate or as honest as the person who inputs the information. Also, diamonds can be easily substituted for fakes.”
Based on extensive research on how to set effective provenance requirements, SCS 007 now requires a combination of techniques to assure diamond provenance with 99% accuracy. It combines the most advanced empirical testing technologies (provenance signature and gem identification matching) and risk assessment with reporting and database requirements, plus documentation across the chain of custody, backed by third-party verification.
According to Mathuram, “This precisely detailed provenance confirmation is essential for the diamond industry to become transparent and definitively answer questions about the origins and journeys of diamonds.”
If this standard really does what it purports to do, it’s a first in jewelry history, for it documents a diamond’s actual environmental impact, plus provides retailers and consumers the guarantee that the people who sourced, traded and processed these diamonds into jewelry worked under legal, safe, and fairly paid labor conditions.
(Editor’s Note: the SCS 007 can also be applied to sustainable colored gemstones, pearls and other jewelry materials.)
The rigorous provisions of this consensus standard will ensure that producers seeking to make sustainability claims for their stones, whether mined or laboratory produced, have fulfilled far-reaching and strict requirements. As Mathuram summarizes, “The diamond and jewelry trades, with their long histories of self-promotion and vague assurances, deserves and needs a unified claim that holds the potential to generate trust in responsible diamonds, along with solid support from consumers and stakeholders.”
(The certification standard is currently being reviewed by the multi-stakeholder Standard Development Committee, and will be released for public and stakeholder comment early 2021 before being finalized. In the meantime, early adopters who have been piloting the standard will be issued provisional business-to-business certifications. A growing number of jewelry retailers have agreed to carry the SCS-007 certified sustainable diamonds.)
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