Highlights
- How They Leave Impacts on the Contemporary Environment
- What Does Sustainability Mean?
- How Are Natural Diamonds Mined?
- Environmental Impacts of Natural Diamond Production
- How Are Lab-grown Diamonds Produced?
- Environmental Impacts of Lab-grown Diamond Production
- Conclusion
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How They Leave Impacts on the Contemporary Environment
Differences between Lab-grown and Natural diamonds as they engage with the environment. Explore the reasons why Lab-grown diamonds make a sustainable choice.
Diamonds, whether they are lab-grown or unearthed from the core - always hold special significance in popular consciousness. Jewelleries crafted with shimmering beauty of these precious gems reflect the luxury and material opulence of those who possess them.
Productioning diamonds, however, is a totally different arena, which sometimes may get overwritten by the marketing campaigns solely focussing on the consumption of lab-grown and natural diamonds. This production phase varies according to the type of diamond being processed: as their names suggest, lab-grown diamonds are manufactured within the lab, while natural diamonds are taken away from deep beneath the mantle.
Therefore, the production of both these diamonds have direct and indirect connection with the environment in terms of the resultant impacts upon it. In this blog, we at Stella Fine Jewellery will present to you this another side of the diamond-production industry - the differences in the production of lab-grown and natural grown diamonds and their respective impacts on the environment. Through this process, we will help you take a more sustainable step towards the future as you invest next time on this precious jewel.
What Does Sustainability Mean?
Sustainability, in a general sense and according to wikipedia, defines the ethically responsible capacity to maintain or restore the availability of desirable materials for a longer period of time . In our contemporary world, sustainability has become a fashionable way to live one’s life. But apart from being a life-style, sustainable approach is also applicable in the production industries - especially of non-renewable resources like mined diamond.
Many companies have now started walking on the path to retrieve mined diamonds in a more ethical manner, focusing on improving their production technologies to a sustainable degree. However, as earth-grown diamonds do not exist in an infinite quantity, it is only natural that recovering and distributing mined diamonds itself can never be a completely sustainable process.
How Are Natural Diamonds Mined?
Natural diamonds are developed throughout a prolonged period of time under a number of environmental conditions agreeable to the birth of these shimmering creations of earth. As they are formed deep beneath the mantle, the excavation phase follows a rigorous process, which varies according to mines.
For example, the Open-pit mining process is required when there is an availability of natural diamonds not more than a few hundred miles deep down the earth-surface. This process removes a large amount of sediments worth millions of years, and disrupts the contingent ecosystem that faces irreversible damage. However, another process - the Underground mining results worse on the environment.
Another method which has become popular recently is the Marine mining, where companies send large vessels deep inside the sea where the diamonds are located and, after a successful excavation, excess sediments are returned to the ocean floor.
Environmental Impacts of Natural Diamond Production
Digging out and distributing natural diamonds leave harmful effects on the environment on multiple layers. Excavating diamonds from under the earth requires destruction of soil and causes disruption in the natural ecosystem on a large, irretrievable scale. Thereafter, the polishing of natural diamonds results in emission of green-house gases and water-pollution: to put it into a numerical understanding - 160 kg of greenhouse gases is released per polished carat of mined diamond on average.
Some companies market marine mining as ecologically responsible as it lets excess sediments return to the ocean bed. But it is a lengthy-process – it takes two to ten years for the soil to recover its former qualities. Although the impacts of marine mining are still being researched, many environmentalists are concerned about the possible ill-impacts the whole mining process might cause to the marine ecosystem.
How Are Lab-grown Diamonds Produced?
Lab-grown diamonds, also called synthetic diamonds, are created within laboratories equipped with ultra-modern technologies which replicate the atmospheric conditions required for diamond formation. Two of the most well-known scientific processes for producing lab-grown diamonds are – CVD and HPHT processes.
Inside the laboratory where the required environment is maintained, a small diamond seed is implanted inside a chamber and as per the respective processes are required, diamonds are being produced over a period of time. For example, in the case of Chemical Vapour Deposition(CVD) diamonds, the ionisation process required for the growth of a diamond is simulated. Whereas in the High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) process, scientists regulate the pressure and temperature within the chamber to produce lab-grown diamonds.
Environmental Impacts of Lab-grown Diamond Production
Lab-grown diamonds are popularly marketed as to be the substantial alternative to natural diamonds. As the processes suggest, the production of lab-grown diamonds does not cause the destruction of the soil and water resources as the production of the other diamonds results in. Also the production of lab-grown diamonds in general does not harm the ecosystem directly.
However, lab-grown diamond production is not completely-environment friendly. Both the CVD and HPHT processes use a huge amount of non-renewable energy, and the distributing of lab-grown diamonds itself might stand threatening to the environment: on average, producing one polished carat of lab-grown diamond releases 511 kg of greenhouse gases.
Conclusion
Both the manufacturing processes of lab-grown and natural diamonds exploit the non-renewable resources to create these significant earthly gemstones. But now, we are presented with a host of points of difference between lab-grown and earth-grown diamonds which establishes the sustainability of lab-grown diamonds in comparison to their natural counterparts.
Lab-grown diamonds, unlike natural diamonds. are retrieved or manufactured within a definite work-place and not in a land of open earth which invites many prestigious mining companies to exhaust the earth-soil to the core. Although most lab-grown producers don’t use renewable energy resources for the production, researchers constantly look for ways for improvements not only in the quality of the lab-grown diamond, but also in its production methods. Therefore, there are still ways for making lab-grown diamonds more sustainable in the near future.
At Stella Fine Jewellery, we produce certified CVD lab-grown diamonds that prove to be displaying qualities promising for a world with better environmental conditions in years ahead. Therefore, in your journey towards a more ethically responsible future, let us accompany you with our fascinating collection of lab-grown diamond jewelleries entailing sustainable beauty.
