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Certified Sustainability Rated Diamonds

certified sustainability rated diamonds

Nelson Coleman Jewelers is a Sustainability Rated Diamond Accredited Retailer; we can purchase and supply sustainability-rated diamonds to our customers. Very few diamonds qualify to be sustainability rated at this time, and their inventory can be limited. If you’d like to ensure your diamond is sustainability-rated, please note that it could take additional time to source it. A stone of your exact preferences may not be available. 

At this time, only four diamond companies qualify to be sustainability rated. Each company only produces lab grown diamonds. While this rating is available for mined diamonds, no company producing these diamonds has chosen to become certified. 

For a company to meet the standards for this rating, they must meet the Five Pillars of Sustainability, including origin traceability, conform to rigorous Ethical Stewardship requirements, be committed to or achieve Climate Neutrality, be committed to the principle of Sustainable Production, and commit to Sustainability Investments.

Diamond Origin Tracing

Before a diamond can qualify as a Sustainability Rated Diamond, it is tracked through a verified origin traceability process that provides 99.9% accuracy through the entire chain of custody, starting with the producer. This process is possible because of stringent empirical testing used to establish a source signature. This involves having a source signature for each reactor for lab grown diamonds.

loose lab grown diamonds

Ethical Stewardship

There are 12 principles of ethical stewardship that work to meet comprehensive environmental, social, and governance criteria. These ensure that each diamond producer has the highest degree of integrity and complies with applicable laws and international agreements. The 12 Principles of Ethical Stewardship include:

  • Business Integrity
  • Human Rights
  • Worker Rights
  • Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
  • Occupational Health and Safety
  • Security
  • Community Engagement
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Management of Water and Energy Resources
  • Minimization of Emissions, Effluents, Wastes, Noise, and Vibration
  • Ecosystem Protection
  • Reclamation and Closure
rough diamond in kimberlite

Climate Neutrality

A company’s impact on climate is caused by its annual climate emissions and its past greenhouse gas emissions (“legacy” emissions). The Certification Standard for Jewelry Sustainability-Sustainability Rated Diamonds is the first standard for gemstone-quality diamonds to account for current and legacy emissions. A diamond producer becomes climate neutral by providing their own Scope 1, 2, and 3 climate change impacts and works towards climate neutrality. Either by purchasing carbon offset credits or direct investment in climate mitigation projects that reduce the climate impact through pollution prevention and other methods.

Sustainable Production

Sustainable production is based on two main priorities. First, Do no harm and take steps to avoid known impacts. Second, offset remaining effects, achieving independently verifiable net zero over a specified period. A Sustainability Rated Diamond producer understands and works towards reducing or offsetting the impacts of their production operation.

Sustainability Investments

Companies that qualify as sustainability rated are not only regulating their impact globally. They are actively investing in improving supply chains and projects that help the poorest communities, improve working conditions, tackle resource depletion and local pollution, and protect the climate and environment. All qualified producers contribute to artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) and mining communities.

For a diamond producer to be Certified Sustainability Rated, they must adhere to these strict standards. We hope that more diamond producers will qualify to meet these standards soon.

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