If you consider yourself a socially and environmentally responsible person, then you need to consider the origins of the diamonds in your rings. Unless explicitly stated, you can’t assume that your diamond was ethically sourced. An ethically sourced diamond is one that is mined using fair humanitarian practices.
This means that there is no forced or child labor, miners receive fair wages, they work under safe conditions, and the diamonds aren’t used to fund violence.
Brilliant Earth claims that their diamonds are ethically sourced. Many Brilliant Earth reviews confirm this, but should we just take their word for it? Let’s examine how Brilliant Earth describes the sourcing of their diamonds and determine whether they are, in fact, ethically sourced.
The current industry standard for ethically sourced diamonds is the Kimberley Process. The Kimberley Process simply requires that diamonds not be used to finance civil wars. Brilliant Earth, by contrast, takes things a step further. They require that their diamonds have ethical and environmentally responsible origins.
This means that in addition to not being used to finance rebel movements, Brilliant Earth’s diamonds are sourced in such a way that no human rights abuses take place. These initiatives minimize environmental degradation and promote safe and responsible labor practices. As a result, community development is supported.
Brilliant Earth ensures that their diamonds come from ethical sources by applying rigorous standards to their suppliers. They require their suppliers to maintain a robust chain of custody protocol and be able to track and separate each diamond by its origin. Furthermore, these suppliers must get their diamonds from specific mine operators that Brilliant Earth recognizes as following internationally recognized trade, labor, and environmental standards.
Additionally, Brilliant Earth is a certified member of the Responsible Jewellery Council.
Brilliant Earth sources its diamonds from three countries: Canada, Russia, and Bostwana. Their Canadian diamonds come from the Diavik and Ekati mines.
These mines have demonstrated a strong commitment to environmental and human rights standards. Additionally, they have been audited by the Responsible Jewellery Council, as well as independent environmental monitoring organizations. They hire local Aboriginal people, sponsor funds for scholarships, and provide a skilled apprenticeship program. Furthermore, they have plans in place for land rehabilitation and reclamation.
Diamonds from Russia come from the Yakutia region of northeast Siberia and the Arkhangelsk region along the White Sea coast. These mines are the economic lifeblood of these remote regions. They provide thousands of jobs. Workers often get double the average Russian salary, in addition to receiving health care and housing benefits, as well as pensions.
According to Brilliant Earth, these mines operate based on safe and responsible mining practices.
Most of the diamonds from Bostwana Sort come from Bostwana. The remainder comes from South Africa, Lesotho, and Namibia. All the diamonds from this area follow internationally recognized labor and environmental standards. Funding from these operations is regularly re-invested into health care, education, and infrastructure. Moreover, Bostwana mines demonstrate a dedication to minimizing their environmental footprint by monitoring their ecological impact and rehabilitating land after use.
Brilliant Earth also offers lab-created and recycled diamonds. Lab-created diamonds are entirely ethical as they don’t involve any mining processes. Nonetheless, they are virtually indistinguishable from mined diamonds. Recycled diamonds are ethical because they require no new mining. In this way, Brilliant Earth provides customers with additional options for ethical shopping.
We began this review with the question, “Are Brilliant Earth diamonds ethically sourced?”.
To answer this question, we examined where Brilliant Earth gets its diamonds from and how those mines conduct themselves. We discovered that Brilliant Earth is rigorous in ensuring the mines and the supply chains for their diamonds comply with their standards. Finally, we looked at the other ethical shopping options Brilliant Earth provides.
Brilliant Earth offers both lab-created diamonds and recycled diamonds. This gives shoppers more options for acquiring ethically sourced diamonds. Therefore, we conclude that Brilliant Earth is a conscientious provider of ethically sourced diamonds.
Readers should be told if this is an advertisement because it reads like something which Brilliant earth would pay for. The article is grossly misleading as it fails to take in to account the myriad of grave human rights violations linked to the diamond industry downstream of the mining sector.
In due diligence terms “source” refers to the entire supply chain not just the mine of origin. Brilliant Earth doesn’t sell rough diamonds they sell cut and polished diamonds. Their diamonds are not “sourced” from a mine but from a factory, most likely in India, Belgium, Israel or China.
The industry standard is the widely discredited Kimberley Process which gives a free pass to blood diamonds that fund human rights violations by public or private security forces. Brilliant earth claim to go beyond the KP but are known to source some of their diamonds in Israel where the industry is a major source of funding for a regime guilty of grave human rights violations human rights including suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Responsible Jewellery Council – a trade organization set up by companies in the diamond industry – uses the Kimberley Process a the benchmark for ethical diamonds and therefore offers no assurance as to the ethical provenance the diamonds. In November 2019 the KP ended a three year period of review and reform and failed to broaden the definition of a “conflict diamond” to include diamonds that fud HR violations by government forces. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191119-the-kimberley-process-israels-multi-billion-dollar-blood-diamond-laundry/