World’s largest jewellery producer Pandora will no longer use mined diamonds and switch to lab-grown stones. Copenhagen-based Pandora, best known for its charm bracelets, on Tuesday launched Pandora Brilliance, which it described as its “first lab-created diamond collection”. The range, which includes earrings, necklaces and rings, features lab-grown stones made in the UK, with prices starting at £250.
“For millennials in particular, the awareness of what a lab-created diamond is, is significantly higher than with the older generation, so it’s a matter of education as well,” said Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik. “They are more concerned about sustainability aspects.”
Pandora said demand for lab-grown diamonds was growing faster than the overall diamond jewellery market. The stones – which are identical to mined ones in terms of optics and chemical characteristics – are graded by the same standards as mined ones known as the “4Cs” – cut, colour, clarity and carat.
“We want to become a low-carbon business,” said Lacik, adding, “I have four children, I’m leaving this earth one day, I hope I can leave it in a better shape than maybe what we’ve kind of created in the last 50 years or so.” Pandora previously said from 2025 it would use only recycled gold and silver.
Despite decades of reform, the jewellery market continues to be show reports of human rights abuses at mines and factories. To address such concerns, Tiffany & Co. last year started providing customers with details of newly sourced, individually registered diamonds that trace a stone’s path all the way back to the mine.
