PARIS — Diamond trading company Andre Messika Ltd on Monday unveiled CarbonVero, a disclosure tool meant to calculate the carbon footprint of individual natural diamonds.
The announcement was made at the “Diamond Transformation, Environmental & Social Impact Across the Diamond Industry” panel organized by the Natural Diamond Council in Paris that included Watch & Jewelery Initiative 2030 executive director Iris Van der Veken, Kering’s chief sustainability and institutional affairs officer Marie -Claire Daveu, global sustainability consultancy Eco Age co-founder and creative director Livia Firth and other diamond industry executives.
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Created in partnership with industry solutions provider Sarine Technologies, with the initial measurements conducted by environmental consultancy The Carbon Trust, the tool and service is designed to measure greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption throughout the mined diamond manufacturing chain.
Sarine’s traceability solution will provide manufacturers and consumer brands with data and measurements throughout the process, from mine to polishing. Further tracing from the factory to the end consumer can also be included, the partners added.
Each cut and polished stone, from 0.25 carat upwards, will come with a blockchain-based certificate.
The diamond trading company, a member of the Responsible Jewelery Council and the Watch & Jewelery Initiative 2030, said it would apply the solution to all its Namibian diamonds going forward.
Data from its Namibian factory processes and rough diamond supply from the Namibia Diamond Trading Company, part of the De Beers group, were used as the initial benchmark for CarbonVero’s launch.
A highlight finding at the launch is that the energy required to transform a rough rock in the 2-to-4 carat range into a 1.2 carat round brilliant-cut diamond is equivalent to 33 dishwasher cycles.
For the diamond trading company’s chairman André Messika, “tracing the carbon impact per diamond from origin to consumer” was the logical next step in a trajectory of traceability programs and diamond provenance traceability initiated five years ago.
The Carbon Trust said that while various types of footprinting were undertaken, “this is the first instance of a diamond manufacturing company measuring and calculating the carbon impact associated with each of its diamonds (from cradle-to-gate)” and being able to provide downstream consumers with a view on the carbon impact of each diamond purchased.
“This level of transparency has the potential to inform and encourage collaboration across the natural diamond industry,” the organization told WWD in an email.
Sarine’s chief executive officer David Block said his company is committed to “deliver this data with the highest level of assurance, enabling the industry to offer sustainable products and ensure a promising future.”
He said the new technology would provide “crucial information about the energy emitted during the diamond processes, from mining through the entire manufacturing process.”
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