费城珠宝店Bario Neal一层,低沉的锤击和打磨声阵阵传来,暖色调的墙壁上挂满了自然风乡村艺术品。
28岁的二年级老师海莉·法洛早就跟男朋友设计好镶嵌三颗钻石的订婚戒指,此刻正在等待成品。他们比较在意价格,不喜欢对地球造成负面影响的珠宝,也不想参与剥削矿工。所以两人打算买实验室出产的钻石。
“我很多朋友都有实验室钻石。感觉符合我们的生活方式,也适合我们的经济和生活水平,”法洛说。
行业分析师埃达恩·戈兰表示,2023年美国实验室钻石销售额同比增长了16%。其成本比起地下天然形成的钻石少得多。
社交媒体帖子显示,千禧一代和Z世代对于购买实验室钻石不无自豪,主要看中可持续性和道德因素。不过这类钻石的可持续性值得怀疑,因为制造钻石要耗费大量能源,行业多家大制造商在经营方面不够透明。
法洛说,选择实验室钻石让她的戒指“更特别也更有成就感”,因为相关材料都来自信誉良好的公司。Bario Neal的实验室钻石要么用可再生能源制造,要么用碳信用额抵消了钻石制造过程中的排放,碳信用额通常会支付植树造林等可捕获碳的活动。
然而事实上,并非所有实验室钻石都环保。
实验室钻石的缺点
很多公司位于印度,75%的电力为火力发电。公司官网上写着“可持续”和“环保”,却从不发布环境影响报告,也没有第三方认证。举例来说,Cupid Diamonds在网站上表示,公司以“环保方式”生产钻石,但没有回答有关钻石可持续性的问题。太阳能在印度普及迅速,Greenlab Diamonds等公司在制造过程中主要利用可再生能源。
中国是另一个重要的钻石生产国。河南黄河旋风、珠海中南钻石、河南力亮钻石、星亿珠宝和宁波晶钻都是较大的生产商。各家均未回复置评请求,也没有一家发布电力来源的详细信息。2023年,中国一半以上电力源自煤炭。
美国VRAI母公司是Diamond Foundry,在华盛顿州韦纳奇经营着号称零排放的铸造厂,依靠哥伦比亚河的水力发电。Diamond Foundry首席执行官兼创始人马丁·罗斯切森通过邮件表示,VRAI生产钻石耗能“大约是采矿耗能的十分之一”
不过钻石行业专家保·齐姆尼斯基表示,供应链保持透明并使用可再生能源的公司“只占一小部分”。
“似乎很多公司都在打环保产品的擦边球,实际上一点也不环保,”齐姆尼斯基表示。
实验室钻石如何制成?
实验室钻石通常要耗费几周,让碳置于高压和高温下,模仿地表之下钻石形成的自然条件。
从20世纪50年代以来,该技术一直存在,不过之前生产的钻石主要用于石材切割、采矿和牙科工具等行业。
随着时间推移,实验室或铸造厂出品的钻石缺陷越来越少。而且随着技术进步,生产成本逐步下降。
这意味着钻石生产商可根据需求提供钻石,还能选择尺寸和质量,推动价格迅速下跌。另一方面,天然钻石需要数十亿年才能形成,而且开采十分困难,所以价格更稳定。
实验室钻石与天然钻石对比
不管是实验室生产还是天然钻石在化学成分上完全相同,都是只含有碳。不过专家们利用激光精确定位原子结构中的信号后可以区分。每年美国宝石研究院(Gemological Institute of America)都对数百万颗钻石评级。
随着实验室钻石价格走低,也越发受年轻人青睐,新钻石已然蚕食天然钻石的市场份额。在全球范围内,实验室钻石占据5-6%市场份额,传统行业也并未坐以待毙。营销战已经打响。
钻石开采行业和一些分析人士警告称,以后实验室钻石无法实现保值。
“我认为未来五到十年,很少有客户愿意花数千美元购买实验室钻石,价格会降到100美元以下,”齐姆尼斯基说。他预测,天然钻石做成订婚戒指能继续卖上数千至数万美元。
实验室钻石值得买吗?
在有些文化中,订婚戒指被视为投资,选择天然钻石是看重其长期价值。齐姆尼斯基说,中国和印度尤其如此。美国乡村农村地区也一样,而实验室钻石在城市中更受欢迎。
花费数千美元买的东西如果短短几年内贬值大半,可能让顾客有种被骗的感觉。戈兰说,目前这是对实验室钻石行业不利的因素。
“买天然钻石时会听到这样一个故事,这是地球母亲历经30亿年精心磨制而成,是大自然的奇妙创造……实验室钻石就讲不出故事,”戈兰说,“(天然钻石)很快就能把永恒与爱情长久联系在一起。”
“如果真想从技术层面解决问题,最环保的钻石其实是再利用或回收的钻石,因为不会耗费能源,”齐姆尼斯基说。
佩奇·尼尔表示,2008年跟其他人联合创立了Bario Neal,目标是“打造具有持久价值的珠宝,对人类和地球产生积极影响。”公司珠宝所有材料的整个供应链均可追溯。该商店既提供实验室钻石,也出售天然钻石。
“珠宝是非常有力的象征……是记忆的守护者,”她说,“但是,如果使用对他人和环境造成伤害的材料打造爱、承诺或身份的象征,在我看来存在矛盾。我们只想使用客户会因拥有感到自豪的材料。”
美联社(Associated Press)的气候和环境报道获得多家私人基金会财务支持。美联社对所有内容全权负责。可在AP.org网站查找美联社与慈善机构合作的标准、支持者名单和资助覆盖区域。(财富中文网)
本文另一版本原发于2024年2月13日Fortune.com。
译者:梁宇
审校:夏林
费城珠宝店Bario Neal一层,低沉的锤击和打磨声阵阵传来,暖色调的墙壁上挂满了自然风乡村艺术品。
28岁的二年级老师海莉·法洛早就跟男朋友设计好镶嵌三颗钻石的订婚戒指,此刻正在等待成品。他们比较在意价格,不喜欢对地球造成负面影响的珠宝,也不想参与剥削矿工。所以两人打算买实验室出产的钻石。
“我很多朋友都有实验室钻石。感觉符合我们的生活方式,也适合我们的经济和生活水平,”法洛说。
行业分析师埃达恩·戈兰表示,2023年美国实验室钻石销售额同比增长了16%。其成本比起地下天然形成的钻石少得多。
社交媒体帖子显示,千禧一代和Z世代对于购买实验室钻石不无自豪,主要看中可持续性和道德因素。不过这类钻石的可持续性值得怀疑,因为制造钻石要耗费大量能源,行业多家大制造商在经营方面不够透明。
法洛说,选择实验室钻石让她的戒指“更特别也更有成就感”,因为相关材料都来自信誉良好的公司。Bario Neal的实验室钻石要么用可再生能源制造,要么用碳信用额抵消了钻石制造过程中的排放,碳信用额通常会支付植树造林等可捕获碳的活动。
然而事实上,并非所有实验室钻石都环保。
The disadvantages of lab-grown diamonds实验室钻石的缺点
很多公司位于印度,75%的电力为火力发电。公司官网上写着“可持续”和“环保”,却从不发布环境影响报告,也没有第三方认证。举例来说,Cupid Diamonds在网站上表示,公司以“环保方式”生产钻石,但没有回答有关钻石可持续性的问题。太阳能在印度普及迅速,Greenlab Diamonds等公司在制造过程中主要利用可再生能源。
中国是另一个重要的钻石生产国。河南黄河旋风、珠海中南钻石、河南力亮钻石、星亿珠宝和宁波晶钻都是较大的生产商。各家均未回复置评请求,也没有一家发布电力来源的详细信息。2023年,中国一半以上电力源自煤炭。
美国VRAI母公司是Diamond Foundry,在华盛顿州韦纳奇经营着号称零排放的铸造厂,依靠哥伦比亚河的水力发电。Diamond Foundry首席执行官兼创始人马丁·罗斯切森通过邮件表示,VRAI生产钻石耗能“大约是采矿耗能的十分之一”
不过钻石行业专家保·齐姆尼斯基表示,供应链保持透明并使用可再生能源的公司“只占一小部分”。
“似乎很多公司都在打环保产品的擦边球,实际上一点也不环保,”齐姆尼斯基表示。
实验室钻石如何制成?
实验室钻石通常要耗费几周,让碳置于高压和高温下,模仿地表之下钻石形成的自然条件。
从20世纪50年代以来,该技术一直存在,不过之前生产的钻石主要用于石材切割、采矿和牙科工具等行业。
随着时间推移,实验室或铸造厂出品的钻石缺陷越来越少。而且随着技术进步,生产成本逐步下降。
这意味着钻石生产商可根据需求提供钻石,还能选择尺寸和质量,推动价格迅速下跌。另一方面,天然钻石需要数十亿年才能形成,而且开采十分困难,所以价格更稳定。
实验室钻石与天然钻石对比
不管是实验室生产还是天然钻石在化学成分上完全相同,都是只含有碳。不过专家们利用激光精确定位原子结构中的信号后可以区分。每年美国宝石研究院(Gemological Institute of America)都对数百万颗钻石评级。
随着实验室钻石价格走低,也越发受年轻人青睐,新钻石已然蚕食天然钻石的市场份额。在全球范围内,实验室钻石占据5-6%市场份额,传统行业也并未坐以待毙。营销战已经打响。
钻石开采行业和一些分析人士警告称,以后实验室钻石无法实现保值。
“我认为未来五到十年,很少有客户愿意花数千美元购买实验室钻石,价格会降到100美元以下,”齐姆尼斯基说。他预测,天然钻石做成订婚戒指能继续卖上数千至数万美元。
实验室钻石值得买吗?
在有些文化中,订婚戒指被视为投资,选择天然钻石是看重其长期价值。齐姆尼斯基说,中国和印度尤其如此。美国乡村农村地区也一样,而实验室钻石在城市中更受欢迎。
花费数千美元买的东西如果短短几年内贬值大半,可能让顾客有种被骗的感觉。戈兰说,目前这是对实验室钻石行业不利的因素。
“买天然钻石时会听到这样一个故事,这是地球母亲历经30亿年精心磨制而成,是大自然的奇妙创造……实验室钻石就讲不出故事,”戈兰说,“(天然钻石)很快就能把永恒与爱情长久联系在一起。”
“如果真想从技术层面解决问题,最环保的钻石其实是再利用或回收的钻石,因为不会耗费能源,”齐姆尼斯基说。
佩奇·尼尔表示,2008年跟其他人联合创立了Bario Neal,目标是“打造具有持久价值的珠宝,对人类和地球产生积极影响。”公司珠宝所有材料的整个供应链均可追溯。该商店既提供实验室钻石,也出售天然钻石。
“珠宝是非常有力的象征……是记忆的守护者,”她说,“但是,如果使用对他人和环境造成伤害的材料打造爱、承诺或身份的象征,在我看来存在矛盾。我们只想使用客户会因拥有感到自豪的材料。”
美联社(Associated Press)的气候和环境报道获得多家私人基金会财务支持。美联社对所有内容全权负责。可在AP.org网站查找美联社与慈善机构合作的标准、支持者名单和资助覆盖区域。(财富中文网)
本文另一版本原发于2024年2月13日Fortune.com。
译者:梁宇
审校:夏林
The muted sounds of hammering and sanding drift down to the first floor of Bario Neal, a jewelry store in Philadelphia, where rustic artwork that mimics nature hangs on warmly-lit walls.
Waiting for one of those rings is Haley Farlow, a 28-year-old second grade teacher who has been designing her three-stone engagement ring with her boyfriend. They care about price and also don’t want jewelry that takes a toll on the Earth, or exploits people in mining. So they’re planning on buying diamonds grown in a laboratory.
“Most of my friends all have lab-grown. And I think it just fits our lifestyle and, you know, the economy and what we’re living through,” said Farlow.
In the U.S., lab-grown diamond sales jumped 16% in 2023 from 2022, according to Edahn Golan, an industry analyst. They cost a fraction of the stones formed naturally underground.
Social media posts show millennials and Generation Zs proudly explaining the purchase of their lab-grown diamonds for sustainability and ethical reasons. But how sustainable they are is questionable, since making a diamond requires an enormous amount of energy and many major manufacturers are not transparent about their operations.
Farlow said the choice of lab-grown makes her ring “more special and fulfilling” because the materials are sourced from reputable companies. All of the lab diamonds at Bario Neal are either made with renewable energy or have the emissions that go into making them countered with carbon credits, which pay for activities like planting trees, which capture carbon.
But that’s not the norm for lab-grown diamonds.
Many companies are based in India, where about 75% of electricity comes from burning coal. They use words like “sustainable” and “environmentally-friendly” on their websites, but don’t post their environmental impact reports and aren’t certified by third parties. Cupid Diamonds, for example, says on its website that it produces diamonds in “an environmentally friendly manner,” but did not respond to questions about what makes its diamonds sustainable. Solar energy is rapidly expanding in India and there are some companies, such as Greenlab Diamonds, that utilize renewables in their manufacturing processes.
China is the other major diamond manufacturing country. Henan Huanghe Whirlwind, Zhuhai Zhong Na Diamond, HeNan LiLiang Diamond, Starsgem Co. and Ningbo Crysdiam are among the largest producers. None returned requests for comment nor post details about where it gets its electricity. More than half of China’s electricity came from coal in 2023.
In the United States, one company, VRAI, whose parent company is Diamond Foundry, operates what it says is a zero-emissions foundry in Wenatchee, Washington, running on hydropower from the Columbia River. Martin Roscheisen, CEO and founder of Diamond Foundry, said via email the power VRAI uses to grow a diamond is “about one tenth of the energy required for mining.”
But Paul Zimnisky, a diamond industry expert, said companies that are transparent about their supply chain and use renewable energy like this “represent a very small portion of production.”
“It seems like there are a lot of companies that are riding on this coattail that it’s an environmentally-friendly product when they aren’t really doing anything that’s environmentally friendly,” said Zimnisky.
How are lab-grown diamonds made?
Lab diamonds are often made over several weeks, subjecting carbon to high pressure and high temperature that mimic natural conditions that form diamonds beneath the Earth’s surface.
The technology has been around since the 1950’s, but the diamonds produced were mostly used in industries like stone cutting, mining and dentistry tools.
Over time the laboratories, or foundries, have gotten better at growing stones with minimal flaws. Production costs have dropped as technology improves.
That means diamond growers can manufacture as many stones as they want and choose their size and quality, which is causing prices to fall rapidly. Natural diamonds take billions of years to form and are difficult to find, making their price more stable.
Lab-created vs natural diamonds
Diamonds, whether lab-grown or natural, are chemically identical and entirely made out of carbon. But experts can distinguish between the two, using lasers to pinpoint telltale signs in atomic structure. The Gemological Institute of America grades millions of diamonds annually.
With lower prices for lab-grown and young people increasingly preferring them, the new diamonds have cut into the market share for natural stones. Globally, lab-grown diamonds are now 5-6% of the market and the traditional industry is not taking it sitting down. The marketing battle is on.
The mined diamond industry and some analysts warn lab-grown diamonds won’t hold value over time.
“Five to ten years into the future, I think there’s going to be very few customers that are willing to spend thousands of dollars for a lab diamond. I think almost all of it’s going to sell in the $100 price point or even below,” said Zimnisky. He predicts that natural diamonds will continue to sell in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for engagement rings.
Are lab-grown diamonds worth it?
Some cultures view engagement rings as investments and choose natural diamonds for their value over the long term. That’s particularly true in China and India, Zimnisky said. It’s also still true in more rural areas of the United States, while lab-grown diamonds have taken off more in the cities.
Paying thousands of dollars for something that drops most of its value in just a few years can leave the buyer feeling cheated, which Golan said is an element that is currently working against the lab-grown sector.
“When you buy a natural diamond, there’s a story that it is three billion years in the making by Mother Earth. This wondrous creation of nature … you cannot tell that story with a lab-grown,” said Golan. “You very quickly make the connection between forever and the longevity of the love.”
“If we really want to get technical here, the greenest diamond is a repurposed or recycled diamond because that uses no energy,” Zimnisky said.
Page Neal said she co-founded Bario Neal in 2008 to “create jewelry of lasting value that would have a positive impact on people and the planet.” All of the materials in her jewelry can be traced throughout their supply chain. The store offers both lab-grown and natural diamonds.
“Jewelry is a powerful symbol … it’s a keeper of memories,” she said. “But when we’re using materials that have caused harm to other people and the environment to create a symbol of love and commitment or identity, to me it feels at odds. We want to only work with materials that we feel like our clients would be proud to own.”
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on February 13, 2024.