SCS Global Services – an international certification and standards development business specialising in sustainability and quality performance – is running the program in conjunction with the Lab-Grown Diamond Council.
Participants include US-based Green Rocks Diamonds and WD Lab Grown Diamonds, Goldiam in India and Israeli company Lusix.
As part of the audit, the producers will be assessed based on environmental, social and governance criteria. The results will then be analysed by a Standard Review Committee comprised of academics, retailers, non-profit organisations and diamond experts to develop a final sustainability certification standard.
Stanley Mathuram, vice president SCS Global Services, said, “Through the audits, we will be able to ground… assumptions about laboratory operations involved in the creation of lab-grown diamonds, ensure that the standard’s criteria fully capture the potential range of issues, and better equip the Standard Review Committee to do its work.”
Meanwhile Leon Peres, CEO Green Rocks Diamonds, added, “Third-party product sustainability certification will assure our customers that our diamonds are exactly what we say they are – sustainably and responsibly grown and cut. This certification is extremely important to our industry, and we intend to support it in any way we can.”
Earlier this year, the US Federal Trade Commission sent warning letters to eight synthetic diamond producers over the use of nebulous environmental claims in marketing material.
More reading:
The diamond detectors: searching for truth
Mined diamonds generate less carbon than lab-grown: report
Doubts over synthetic diamond producers’ eco-friendly claims