NDC said in an open letter that Pandora’s statements about the carbon footprint of lab grown versus natural diamonds are inaccurate.
A lab-grown diamond necklace by Pandora. The Natural Diamond Council has taken issue with Pandora’s recent claims about the carbon footprint of lab-grown diamonds versus natural.
London—The Natural Diamond Council published a letter Thursday addressed to Pandora CEO Berta de Pablos-Barbier regarding the company’s recent statements about natural and lab-grown diamonds.
Coinciding with its Q1 results released Wednesday, Pandora announced that it will add carbon footprint labeling to its lab-grown diamonds.
The move will allow consumers to compare the climate impact of lab-grown and natural diamonds, which, the company hopes, will give its lagging lab-grown diamond sales a boost by reshaping “how the environmentally conscious consumers will be choosing within the category.”
Pandora’s lab-grown diamonds sales—which represent about 1 percent of total sales—were down 15 percent year-over-year in the first quarter.
On the company’s earnings call Wednesday, Pablos-Barbier said Pandora’s lab-grown diamonds have a carbon emission “90 percent lower” than a mined diamond of the same size.
In its letter, NDC said Pandora’s latest campaign is “another disappointing PR stunt that unfairly attacks the natural diamond industry to promote synthetic diamonds.”
Pandora ruffled feathers in the industry in 2021 when it said it was switching from natural to lab-grown diamonds because of its focus on “sustainability,” partly because it sold so few natural diamonds to begin with.
“This misleading narrative has real consequences for the tens of millions of people worldwide who depend on the natural diamond industry for jobs, income, and social development,” NDC said.
Pandora did not respond to a request for comment on NDC’s letter by press time.
Ahead of its announcement that it would begin listing an emissions figure for each lab-grown diamond, Pandora commissioned a third-party study, but it based the 90 percent comparison on a study commissioned by NDC’s predecessor, the Diamond Producers Association, and published in 2019.
Interestingly, the study Pandora uses to back up its 90 percent comparison was criticized by a lab-grown diamond company, the Diamond Foundry, a few years after it was published, with watchdog organization the National Advertising Division ultimately asking NDC to walk back some of its claims in 2021.
“Unfortunately, this rhetoric has become familiar from Pandora,” NDC stated in its letter.
“In this case, the company compares the current carbon footprint of one of its products against outdated data in some cases dating back to 2013, attributed broadly to the entire natural diamond industry. Such comparisons are inaccurate and inconsistent with credible sustainability and responsible marketing standards.”
The organization also took issue with Pandora failing to distinguish between what it called two “fundamentally different” product categories, one that can be manufactured in unlimited quantities and one that is a finite product of nature.
“Comparing the two solely on value, meaning, or impact misleads consumers and fuels misinformation,” NDC said.
“If Pandora is serious about advancing sustainability and supporting the wider jewelry sector, the Natural Diamond Council encourages the company to re-engage constructively in industry forums where both the natural and synthetic diamond sectors are working to strengthen environmental stewardship and social responsibility.”
Main image : A lab-grown diamond necklace by Pandora. The Natural Diamond Council has taken issue with Pandora’s recent claims about the carbon footprint of lab-grown diamonds versus natural. Pandora
Source : The National Jeweler