Are Lab Grown Diamonds More Ethical Than Natural?

Ethical considerations have become a very important part of the Diamond buying process, especially with the rise of lab-grown Diamonds that have been marketed as the ‘ethical’ choice.

But is this actually true?

I wanted to find this out for myself, as being a gemmologist, I get asked this question quite a bit, so I set about doing the research to find out.

Before I get started, I do just want to point one thing out: I don’t sell Diamonds, so I have no incentive to promote one or the other (which can’t be said for a lot of the so-called ‘information’ online).

Key Takeaways

  • It isn’t possible to say that one is “more ethical” than the other
  • Lab-grown Diamonds don’t have as big of an impact on local environments but are not better for the environment due to the amount of energy required to grow a Diamond
  • Natural Diamonds have a much wider-reaching socio-economic impact
  • Lab-grown Diamonds cost significantly less but also have little to no resale value
Table of Contents

What Do We Mean By Ethical?

Ethical is a bit of an ambiguous word because the broad definition is to be “morally right”.

But what does this mean when we are talking about Diamonds?

The problem is that this can mean different things to different people:

  • For some it may be being more environmentally friendly
  • For others it may be more focused around socio-economic issues

For me, it is a combination of the two and that is what I looked at when doing the research.

Environmental Impact

Let’s start with the environmental impact as this has been an area of constant discussion over the years.

But there is one BIG problem that I found and that is that a lot of the supposed information quoted online by many retailers comes from two very dubious sources, which are:

  • The 2014 Frost and Sullivan Report which is commonly quoted by lab-grown Diamond retailers was found by JCK Online to have links to the International Grown Diamond Association (which is why it is no longer available online)
  • The 2016 SPG report that is quoted by many Natural Diamond retailers, was paid for by the Diamond Producers Association 

This is one of the reasons why you should be very cautious about a lot of the marketing material out there.

They also seem to focus very heavily on the aspects that benefit their side of the argument but there are a couple of things to consider when it comes to environmental impact:

1: Energy Usage

Finding this information was challenging to say the least but I did find one independent study that covers it and they found that:

Natural Diamonds use between 96kWh and 150kWh per carat

HPHT Diamonds – 36kWh per carat

CVD Diamonds – 215kWh per carat

I also did some of my own digging and found that:

  • In 2023, De Beers used 121kWh per carat (based on them using 13.9mGJ (million gigajoules) in there sustainability report and mining 31.9 million carats of Diamonds)
  • On their old Lightbox website, De Beers claimed that on average, it took 228kWh to grow a 1-carat Diamond using the CVD process

But what do these figures mean?

Without comparison, these figures are useless so to compare. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the average US household uses 28.7kWH of energy per day.

A chart showing energy usage for natural and lab-grown diamonds vs the average US household

So when it comes to energy usage, lab-grown Diamonds definitely aren’t any better for the environment than Natural but there is more to consider than just energy usage, what about energy sources and greenhouse gases?

This is where things get a bit challenging, as each mine and lab-grown factory are different but there are some more general things to consider:

But there are obviously counters to these points, in that:

  • Some lab-grown companies do generate some or all of their energy from renewable energy sources
  • Many mining companies are investing in using renewable energy sources to help power their mines and reduce their carbon footprint

My takeaway from this was that there are too many variables and not enough information for it to be possible that anyone could come out and say with confidence that one is better than the other.

2: Local Environmental Impact

The local environmental impact is much easier to talk about than the energy consumption as Diamond mining does have a more detrimental impact than lab-grown Diamonds that are manufactured in industrial units.

One point I do just want to cover is that some Lab-grown Diamond companies claim that there is “no mining” involved in their Diamond production process and this simply cannot be true becuase:

  • The machines that are used to grow Diamonds contain materials that are mined
  • CVD Diamonds require carbon-rich gas (usually methane), with natural gas being the most commonly used
De Beers CVD Diamond Factory
De Beers Lightbox CVD Factory. Img Credit: De Beers

But what are the negative effects of Diamond mining:

  1. Disruption of land – most Diamond mines require land to be removed in order for the Diamond to be removed from the host rock, this can result in the destruction or upset of local:
    • Fauna (plants, trees etc) 
    • Ecosystems 
    • Wildlife
  2. Water Usage – one of the key aspects with Natural Diamonds is that more water is used in the production process and while they don’t need to use additional chemicals with the water, the wastewater can become contaminated with elements that are trapped within the excavated earth
  3. Heavy Machinery – this does fall under greenhouse gases but heavy diesel machinery does create more pollutants in the local environment

And for many large mining operations, the result of Diamond mining is a very large hole in the ground but how much rock needs to be mined to produce a 1-carat Diamond?

Diavik Mine Canada
Diavik Mine Canada. Img Credit: Dominion Diamond

Well, the figure varies but there is a commonly quoted figure of 250 tonnes of ore for every 1 carat of Diamond and I’m not sure where this comes from but in Botswana in 2021, it ranged from 2.2 tonnes per carat to 8.3 tonnes per carat and some Canadian mines are estimated to yield 2.5 carats per ton, which is a lot different to 250 tonnes isn’t it?

This doesn’t look great for Natural Diamonds but mining companies are taking steps to reduce their impact on the environment by:

  • Using more renewable energy sources
  • Having a reclamation plan in place for all of the mines that they are closing down
  • Preserving land to compensate for their mining operations, for example, De Beers says say they manage over 200,000 acres of land in southern Africa for conservation (source: De Beers)

And one thing that I think is quite interesting is that Kimberlite (the material from which Diamond is primarily mined) does have the potential to be used for carbon sequestration, which is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

How Does This Compare To Lab-Grown Diamonds?

Lab-grown Diamonds don’t have much of an impact on the local environment, especially if the company uses a building for their factory that already exists but if a custom building is required, then this may have some impact. 

And one of the big things is that neither of the main manufacturing methods requires anywhere near the amount of water that a mined Diamond and this does give a clear advantage to lab-grown Diamonds. 

Socio-Economic Impact

The socio-economic impact of Diamonds is something that is either not talked about or information is cherry-picked so that it fits in with a company’s marketing goals.

The Social Impact Of Diamonds

When buying a Diamond, you want to know that your purchase hasn’t had a negative impact on someone else’s life and there are two main things that always seemed to get mentioned about Natural Diamonds:

Human Rights Abuses and Child Labour Exploitation

In the history of Diamond mining, there have been lots of issues when it comes to human rights abuses (what mining industry doesn’t?) and the valid concern many buyers have about ‘blood diamonds’ but is that still the case today?

Not really, because there have been a number of changes over the years to combat these, including:

  • Mining Standards – most of the major mine owners like Anglo-American (who own De Beers) and Rio Tinto are members of ICMM, and have implemented mining standards across their mine sites to help improve:
    • Workers rights
    • Health and safety
    • Pay and training
  • Partnerships – many companies now work in partnership with the governments of diamond-producing countries, such as De Beers partnerships with Botswana and Namibia, that has lead to:
    • Improved infrastructure
    • Improved healthcare
    • Improved education
  • The Kimberley Process – a global initiative involving 86 countries alongside the industry to remove conflict Diamonds from the supply chain with over 99% of rough Diamonds coming from process members

The only real issues arise from small artisanal or illegal mines, which are often in countries where corruption is common and in very remote areas, which makes governing them difficult but the chances of you getting one of these stones are very slim, as any legitimate business or person in the industry will not touch these stones.

Are Lab-grown Diamonds Conflict-free?

Yes, as they are produced in countries where any income generated from their production doesn’t fund conflict or wars but does this mean that there are no human-rights issues?

We don’t actually know and while there haven’t been any reported but China and India aren’t exactly world leaders for human or workers’ rights.

The Economic Impact Of Diamonds

The economic impact of Diamonds is an interesting one as the industry was worth an estimated $41.5 Billion in 2024 (which sounds like a lot until you see that the revenue of Amazon in 2022 was $638 Billion!) but one type of Diamond has a far bigger economic impact than the other.

Let’s start with the economic impact of lab-grown Diamonds by looking at the 5 biggest producing countries:

  1. China – 2nd biggest economy
  2. India – 5th biggest economy
  3. USA – the biggest economy
  4. Singapore – 30th biggest economy (impressive considering it is a small island and city state)
  5. Russia – 11th biggest economy

In all of these economies, the impact of the lab-grown Diamond industry is very small and the money stays within the large economies as China is the largest producer, India is the diamond-cutting center of the world and the USA is the largest customer base.

Compare this with the largest Natural diamond-producing countries in the world:

  1. Russia – 11th biggest economy
  2. Botswana – 123rd biggest economy
  3. Angola – 72nd biggest economy
  4. Canada – 10th biggest economy
  5. Democratic Republic of Congo – 86th biggest economy

In fact, 8 of the top 10 Diamond producing countries are in sub-Saharan Africa and in some of these countries, Diamonds are a significant contributor to GDP, such as Botswana (over 32%) and Namibia (around 10%) and to Africa as a whole, Diamonds generate over $9 Billion a year.

But the rise of lab-grown diamonds has begun to cause some economic issues, these include:

  • Diamond mines are closing – this is causing people to lose jobs in areas of the world where there isn’t an abundance of alternative employment (some communities were very reliant on mines as the main source of employment)
  • Indian diamond cutters – with the falling price of lab-grown diamonds, many Indian cutters are now doing the same amount of work for less money and has resulted in many leaving the industry in search of better pay

From an economic standpoint, Natural Diamonds have a far wider-reaching impact.

Conclusion – Which One Is More Ethical?

There simply isn’t enough information out there to conclusivly say whether one is more ethical than the other and for seemingly every argument, there is a counter-argument to be made.

If ethics is the driving force behind the decision to go for one or the other, then it comes down to personal choice as to which one best fits with their personal beliefs.

On a final note, the one area that I have found to be unethical is in a lot of the marketing and I know the aim of marketing is to get people to buy but this shouldn’t be done by cherry-picking stats or not providing the full story.

I have seen this a lot on the lab-grown side, with many marketing campaigns basically coming down to Lab-Grown = Good, Natural = Bad! (Before anyone comes at me, I have also seen and been very critical of some of the natural sides marketing as well).

Paul Haywood FGA DGA

I'm Paul Haywood FGA DGA, the owner and founder of Haywoods Gems, I'm a fully qualified Gemmologist and Diamond Grader from the Gemmological Association of Great Britain.