Pandora is ditching mined diamonds for lab-grown stones that cost as little as $350. It's the first major jewelry company to make the move.
- Pandora said it would no longer use mined diamonds in its jewelry.
- The company is hoping to woo a new customer base with cheaper, lab-grown stones that are more sustainable.
- The production of lab-grown diamonds has grown in the past two years, while rough diamond production has fallen.
Pandora is the first major jewelry brand to promise to stop using mined diamonds in any of its products, as it looks to woo sustainability-minded millennial shoppers.
Pandora, one of the world's biggest jewelry companies, also announced Tuesday that it was launching a new lab-grown diamond jewelry collection, which will start at £250 ($350).
The collection launches in the UK Thursday but will be available globally from 2022. In a press release, Pandora, best known for its collectible charms, committed to only using these diamonds in the future.
Mining for rough diamonds deep beneath the earth's surface is controversial for environmental and ethical reasons - critics say it is both destructive to the land and a driver of human rights abuse, through forced labor or child labor.
In an interview with the BBC early Tuesday, CEO Alexander Lacik said that man-made diamonds are produced for a third of the price of mined diamonds. He said he hoped the cheaper options would draw in new customers.
"We're trying to open up this playing field," Lacik told the BBC.
Lab-grown diamond making dates back to 1954, but has grown in popularity in the past two decades. According to research from Bain & Company earlier this year, recent advances in technology led to "double-digit growth" in the production of lab-grown diamonds in 2019 and 2020.
Meanwhile, rough diamond production has continued to drop since peaking in 2017, Bain analysts said.
Lab-grown stones have become popular with millennial shoppers who are drawn to lower prices - these diamonds can cost 30% to 40% less than mined diamonds - and the idea of being more socially conscious in their shopping choices.
The stones are made from a tiny diamond fragment and have the same physical structure and chemical composition as mined diamonds, which means customers are buying a similar-looking stone.
Experts are expecting more people to buy these stones as the technology improves and prices drop.