(Photo : by LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images)
For many years, the natural diamond business has been driven by an alluring marketing approach, but is the sustainability of contemporary lab-grown diamonds as evident as consumers think?
The "a diamond is forever" advertising campaign from the 1940s by the De Beers Group, which Advertising Age named the "slogan of the 20th century" in 1999, is largely responsible for the natural diamond industry's explosion into a multibillion dollar sector and its entrenchment in contemporary society.
Mined Vs. Lab Grown Diamonds
Allied Market Research projects that the worldwide market for natural diamonds, which was valued at $100.4 billion in 2022, would grow to $155.5 billion by 2032.
However, lab-grown diamonds, a similarly brilliant and far less costly rival, have upended the natural, mined diamond market.
The International Gem Society (IGS) states that in 1954, General Electric generated the first lab-grown diamonds by subjecting microscopic seed crystals to temperatures as high as 2,912 degrees Fahrenheit and air pressures as high as 100,000 atm using a high-pressure belt press.
According to IGS, throughout the course of the following several decades, scientists in the US, China, and Russia used various techniques from the original GE patent to produce lab-grown diamonds that outperform naturally occurring diamonds in terms of carat size, color, and clarity.
Why Consumers and Brands Trust Lab-Grown Diamonds
The philosophy and affordability of lab-grown diamonds drive Alexander Weindling's firm, the third-generation diamond jeweler and CEO of Clean Origin, a fully lab-grown diamond company, told ABC News
While Clean Origin sells what looks to be an identical stone for less than $1,000, Weindlings claims that a one-carat mined diamond may retail for $4,000 or $5,000.
In terms of the industry's sustainability and impact on the environment, Weindling was cautious to refer to lab-grown diamonds as "green-ish."
