58 JEWELLERY
BUT SURELY LAB GROWN DIAMONDS ( LGD ) ARE BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT ?
While Lab Grown Diamonds don ’ t cause the same level of environmental discourse as diamond recovery , the methods used in their manufactured lab environment do raise concerns .
This is what happens in a controlled diamond lab environment :
• A process that normally takes millions of years underground and uses heat and pressure from the environment to create a natural diamond is mimicked in a lab in mere weeks using intense manufactured heat .
• These factories don ’ t ( usually ) have assembly lines , but the machinery used requires constant energy , 24 hours a day , seven days a week , to produce these gems . The source of this energy is important to the ultimate sustainability of LGD .
• Diamond Labs use enormous microwave-heat generators to replicate the earth ’ s process through high pressure , high temperature ( HPHT ) production . This requires maintaining a temperature above 300 ° F or chemical vapour deposition ( CVD ) that needs temperatures as high as 1500 ° F .
If the manufacturing process for lab grown diamonds uses energy generated from fossil fuels , it creates more carbon dioxide emissions than natural diamond recovery ; currently , most facilities still rely on fossil fuels to power their reactors .
THE ART OF LUXURY Issue 53 2022