Pandora, the world’s biggest jewelry maker, announced Tuesday it would stop using mined diamonds in its jewelry.
The company said in its statement it partly came from consumer demand. Pandora Group, which is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, said it is launching its first collection of diamonds exclusively manufactured in laboratories.
The move, according to the company, is to make its jewelry more affordable, sustainable, and accessible to the general public.
“Pandora continues its quest to make incredible jewelry available for more people, and today I’m proud to announce the introduction of Pandora Brilliance. It’s a new collection of beautifully designed jewelry featuring lab-created diamonds,” Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik said in a statement.
“They are as much a symbol of innovation and progress as they are of enduring beauty and stand as a testament to our ongoing and ambitious sustainability agenda. Diamonds are not only forever, but for everyone,” he continued.
The collection will make its debut in the United Kingdom and open up to the rest of the world in 2022.
Lacik told BBC News these synthetic diamonds can be manufactured for “a third of what it is for something that we’ve dug up from the ground.”
According to a recent research report from Bain & Company and the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, world diamond revenues fell by 15 percent to 33 percent last year during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.