Why Growing Diamonds is Sustainable and Environmentally Superior to Mined Diamonds
Can Mined Diamonds be Considered Sustainable?
As defined by two reputable dictionaries, the mining of diamonds out of the Earth is not sustainable, as diamond deposits around the world are being rapidly depleted. Humanity has already extracted 6 billion carats of diamonds from the Earth, whereas only 1.2 billion carats of mineable diamonds are estimated to remain in the Earth today (according to the public filings of the De Beers and the other major diamond mining companies). In other words, diamonds are forever, but diamond mines are not.
Can Lab Diamonds be Considered Sustainable?
While mining diamonds requires diesel and dynamite, growing diamonds requires carbon and electricity. Because carbon is abundant and electricity can be sourced from renewable sources, some laboratory-grown diamonds can, by definition, be considered sustainable.
Carbon
A one carat diamond is 200 milligrams of carbon. NASA estimates that there are 65 trillion tonnes of carbon on Earth. The growth of diamonds does not deplete or permanently damage the carbon available on Earth.
In fact, diamonds grown via Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) use the worst greenhouse gas, methane, as the source of carbon for the diamonds. During CVD diamond growth, methane molecules are permanently destroyed. The carbon atoms in the methane becomes diamond, and the hydrogen atoms from the methane can combine with oxygen to create new water molecules.
To review: Electricity + Methane + Hydrogen => Diamond + Water. Yeah science!
Electricity
Solar Power Plant - Image Credit: Mansouraboud68 / CC-BY-SA-4.0
Our diamond growers typically require approximately 250 kilowatt hours of electricity to grow a 1 carat diamond gemstone. That same amount of electricity would power the average US household for 9 days or allow a Tesla Model S to drive approximately 700 miles.
The CO2 emissions required to grow a 1 carat diamond vary depending on the power source. Using data from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), here’s the approximate carbon emissions required to grow a 1 carat diamond by source of the power:
Coal - 205kg
Natural Gas - 122kg
Solar - 12kg
Hydropower - 6kg
Wind - 3kg
Just as Google, Facebook, and Apple have moved their server farms to locations where they are powered by renewable energy, diamonds can be grown anywhere in the world there is clean energy available because the finished product is quite light, easy to ship, and has a shelf life of … forever.
Thus, areas with abundant solar, hydro, geothermal, or wind energy, such as the Mojave Desert, the Columbia River Valley, Iceland, and Scotland, can create diamond ‘greenhouses’ or ‘gigafactories’ near their renewable energy sources. Some of Ada's suppliers are already using renewable energy to grow diamonds, and more are actively building production facilities, such as a hydropowered diamond production facility under construction in Washington State.