Stones

Pandora uses 100% man-made stones. Stones created in a laboratory have a significantly lower environmental impact than their mined counterparts.

According to a study by the environmental consultancy, Trucost, the environmental cost of cubic zirconia is just 0.002% of that of a mined diamond, largely due to the vastly smaller quantity of energy required to produce cubic zirconia. More specifically, cubic zirconia uses 5,000 times less CO2 and 3,000 times less water per carat than a mined diamond.

Our use of man-made stones considers both the climate crisis, the increasing constraints on natural resources and changing consumer expectations. The flipside of this can be the negative impact on livelihoods and local communities that rely on local, artisanal mining. Moreover, the production of man-made stones is energy-intensive, which is why it should, whenever possible, utilise renewable energy sources and why supplementary off setting measures for remaining emissions may be required. We will be investigating these issues in the years to come.

Moving to lab-grown diamonds

In 2022, we launched the Pandora Lab-Grown Diamonds collection, featuring lab-grown diamonds that are grown, cut and polished using 100% renewable energy and set in 100% recycled silver and gold. The lab-grown diamonds point to a future with low carbon jewellery.

Thanks to the use of renewable energy, the carbon footprint of these lab-grown diamonds is around 95% lower¹ than that of mined diamonds of the same size.

¹ ^{S&P Global, 2019,}^{The socioeconomic and environmental impact of large-scale diamond mining.”}