Ecologically and socially responsible Jewelery: GreenKarat
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 11.21.05
Selling diamond rings usually is about romance, image and intangibles- look at deBeers and "a diamond is forever". GreenCarat is a different kind of jeweller- their pitch appears to be- anyone who wants a diamond ring is a jerk, but if you have to have one, we can sell you an appropriately green one. They say "Throughout history, jewelry has held a special place in the fabric of human culture. Unfortunately, industrial methods of extracting jewelry’s precious metals and gems from the earth damage the land and endanger ecosystems. Further, industrial values frequently reduce the labor component of production to the level of a cog in a machine...Because of the cultural importance of jewelry, it is impractical to impose an end to its use." Not the kind of sales pitch to drive starry-eyed newlyweds to your door, but they use only recycled gold and artificial diamonds in an effort to stop destructive mining practices, and their stuff is nice to look at if you are into green bling.
UPDATE: by total coincidence, Ideal Bite covered diamonds today. We get it by email and we do not know how to link to it, but here is a link to their blog.
About Gold mining: "There is often little regard for the environment during gold mining, and all too often, the spoils of the process continue to poison the environment long after commercial operations have ceased." About diamonds: "diamond mining isn’t sustainable. Even if we are able to make progress with regard to the social cost of diamonds, the Earth doesn’t yield up her natural diamonds without an environmental price."
About Diamond mining: "Perhaps no aspect of our modern culture leaves us more conflicted than the positive symbolism of diamonds, in contrast to the suffering and environmental destruction those diamonds carry as their legacy."
The New northern Canadian mines do not get a free pass- "Loss of fish habitat through draining of lakes, destruction of streams, changes in water quality. Water quality changes are measurable as far as 200 km downstream of Lac de Gras (Ekati mine), and there have been irreversible changes to water quality and possibly species composition in Snap Lake (De Beers diamond project). Twenty lakes have been eliminated altogether, with no fish habitat compensation measures in place.”
Lots of information; lots of nice rings; a bit light on the romance and the fabulous deBeers marketing but if you want a truly green ring (they even sell carbon offsets for the energy used to smelt the metal)go to ::greenkarat
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I personally think Igloo is adequate (link)
* fair labour standards
* community conscious (in re environmental impacts)
Without being SO limiting in choice and rather ugly in appearance (the GC rings just look awful)
I'm not affliated.
-RS
buying antique jewelry is also another method of buying ecologically, and socially responsible.
Big deal, they recycled the gold. Gold always gets recycled! What are you going to do with scrap gold, throw it out? No, it's too valuable, you sell it to a jeweler or scrap dealer who recycles it. Same with platinum, and even silver.
As for the synthetic diamonds, the technology has a ways to go before they can make colorless synthetic diamonds large enough to please most couples looking for an engagement ring, so you either have to get a tiny colorless diamond or a yellow one. And they don't seem to explain the huge amount of energy that goes into producing the synthetics.
This doesn't seem like such a green choice to me. I second the 'buy antique' suggestion instead.
I looked at this business a couple of days before it was posted on TH. I think their business model looks good & their products are nice blend of sustainability, ethical purchasing and nice designs. Polly a lot of people leave jewellry sitting in boxes, rarely or ever worn. Few people bother to get their old rings melted down to fashion new ones, they just buy the latest fashion design, few of which are made from recycled materials or bloodless diamonds.
I agree buying antique is good too, but this business deserves a pat on the back (otherwise they'll revert to blood diamonds and new gold that poisons rivers).
wow deja vu...
but seriously, i do think that supporting these guys leads to good things (as opposed tobuying used bling and just feeling good about not adding more waste..) GK has hired Dr. Ranil (i've gushed about him before to y'all and even invited Graham to one of his workshops) to do his amazing re-growing of the rainforests wherever GK does their extractions
...so guilt-free used jewels (which imo are pretty gross, anyway) or something that can actually Re-Grow rainforests.... you chose
LA: thanks for pointing out the deja vu. We always search our files before we write a post but the last one spelled it "GreenKarat" and it did not show up in the search. Our apologies!
Hey Treehugger Gang: If you DO want to link to the email tip on diamonds in the Ideal Bite archives, you can find it at:
http://idealbite.com/tiplibrary/tip.php?tip=20051121&title=Say_“I_Do!”_to_Cruelty-Free_Diamonds
LOVE the serendipity: something in the air (or maybe we all just know that scores of people will be getting engaged over the next few weeks???)
Funny, on probably our third date, my girlfriend and I had a discussion on diamonds. I explained to her that chances are good that I would never ever buy one. Ever.
To this day, she brings up that conversation as one of those early indicators that we were right for each other.
I still haven't figured out what to get her instead, but as we're in no hurry, I have time to research. Links like this are very helpful. Thank you.
ArtisTree has beautiful wood jewelry, including rings, which could serve as an alternative to the metals typically used in rings.
Ahem. My fiance and I got my engagement ring from Greenkarat, and it is beautiful. I receive compliments on it all the time. Please note that the author of this article got it wrong---their diamonds are not "artificial"; instead, the diamonds are created in a lab under the same conditions that they are created deep in the earth. As their website states, the diamonds are "chemically, optically and physically the same as diamonds made by nature"---they are synthetic, but are still real diamonds. Get your facts straight, Treehugger.
I agree about Igloo Diamonds. The idea of allocating a hefty share of the proceeds to clearing landmines in Mozambique together with using only Canadian origin diamonds (where the environment is taken into consideration in planning the mine and aboriginals were consulted first) is doubly attractive.