When Beth Gerstein and Eric Grossberg founded Brilliant Earth in the summer of 2005, they wanted to provide an ethical alternative to "blood diamonds," which are diamonds mined in war zones and under corrupt regimes (they're sometimes referred to as "conflict diamonds"). In this interview with SustainLane, Beth explains how her company is working to change the diamond industry.
Why did you start Brilliant Earth?
Beth: We founded Brilliant Earth to start a new fine jewelry category, with an ethical origin, so consumers felt good about the jewelry they were buying.
What's the problem with diamonds?
Beth: Many of the world's diamonds are mined, cut, and polished in conditions that exploit the workers, exploit the communities, and harm the environment. Workers make a dollar a day, in unsafe, dangerous conditions, often being harassed by the local government. Blood diamonds have funded wars that have brutalized populations in places like Sierra Leone and Angola. As consumers, we don't know where these diamonds originate. We're paying a high price but that money isn't trickling down to the worker or the community.
Where do you get your diamonds?
Beth: We get our diamonds from Canada. Canada has very strict labor and environmental standards, so you can be sure that you're not supporting an industry that's exploiting the workers or is corrupt. We're also working to be able to offer diamonds that are mined in a socially responsible way in developing countries.
Brilliant Earth also offers "eco-friendly" gold wedding bands. What makes the gold eco-friendly?
Beth: Gold mining is one of the dirtiest mining industries. Something like 30 tons of ore moves for every single engagement ring. We buy gold from secondary sources, which is all re-refined to have the same quality, so that no additional gold mining is needed.
You sell online, over the phone, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, but you don't have a retail store.
Beth: We don't think you should have to pay more as a consumer to get a luxury product that is ethical and socially responsible. If we did have a storefront, it would change the economics. The model we have right now lets us offer our product across the U.S. and Canada. Opening a retail store front is something we talk about, but our main priority is to keep our costs down and provide our service to a geographically dispersed area.
What have been the biggest challenges?
Beth: As a small company, I think getting the word out is always a big challenge-especially when you're thinking about creating a new category. Educating the consumer is something we constantly strive to do. It's hard to introduce a new product and educate a customer.
The other thing that's hard is that whenever you're a business trying to be socially responsible, you'll get a number of critics who come at you different ways.
Talk about these critics.
Beth: I would say that we're not necessarily very popular in the diamond industry. There's a lot of controversy right now that if you're boycotting West African diamonds, doesn't that hurt the workers more? But we don't want to support an industry that exploits people. We don't want to support an industry that we don't think is adding value. It's a pretty nuanced argument. People see you as doing something that could threaten the normal way of doing business, and it makes the general industry more defensive. But I think that's how change happens. For a company to make a difference in an industry, you have to evoke a certain amount of controversy.
What can consumers do to promote more socially responsible jewelry?
Beth: They can show they care about the conditions in the places their diamonds and fine jewelry comes from. Ask your jeweler were your diamond comes from and how it was mined, cut, and polished. By demanding a clean, ethical diamond, consumers can create market pressure toward more socially responsible practices.
Find out more about Brilliant Earth.
Read more on SustainLane about green jewelry:
Is Jewelry a Green and Healthy Living Issue?
How to Make a Recycled Credit Card Bracelet
ANDREA K. says:
Wouldn't a clean, ethical diamond be one that hadn't been mined at all? They make cultured diamonds now, which are real diamonds just created on instead of in the earth. They don't 'add color' or anything like that. It's all the same conditions a natural diamond would go through to become a diamond, simply above ground. IMO, it's common sense to stop picking at the planet if we see that it's ailing. An excellent source on this is Neil Koppel from Boca Raton. I spoke with him at length and he's more knowledgeable than anyone I've met on the green diamond issue; then I bought some from him. They're called eco-diamonds and that's exactly what they are.... INEXPENSIVE and GORGEOUS!
Can someone please interview him? neilk@kandgcreations.com
Adam W. says:
Seems to me like creating diamonds from scratch would require a lot more energy than mining them does...
ANDREA K. says:
I thought about that and then I wondered which would do the least harm? Above ground can be done with solar power, one would think.
Ken O. says:
The next step is converting stainless steel from our countless SUVs into jewelry... steel jewelry won't be stolen in a minute, is shiny and fun, takes no further resource extraction and most importantly: cheap! there are also estate sale diamonds and "used" or pre-loved diamonds out there. Brilliant Earth has a great concept too--fair trade.
we'll always be extracting resources from mother earth to sustain ourselves. as you all know already, it's the rate and volume of extraction (directly proportional to fossil fuel use and again directly proportional to our population boom) that's empowered us to shoot ourselves in both feet. what would we do without technology?
ever notice how we seem to figure out that new technologies actually hurt us LONG after we create/invent them? pvc, pesticides, fertilizers, gasoline, camel cigarettes, palm oil, maaaybe microwaves and cell phones, definitely computers and TV...etc ;)
cheers.
Edita V. says:
I think a worth visiting and supporting site (or brand?) is Igloo Diamonds (www.diamonds.ca).
The site carries exclusively Canadian diamonds and forwards a portion of their mark up (not the elusive figure called "profit", the site explains) towards landmine clearing in Mozambique.
Another site with plenty of links with information on the topic is www.diamonds.org