Environmental, Social and Governance Principles
for Laboratory-Grown Diamonds
CIBJO’s “Environmental, Social and Governance Principles for Laboratory-Grown Diamonds,” is a guidance document is designed to assist laboratory-grown diamond companies to devise sustainable strategies that contribute to long-term business value creation, and to satisfy consumer expectations around environmental and social responsibility. It also aims to support companies facing the likelihood of greater ESG regulatory requirements imposed by governments, both national and regional, in the not-too-distant future.
ESG refers to a set of performance evaluation criteria that an organization uses to measure and monitor the robustness of its governance mechanisms and its ability to effectively manage environmental and social impacts. It has largely superseded previous Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approaches, providing broader, more precisely articulated and measurable sets of actions that affect employees, their families, customers, investors, shareholders, local communities and society at large, to improve long-term human-life quality, the environment and the economy.
The guidance document presents 14 specific principles, five of which relate to environmental policy, four to socially responsible policies, and five to governance. Each principle includes a set of recommended actions, and an indication of its relevance to specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The guideline was developed in partnership with independent advisers, Key & Co., and presented for the first time by its authors, Jon Key and Helen Mitchell, at the 2023 CIBJO Congress in Jaipur, India.
The session of the Laboratory-Grown Diamond Committee at the 2023 CIBJO Congress in Japiur, India, in November 2023, where Jon Key and Helen Mitchell presented the Environmental, Social and Governance Principles for Laboratory-Grown Diamonds guideline.