5  REASONS

Mined diamonds might look pretty, but boy do they wreak havoc on the environment. For starters, they require huge machinery and explosives, which dig deep into the earth, disturb habitats, pollute the water, render the land unusable, and create literal tons of mineral waste. That’s not to mention energy and water usage, carbon emissions, occasional disasters, or the release of harmful gases like Sulphur oxide.
Here’s the full breakdown. Traditionally mined diamonds produce over 125 pounds of carbon per carat, while lab-grown diamonds generate just 6 pounds of carbon per carat. Mined diamonds also produce over 30 pounds of Sulphur oxide while lab-grown diamonds produce none. In total, air emissions on a single carat of a mined diamond are 1.5 billion times higher than those of a lab-grown one.
Moving into water and energy usage, a mined diamond consumes more than 126 gallons of water and 538.5 million joules per carat. By comparison, lab-grown diamonds consume just 18 gallons of water and 250 million joules per carat. Furthermore, much of the energy used in creating lab-grown diamonds is renewable.
Last but not least, mined diamonds take up 100 square feet of land per carat and produce over 5798 pounds of mineral waste. Lab-grown diamonds, meanwhile, disrupt just 0.07 square feet of land per carat and produce only 1 pound of mineral waste. One study even concluded that diamond-growing facilities “are often located in areas that have a negligible impact on the environment and have almost no impact on biodiversity in the area of operation.”