It’s well known that a diamond’s value depends upon the grading of the four “C”s: cut, clarity, color, and carat weight. But one company has stepped up to challenge that definition of “value” to add “awareness”, “community”, and “respect” to those values.

That company is Brilliant Earth, and not only are they turning out high quality diamonds, gold jewelry, and other semi precious stones, but they are actively promoting global social awareness, enforcement of fair trade standards, and ecological sustainability practices. A six-year-old company, they have already made quite a positive impact and have been featured in a wealth of various media mentions, from Forbes and CNN to Glamour, National Geographic Green, and HBO’s Entourage.

The beginnings of Brilliant Earth arose, appropriately, from an engagement. Concerned about the current issues in the jewelry industry, founders Beth Gerstein and Eric Grossberg preferred to find a diamond engagement ring that came from a conflict free source. Unfortunately, the reality is that the jewelry trade has been ravaged by injustices in labor treatment, “fair” trade, and thus negatively impacting those people of various communities economically dependent upon the jewelry trade. What’s more is that most of the sources for diamonds also don’t promote sustainable ecological practices. After a disheartening experience seeking ethical origin gems and finding none, they decided to take matters into their own hands. Thus Brilliant Earth was born.

What does it mean for a gem to be conflict free? “Some companies will claim their gems come from a conflict free source,” says Danielle Mainas, who manages Brilliant Earth’s San Francisco showroom, sales, and customer service. “But that only means that gems don’t come from a place that is plagued by war-recognized government. A diamond can be conflict free while still employing bad environmental practices.” Brilliant Earth makes sure to enforce fair trade and sustainable environmental practices. “All of the gems we set are verified for ethic origin,” says Mainas. “Every buyer gets a certificate stating the specific mine the gems come from, outlining their social and environmental practices. Our mine sources work to ensure that those social and environmental practices are progressive. A conflict free source needs to not just be in a government not at war, but they need to employ seriously progressive standards. Right now, there are no standards written for jewelry or for fair trade. We make sure our policies live up to fair trade standards.”

As their mission statement illustrates on the Brilliant Earth website, they are committed to:

Providing Quality-

Brilliant Earth provides the highest quality jewelry originating from pure sources and harvested using socially responsible practices.

Fostering Change-

Brilliant Earth provides education about the social and environmental issues affecting the jewelry industry and identifies ways to help.

Promoting Growth-

Brilliant Earth supports underdeveloped communities ravaged by the jewelry industry by donating a share of our profits.

And Brilliant Earth is committed to environmental and social responsibility in more ways than one. “It’s really about education,” says Mainas. “We want to change the way consumers think about jewelry purchases. It’s about noticing that, whether or not you own a diamond, you are aware of the issues in the jewelry industry. We never buy a diamond that we can’t trace.”

Many of their diamonds come from mines in Canada that follow environmentally sustainable practices. Diamonds from Namibia are mined under strict ecological and socially fair standards, likewise with the sources of Brilliant Earth’s sapphires, emeralds, and pearls. Their gold and platinum metals are all recycled, which avoids destructive types of metal mining that often destroys Earth’s resources, usually releases cyanide and mercury into the water sources in the area, enforces poor labor practices, and disregards the rights of the native people within that area. And recycling does not diminish the quality of these metals, therefore making them a renewable resource.

Brilliant Earth is not only concerned with delivering a high quality product from a peaceful environment, but they give back to the communities that are being destroyed by corrupt practices in the jewelry trade. They give 5% of their profits to those communities affected by poor practices in the jewelry industry. They recently donated $10,000 to the Diamond Development Initiative’s (DDI) Tukudimuna Child Labor program, which is working to end child labor in the mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). And they are working on supporting land restoration and medical aid in jewelry industry-impacted Sierra Leone, providing gemology training in Madagascar, as well as a myriad of other philanthropic endeavors. “Our basic objective is to invest in long term community development,” explains Mainas. “We want children in the DRC get out of DRC, to get out of the mines, and to school them. Our giving does change depending on where the needs are. But right now, that’s where we are focusing”.

The future looks dazzling for Brilliant Earth. Danielle Mainas describes the goals of the company: “We want to promote consciousness of this industry not just in the U.S., but globally. One of our goals is to educate customers that there are fair options out there. We are seeing fair trade gold just starting now to come to surface, starting to write fair trade standards, we want to be sure that becomes serious. We hope that fair trade gold becomes bigger, that people will pay attention, and we hope that business will get back to Africa”.

Above all, Brilliant Earth teaches us that it’s crucially important to be and stay aware of current issues in our world. Every season is the season for love and ecological awareness, so consider giving the Earth some love by helping promote and support sustainability and fair trade. Through their website, you can get a more in-depth portrait of the company and its endeavors, browse an extensive collection of conflict free, ecologically friendly jewelry, and learn how you can get involved. Visit www.brilliantearth.com, and happy conflict free shopping!