SCS Abandons Diamond Sustainability Certification

(IDEX Online) - A company that certified sustainably produced diamonds and colored gemstones for seven years has abandoned the program.

SCS Global Services said the market had failed to develop the conditions needed to support the voluntary scheme at scale.

The SCS-007 Sustainably Produced Gemstones certification program ended on September 1. It was designed to provide independent, product-level verification of environmental, social, governance, climate and traceability claims.

SCS said: "Since launch, the market conditions needed to support the voluntary standard at scale have not materialized."

It identified two specific problems: "Certification was not adopted by the mining sector, and no clear regulatory path exists for product-level chain-of-custody claims across an increasingly fragmented supply chain."

In March 2024, SCS said eight lab grown diamond producers, 12 diamond handlers and 65 retailers in 14 countries had been certified, with more than 100,000 certified diamonds sold through more than 500 stores.

But the participation did not provide the breadth SCS needed to make the system work across the supply chain. Its own figures showed eight lab grown producers but no equivalent group of natural diamond mining companies.

SCS Global Services is a third-party certification and assurance organization that works across a wide range of industries, verifying sustainability claims across apparel and textiles, climate, food and agriculture, forestry, fisheries, green building, consumer products, supply chains, and mining.

The program was first introduced in 2020 under trial-use status as a standard for diamonds.

SCS subsequently certified producers, cutters, polishers, wholesalers and retailers. A final diamond standard was published in March 2024, covering both natural and lab grown diamonds.

The following year, SCS expanded the standard to include emeralds, rubies and sapphires.

In announcing the decision to end the program, SCS said the program was being ended because it had not achieved the market conditions needed to operate at scale.

Pic courtesy SCS.