Are We Allowed to Want Diamonds Again?

For the socially responsible, diamonds have long been out.  Some of us were ahead of the curve; some of us didn’t swear off our desire for an impressive rock until we were charmed into submission by Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond.  But eventually, we all got the memo.

Now, The Clarity Project is offering diamonds a second chance.  The “boutique company,” as they describe themselves, works with artisanal miners in Sierra Leone to mine the gems fairly, and then it invests its profits back in the mining community.  They explain their work process at length on their website.  Recently, I did a long Q&A with co-founder Jesse Finfrock, and an especially interesting point emerged.

I had long assumed that companies charge me a little more to cleanse my conscience.  When I buy eco-friendly laundry detergent, it’s a lot more expensive than that bright blue crap.  Same for recycled toilet paper, for fair trade home décor … you get the idea.

So I assumed would-be fiancées would pay a premium to brandish guilt-free bling.  I thought I might convince Frinfrock to tell me, roughly, how much more the Clarity Project charges to be so fair and friendly.

The answer?  Not so much.  In fact, Frinfrock said there's an opposite expectation -- that by cutting out the middle man, his prices should be cheaper.

That’s not to say Seventh Generation is ripping us all off.  The difference is that diamonds are a luxury good, and their price points are naturally higher than, say, toilet paper.  Frinfrock explained it this way, “We do not compete on price, as there is absolutely no way for us to compete with the cheap prices of the online world. That isn't our mission either, of course -- if we wanted to provide the lowest priced diamonds on the market, we would obviously be doing things very differently. We're on a whole other mission to maximize the benefit for miners and their communities.”  Perhaps luxury goods can better weather that mission.

Some friends of mine are skeptics; they don’t think even the best of intentions can get the blood out of diamonds.  And I haven’t visited the Clarity Project’s mine.  But if they succeed – both in business and in community restoration – I think their project may be a useful model.  As American policymakers and activists continue to debate how to handle minerals in Congo responsibly, and as activists seek to become savvier and more effective, the Clarity Project may be an example of how well-meaning citizens can educate themselves into business-minded, but fair, change-agents.

Photo credit: Koshyk