REHOVOT, Israel, Aug. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the completion of a comprehensive sustainability audit, laboratory grown diamond producer LUSIX has been accredited, and its rough diamonds have been certified, under the SCS 007 Sustainability Rated Diamond Standard for Trial Use. This pilot accreditation confirms that LUSIX's production operation located in Rehovot, Israel has met the relevant requirements of the program covering five major areas: origin assurance, ethical stewardship, climate neutrality, sustainable production practices and strategic sustainability investments.
Benny Landa, Chairman of the Landa Group and LUSIX founder, said after hearing the news, "We believe consumers today want to know the origin of the products they purchase, the impact those products have on the environment and community, and to have confidence in the claims made by their producers. LUSIX is proud to work together with SCS and partners to help implement this industry standard throughout the whole value chain."
The standard was developed under an international, multi-stakeholder process managed by non-profit SCS Standards Development, with the involvement of diamond producers, retailers, technology experts, environmental and social responsibility civil society representatives and academia. Certification expert SCS Global Services conducted the third-party audit assessment.
"Meeting the requirements of the SCS 007 standard in order to achieve accreditation as a producer, and certification of the diamonds coming from LUSIX' production operation, is no small accomplishment," said Stanley Mathuram, SCS Global Services Executive Vice President. "LUSIX accreditation is an important milestone in helping to bring sustainability rated diamonds to market."
LUSIX signed on early as a pilot participant while the standard was under development in order to help advance uptake of a full sustainability standard by the industry. The company focused exclusively on the rough diamond production stage, and as such, is qualified for making business-to-business claims for its diamonds. Once the chain-of-custody provisions are in place, and the remaining handlers in the chain of custody are accredited, then LUSIX diamonds will be eligible to be sold to end consumers as Certified Sustainability Rated Diamonds.
LUSIX has the highest level of commitment to the process and belief in the contribution this will make to the company and industry. It is currently building an additional facility with hundreds of new proprietary reactors to expand the production of certified sustainable lab grown rough diamonds.
LUSIX CEO, Dr. Silviu Reinhorn added, "We are very pleased that we meet and, in some respects, exceed the SCS Standard. This certification keeps us in step with the growing desire for validated and certified sustainability claims and the retailer's need to assure origin claims. LUSIX is the origin, therefore it is in our interest to work closely with our customers to develop a tracking process to ensure traceability from origin to retail."
"As a scientist, I found the SCS sustainability validation process very organized and detailed", said Dr. Yossi Yayon, LUSIX CTO. "The results of the audit confirmed that the LUSIX propriety growth process is indeed as environmentally and socially responsible as we have claimed. In keeping with the requirements of the standard, we intend to continue working on further reducing net CO2 emission to become fully climate neutral by 2024."
The LUSIX team has set up ongoing monitoring and reporting systems that interface with SCS directly and looks forward to working with the trade on expanding the role of certified lab grown diamonds.
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