(PRESS RELEASE) LONDON, UK — For every £5,000, Lark & Berry sells in April on any pieces made with diamonds, the brand will remove 65kg of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in partnership with Climeworks, a company using a technology called ‘direct air capture’ to capture carbon dioxide directly from the air.
“£5,000 in sales isn’t just any number, it has significance,” Lark & Berry founder Laura Chavez states. “That’s the approximate, average price for a 1ct mined stone, and the 65kg of CO2 we’re removing from the atmosphere is equivalent to the amount of CO2 it takes to extract that 1 carat stone from a mine.”
“We have only used lab grown diamonds since our launch, but we think we can still help combat the climate damage mining for diamonds can cause by partaking in a collaboration like this. We hope our collaboration with Climeworks serves to remind people, or even introduce them to the fact that they have an option to choose lab grown diamonds for fine jewellery, a diamond that does not need to be mined and can even be grown with 100% renewable energy.”
Lark & Berry decided to begin this collaboration in April to celebrate Earth month but hope to make the collaboration with Climeworks an ongoing one. Lark & Berry launched in 2018 using only cultured diamonds and stones to make luxury jewellery the best way for the planet, and Chavez sees the brand as having another responsibility on top of that – to take decisive action, whenever possible, to further reduce damage being done to our world.
Climeworks was founded in 2009 and is now the leader in direct air capture (DAC) technology. Climeworks’ first direct air capture plant launched in 2017, and the company now has 15 machines in operation, with the world’s first large-scale plant switched on in Iceland in September 2021. To date, the Iceland plant, called the Orca carbon capture plant, is the largest direct air capture facility in the world, capturing 4,000 tons of CO2 per year.