Skydiamond Pioneers A New Generation Of Carbon Diamonds

Diamonds falling from the sky? Whatever next, asks Charlotte Metcalf

Skydiamond Pioneers A New Generation Of Carbon Diamonds

Skydiamond modern-set earrings in recycled white gold, £6,621; classic-set earrings in recycled yellow gold, £6,331; pendant necklaces, as before; classic-set engagement ring, as before; trilogy-set engagement ring in recycled white gold, from £2,000; modern-set engagement ring in recycled yellow gold, from £2,000

‘Skydiamond’ could be the title of a James Bond film, a name that conjures up a wild flight of imagination worthy of any of Ian Fleming’s villains. How could anyone other than a mad creative genius wrest diamonds out of the sky? And, even more extraordinarily, how could anyone be doing this to save the world? Yet that is exactly what Dale Vince, founder of Skydiamond, is doing.

‘We are making the first truly sustainable diamonds from the sky to protect the earth,’ asserts Dale, the flamboyant eco-warrior and accidental businessman, who left school at 15 to travel the world until 1996 when he ‘dropped back in’ and – in his words – ‘went from being an enemy of the state to a green energy tycoon’. He is the founder and owner of Ecotricity, one of the world’s first green energy companies, was a pioneer of electric vehicle charging, and backed the film Seaspiracy. He’s written a book, Manifesto: How a Maverick Entrepreneur Took on British Energy and Won (Ebury, £20), and is on a third series of his podcast Zerocarbonista. The sports world knows him for taking Forest Green Rovers football club vegan and carbon neutral. He fast gained his reputation as the eco-warrior who took on the establishment and has since been recognised by it, becoming a UN Climate Champion and receiving an OBE from the late Queen for services to the environment.

‘We are making the first truly sustainable diamonds from the sky to protect the earth,’ asserts Dale, the flamboyant eco-warrior and accidental businessman, who left school at 15 to travel the world until 1996 when he ‘dropped back in’ and – in his words – ‘went from being an enemy of the state to a green energy tycoon’. He is the founder and owner of Ecotricity, one of the world’s first green energy companies, was a pioneer of electric vehicle charging, and backed the film Seaspiracy. He’s written a book, Manifesto: How a Maverick Entrepreneur Took on British Energy and Won (Ebury, £20), and is on a third series of his podcast Zerocarbonista. The sports world knows him for taking Forest Green Rovers football club vegan and carbon neutral. He fast gained his reputation as the eco-warrior who took on the establishment and has since been recognised by it, becoming a UN Climate Champion and receiving an OBE from the late Queen for services to the environment. With Skydiamond, he’s taken a further bold step. ‘Diamonds are the perfect frontier for the new environmental movement,’ Dale enthuses. ‘We’ve harnessed a combination of technology and imagination to create the ultimate piece of climate bling. And the beauty of it is that this isn’t about giving anything up, but about getting something we’d all rather like to have. Turning something base into something precious is perfect 21st-century alchemy. Above all, it’s fun, which is central to our ethos, as this is how we can win hearts and minds.’

Skydiamond pendants in recycled platinum, £9,961.95, recycled yellow gold, £3,459.67, and recycled white gold, £2,759.53; classic-set engagement ring in recycled white gold, from £2,000; classic-set solitaire earrings in recycled yellow gold, £376.60

Dale came up with the idea while thinking hard about how to remove CO2 from the atmosphere on a planetary scale and store it in the most permanent way. ‘A diamond is the ultimate form of carbon,’ he says. ‘The idea was the easy bit. Making them took a little more time!’ Indeed, it took five years of research and development to realise his idea. 

The process is complex but in short, it uses a technique called ChemicalVapour Deposition, whereby a thin slice of diamond seed is placed in a sealed chamber and heated. The chamber is then filled with carbon-rich gas from the atmosphere, along with other gases, which are then ionised into plasma using microwaves. The ionisation breaks the molecular bonds in the gases and the pure carbon adheres to the diamond seed, slowly building up into a crystal, atom by atom, layer by layer. During the process, which takes about 14 days, temperatures range between 900-1,200oC, powered solely by solar and wind energy at Ecotricity’s home in the Cotswolds.

‘In creating this method we’ve set a new industrial standard fit for the 21st century,’ says Dale, ‘and the air we put back into the atmosphere is cleaner than the air we take out. Besides our process is unique in bringing wind, sun, rain and atmospheric carbon together at one British facility to produce diamonds, with the result that Skydiamonds are far kinder to the planet even than lab-grown diamonds, which are mass-produced, often using brown energy and gases that are by-products of the fossil fuel industry. We are the only diamond producer on the planet to be carbon negative through our design process rather than just offsetting.’

Skydiamonds are optically, physically and chemically identical to mined ones and at the end of September, they launched their first jewellery collection. It includes necklaces and stud earrings, in a range of beautiful, classic and contemporary designs for everyday wear, with prices starting at £350 and going up to £14,000, depending on the diamond’s carat. There will also be five designs of engagement rings, and a collaboration with jeweller Stephen Webster in December.

Because production is so limited, buyers are in possession of some of the rarest gems on the planet. Every stone is laser etched with a certification number from Birmingham’s internationally recognised AnchorCert Gemological Institute and Skydiamond also worked with Imperial College London to carry out an independent life cycle analysis of its process.

Dale has no qualms about taking on the powerful diamond mining industry. ‘Shops often don’t know where their stones come from and diamond mining is notorious for its negative environmental, social and ethical impact,’ is his view. ‘We’re not urging people to deprive themselves or stop buying beautiful things but to do things better. Skydiamond gives you an exquisite gem entirely free from conflict, pollution and guilt.’

The model and environmental activist, Lily Cole, is an early adopter and fan. ‘Skydiamond blew my mind,’ she says. ‘We can mine the sky, turning an existential problem into this coveted thing of beauty. Skydiamond represents the perfect metaphor of how we ought to be evolving every industry in the face of climate crisis. I’m delighted to be supporting Skydiamonds because they’re carbon negative by design, a brilliant solution, rather than a problem.’ skydiamond.com