IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN
by Len Sousa

Erasing The Blood Diamond Stigma

The Simmons Jewelry Company, co-owned by hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons and his ex-wife Kimora Lee Simmons, has announced what it’s termed the Green Initiative Collection. Thanks to a popular Hollywood movie and recent campaigns geared at spreading the word, the idea of buying conflict or blood diamonds from Africa has rightly sent a chill down the spines of many jewelry lovers. In an effort to combat this negative view and, essentially, make people feel better about buying pretty things, Simmons has rather deftly exploited the angle for charity.

Co-founder of Def Jam Records and producer of shows like Def Comedy Jam and Def Poetry Jam, Russell Simmons has added yet another “Def” to his repertoire with the establishment of the Diamond Empowerment Fund (DEF)—a non-profit group that accepts donations made from sales of the Green Initiative Collection.

Among several other necklace and bracelet designs, customers who wish to look good and make a charitable donation at the same time may purchase the Green Bracelet made of malachite beads and a conflict-free rough diamond encased in a gold pendant for $125. Fifty percent of the net profits made from the Green Bracelet will be donated to the DEF. However, only twenty-five percent of net profits from all other items in the Green Initiative Collection will similarly be donated.

Ellen Haddigan, Executive Director of the DEF, says the group’s mission is to help support “education initiatives that develop and empower those most disadvantaged” in countries where diamonds are mined. She adds, “[The] DEF will choose a small number of projects at a time as the focus of its granting efforts. We are starting with CIDA City Campus in South Africa, and are very interested in Botswana as it is really a model for how diamonds can be used effectively for the benefit of an entire nation.”

Certainly a worthy cause, but what’s surprising about the DEF’s choice to aid South Africa and Botswana is that most conflict diamonds (that is, diamonds sold to directly finance war and violence) come from other areas of Africa. Countries like Angola, Liberia, and Sierra Leone have all been the most hard-hit by the sale of blood diamonds.

Today, thanks to the diamond industry’s adoption of the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme in 2003, blood diamonds make up less than one percent of the diamonds sold in the world. The instances of violence depicted in the 2006 film Blood Diamond and in Kanye West’s Grammy-winning song “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” have since been dramatically reduced.

Though the DEF would not release how much money they’ve raised, Executive Director Haddigan did discuss just how far the DEF’s goals extend. “The vision for DEF is to engage the entire diamond and jewelry industry in raising funds to benefit educational initiatives in African nations where diamonds are a natural resource. The Simmons Jewelry Company has been incredibly helpful to DEF in helping build awareness for our mission, and the Diamond Trading Company and DeBeers are founding supporters of DEF.”

Participating in what they call “cause marketing” in their open invitation to the international diamond jewelry industry, the DEF has asked companies to join in simply because it makes good business sense. As the invitation reads, “According to the Cone Millennial Cause Study in 2006, 89% of Americans age 13 to 25 would switch from one brand to another of comparable product and price if one were associated with a good cause.”

This brand thinking is what likely caused Simmons Jewelry to name their collection the “Green Initiative” in the first place. The “Green” in this sense has nothing to do with being environmentally friendly but instead refers to diamonds simply being a “natural” resource in Africa. Of course, oil is also a natural resource, but one would be hard-pressed to call it “Green.”

In the end, it seems the Simmons Jewelry Company has found a clever way to convince those not generally interested in donating money to purchase a something pretty knowing that at least some of the money will go to a good cause. Though it’s only fair to remember that the same $125 could be donated in its entirety to a non-profit like UNICEF or Amnesty International and do just as much good. But then one wouldn’t have the chance to wear the same bracelet as Beyoncé, and we couldn’t have that, now could we?

Originally Published:
Skope Magazine (Jan/Feb 2008)