Growing Diamonds, Saving the Planet

(idexonline.com) - There was much excitement last month when Lusix announced a $90m funding round, not least because LVMH was among the investors. The French luxury conglomerate now owns the iconic US jeweler Tiffany & Co. Lusix makes lab-grown diamonds. Tiffany has made its position clear on lab-growns, namely that it sees no role for them in a luxury brand. So the fact that its investment arm was joining the rush to be a part of Lusix's success raised some eyebrows. But that's a discussion for another time. What I find no less interesting is a detail that emerged in a subsequent conversation I had with Lusix CEO Dr Silviu Reinhorn about how the company uses nothing but solar power to create its diamonds. More than that, I discovered, Lusix actually generates surplus power that it puts into the grid for ordinary consumers.