FRONT ROW CONSERVATION
new Tiffany True diamonds, the majority of which are polished on
Mauritius. While Tiffany’s commitment to preserving the island’s coral
reefs technically has nothing to do with diamond production, Anisa
Kamadoli Costa, the brand’s chief sustainability officer, explains that
it’s all connected. “People want to bucket things in their minds: ‘This
is an environmental issue; this is a social issue.’ But actually, there are
very few issues where it isn’t both. If we don’t take care of oceans, we
can’t take care of the local communities that live on a fishing economy.”
Not to mention the nonhuman species they support. “Coral is known
as the nursery of the oceans because it supports hundreds of thousands
of species,” she explains. It’s no leap to imagine that damage to reefs
could threaten the island’s entire future.
In 2000, the year it was founded, the Tiffany & Co. Foundation made
its first grant to support coral and marine conservation. Since then, it
has awarded more than $20 million in grants to the cause—funds that
are sorely needed. As Kamadoli Costa points out, only 1 percent of
philanthropic funding for the environment goes to the oceans, despite
the fact that they cover three-quarters of the globe and play such an
important role in cooling the planet and sequestering carbon.
When the company introduced the Tiffany True diamond in fall
2018, it was its first new engagement-ring cut in almost a decade. Each
stone is laser-etched with a serial number that traces its provenance.
Hart says this idea didn’t stem from survey data about millennials and
their need for socially responsible products. “We’ve been working on
this since before millennials were millennials, before they were con-
suming,” he says. Next year, the company will start sharing even more
about its diamonds, letting the public in on the details of the craftsman-
ship process. As Hart puts it, “I’m happy to share anything about our
diamonds with anybody.”ONE OF THE
MICROSCOPES
USED TO
INSPECT TIFFANY
DIAMONDS.THE COAST OF
MAURITIUS, AS SEEN
BY HELICOPTER.TIFFANY TRUE
ENGAGEMENT
RING IN PLATINUM,
STARTING AT $1,700,
TIFFANY.COM
MARTIN CROOK166