DiamondsThatCare for Those Who Mind test
Sustainability is one of the most important concerns on today’s business agenda, with growing interest in ESG from consumers and investors.
In the luxury segment, social impact and the environmental agenda are gradually becoming criteria for choosing which brands to buy. There is much hype around this topic, with different brands vying with each other to report when they will become carbon-neutral and how they are recycling waste materials. Meanwhile, there is increasing focus on company declarations regarding ESG investments, and on assessing their contributions to society and the planet.
In this regard, luxury items—and diamonds in particular—are becoming particularly topical. As a result, the diamond giant ALROSA, which produces one out every four diamonds mined in the world today, recently published its Impact Report for the period 2010–2020, which spells out exactly where its sizable social investments are going.
ALROSA mines diamonds in Yakutia, the land of permafrost and northern lights. This vast Siberian region in the far North is one of the coldest places on Earth, where sunshine is scarce and survival is a skill. Settlements in the harsh conditions of Yakutia are located so far from each other that some can only be reached by helicopter in summer and by ice road in winter.
That is why ALROSA creates conditions for people to live safe and productive lives in Yakutia through its DiamondsThatCare program. Between 2010 and 2020, ALROSA’s socio-economic impact on the region exceeded $22 billion. Last year, the program’s budget was $216 million.
The DiamondsThatCare initiative has funded numerous projects in the communities in which ALROSA operates: thousands of emergency medical operations, dozens of hospitals and rehabilitation centers, programs to support Indigenous people, new roads, bridges and airports and much more—about 500 projects a year. Most recently, about $3 million was allocated to modernizing health-care systems in several Yakutian cities; $16 million was given for the new Children’s Rehabilitation Center to support vulnerable children with autism and provide thousands of families in Russia’s Far East with the resources and support the region previously lacked; and over $20 million was allocated to projects aimed at combating Covid-19 and helping communities affected by the pandemic.
Besides health care, substantial funds are invested in education and supporting youth in Yakutia. Through DiamondsThatCare, last year the company spent over $3 million on the construction of a children’s center, where young people now study music, languages, robotics, coding and other inspiring subjects. In 2020, the company also allocated almost $13 million to the Trust Fund for Future Generations to create innovative cultural, educational and sports infrastructure. ALROSA is the largest donor to the fund, and contributed $2.8 million over 2019–2021 to finance the construction of the Park for Future Generations in Yakutsk city, the region’s capital.
The DiamondsThatCare campaign also funds conservation projects to help preserve the culture and traditions of the region’s small Indigenous communities. Wildlife has also been a focus: ALROSA directs funds toward preserving the area’s northern deer, whose population of only 84,000 individuals has been threatened with extinction. These wonderful creatures can now be seen running in the snowfields wearing collars with transmitters that ALROSA has purchased to track the animals’ migration, allowing scientists to monitor the deer population’s behavioral patterns and promptly respond to critical situations.
While the approach of the holiday season heralds the start of a festive time when you choose something special for those you love, your luxury gift can be not only valuable, but also meaningful—and a gift of diamonds is a unique way to share wealth with the Yakutia region and its people, where funds wouldn’t otherwise necessarily flow. These diamonds are not only precious stones, not just perfect, crystalline modifications of carbon—these are minerals with a positive spirit, gems that give back.
So, when you buy jewelry with a natural diamond, you don’t just make your loved ones feel special. You also take care of others and make the world a better place.
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This article was written and supplied by ALROSA
