Packaging

Packaging is one of the more resolved parts of the business. The wooden ring boxes are made from 100% FSC certified wood, and 90% of paperboard packaging is 100% FSC Recycled and kerbside recyclable. A 2024 redesign of the jewelry boxes and shipper boxes cut the weight of e-commerce packaging by 44%, which lowers both material use and freight emissions on a shipping-heavy model. Customers can also send boxes back to be recycled, which is unusual in fine jewelry where the box is often treated as a keepsake and then binned.

Two things hold the score below the top band. Eliminating single-use plastics is still listed as an open goal rather than an achievement, so protective sleeves and poly bags remain somewhere in the shipping chain, and the company does not publish what those are made of or how much is used. There is also no disclosure at all on inks, coatings, adhesives or laminates, and no compostable or plastic-negative certification of the kind that would evidence the leading tier. The remaining 10% of paperboard is unaccounted for.

Materials and Sourcing

This is the strongest area of the business and the reason the brand exists. In 2025, 99.5% of the gold and 96.4% of the silver used in its jewelry came from repurposed sources, bought only from refiners holding Responsible Jewellery Council Chain of Custody or SCS Recycled Content certification, with an annual independent verification of every jewelry supplier’s repurposed metal purchases

Traceability on stones is also well ahead of the category. Mined diamonds are restricted to approved operations in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Canada under a published chain of custody protocol, with Angola added in 2025 through a separate improvement programme, and part of the range carries blockchain-backed origin records. Lab-grown diamonds are offered as a mining-free option, and 32% of them were cut and polished using renewable energy, renewable energy credits or under SCS Sustainably Rated certification. Recycled diamonds are sold alongside new stones. 

The gaps are real and worth understanding. Repurposed gold is a genuinely lower-impact input, but gold is already recovered at very high rates worldwide, so redirecting existing metal does not on its own reduce how much new gold is dug up; the Fairmined work is what actually reaches miners, and at under four kilograms a year it is still a small counterweight. Platinum is largely not repurposed because supply is thin, and chains, clasps, posts and peg heads are explicitly exempt from the repurposed requirement, which matters because chains are high-volume components. 

Energy Use and Carbon Footprint

Brilliant Earth reports a 2025 footprint of 14,397 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, independently verified across all three scopes for the third consecutive year. That level of assurance is rare in jewelry. Scope 3 accounts for 95% of the total, and diamonds, gemstones and precious metals alone account for 69%, which is an honest picture rather than a flattering one. Reduction targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative: a 54.6% cut in Scopes 1 and 2 and a 32.5% cut in Scope 3 by 2033, against a 2023 baseline, and net zero by 2050.

Operationally, market-based Scope 2 emissions are zero because the company buys Green-e certified renewable energy credits covering all non-renewable electricity in its showrooms and offices. Seven showrooms now buy renewable power directly from their utility, and a green building standard adopted in 2022 has been applied to ten new stores, cutting lighting energy by roughly 30%. Half of mined diamonds and just under a third of lab-grown diamonds were cut and polished with renewable energy or in certified efficient facilities.

The caveats: renewable energy credits are doing most of the work rather than contracted or on-site renewable supply, and the company’s own long-term target acknowledges this by committing to eliminate location-based Scope 2 emissions only by 2050.

Waste Management

Circularity is designed into how the company sells. Customers can send in gold and platinum jewelry for store credit, return wooden boxes for recycling, and trade up a diamond for full original credit under a lifetime upgrade programme. Every piece carries a free lifetime warranty with repair and resizing, and the company reports that bridal repair rates fell year on year, which is a meaningful durability signal. At manufacturing sites, air, water and dust collection systems reclaim precious metal dust generated in production. Showrooms have recycling receptacles and new stores have dropped single-use disposable tableware.

The operational numbers are less impressive than the product story. Across 42 showrooms, offices and the distribution centre the company generated 485 tonnes of waste in 2025, of which 207 tonnes were recycled and 278 tonnes went to landfill, a diversion rate of roughly 43% against a stated ambition of zero waste. That figure is also estimated rather than measured: waste for 41 of 42 sites is extrapolated from a single showroom’s bill. Eliminating single-use plastics remains an unmet goal.

Business Model

Fine jewelry is inherently slow-consumption, and Brilliant Earth leans into that with a lifetime warranty, repair, upgrades and made-to-order settings that keep finished inventory low. The heirloom framing is consistent and the pieces are built to last decades.

Working against that is the shape of a listed growth company. The last two years brought a proprietary lab diamond colour, a second Jane Goodall capsule, a celebrity collaboration and a Swiss watch line released in editions of 35 and 65 pieces, alongside continued expansion into new categories and new showrooms. The diamond upgrade programme, framed as circularity, also functions as a repeat-purchase mechanism. This is a business that balances durability with steady novelty rather than one built around buying less.