In case you didn’t know, Leonardo DiCaprio is an environmental activist. Besides making a documentary about climate change called the 11th Hour, DiCaprio serves on several boards for organizations tackling environmental issues. His own foundation aims to protect wildlife and save our oceans. DiCaprio is continuing to save the planet by investing in a startup trying to change the $81.4 billion diamond industry by cutting out the environmentally detrimental mining and problematic labor that usually go into getting diamonds.
The startup is California’s Diamond Foundry and the company is setting out to grow diamonds in a lab with a process using plasma, which produces a minimal carbon footprint. The company explained on their site, “Most simply, we discovered a plasma that allows atoms to attach themselves to a thin slice of earth-extracted diamond. One by one, the atoms stack on top of the earth diamond's unique crystal structure. Layer by layer, it grows into a pure, cultured, jewelry-grade diamond.”
DiCaprio, who starred in Blood Diamond which showed the ethical issues of the industry, tweeted about the changes the Diamond Foundry could bring.
[via The Cut]
