Our vertical integration model helps us uphold our standards of craftsmanship, safe and healthy working environments, community economic development and supply chain traceability.
We cut and polish diamonds at our own workshops in Botswana, Mauritius, Cambodia, Vietnam and Belgium. We also manufacture approximately 60% of our jewelry at our state-of-the-art facilities in New York, Kentucky and Rhode Island, and polish and perform certain assembly work on jewelry in the Dominican Republic. Because we operate our own facilities to our high standards, we are able to help ensure safe, healthy and welcoming work environments. We hire and train skilled craftspeople and endeavor to pay a living wage to employees at our manufacturing facilities in developing countries to support local people and communities.
In 2002, we established Laurelton Diamonds, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, to procure rough diamonds and source, cut, polish and supply finished stones. Today, we source 100%* of our rough diamonds directly from known, responsibly managed mines or from responsible suppliers with a limited number of known mines. We source the majority of our rough diamonds from five countries—Botswana, Canada, Namibia, Russia and South Africa; our primary suppliers of rough diamonds are DeBeers, Rio Tinto, Alrosa and Dominion Diamonds.
In keeping with our commitment to responsible sourcing, we provide provenance information—region or countries of origin—for every newly sourced, individually registered diamond (of .18 carats and larger) that we set. In 2020, Tiffany & Co. will launch the Diamond Craft Journey, becoming the first global luxury jeweler to disclose the country where these stones are crafted. The journey outlines several steps, including cutting and polishing, grading and setting—a pioneering achievement in diamond traceability and transparency.
When it comes to traceability of precious metals, we are able to trace 100%* of our raw gold, platinum and silver directly to a mine or recycler. The mines we sourced our raw precious metals from in 2019 are in the United States: Rio Tinto Kennecott’s Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah (for gold and silver), Sibanye-Stillwater’s two mining operations located in Montana (for platinum) and a mine site in Alaska as a part of Salmon Gold.
Our vertical integration model gives us a strong chain-of-custody over raw materials, direct oversight of our manufacturing and a platform to help improve global standards and conditions, serving as a model for others in incorporating environmental and social integrity in sourcing, processing and crafting our jewelry.
*See the Report of Independent Accountants