Shairu Gems Diamonds Pvt. Ltd: Addressing Ethical, Social & Environmental Issues

Shairu Gems Diamonds is a leading polished diamond supplier with manufacturing operations located in the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in Surat. The company was started in Surat in 1976 by Shailesh and Kumar Mehta. By 1982, it had expanded to Mumbai. The company currently employs more than 1,500 employees and has clients all over the world, including Belgium, Dubai, South Africa, New York, Hong Kong and China.

The Surat factory is the first in the diamond industry of the world to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). This signifies that it has scored between 70 and 79 points and has been awarded the Title of National Excellence. This is only awarded if the building has specific environmental benefits, if it reduces imbalance in nature, and if it has a superior infrastructure. A LEED building must be resource-efficient, use 15–50 per cent less water, 15–30 per cent less energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There should be improved occupant comfort and enhanced air quality.

CSR Initiatives

Through its corporate social responsibility and philanthropic initiatives, Shairu Gems is committed to address important social, environmental, humanitarian and educational issues for its communities.

Social

Shairu Gems supports economically weaker women by buying cloth bags made by them. They support mentally disabled children by purchasing Diwali diyas, files and cleaning materials made by them. The jeweller also distributes free food to poor on a daily basis to approx. 150 people.

Environment

The company undertakes tree plantation activities to save the environment. They support the ban of single use plastic by discouraging its use in the company. Injured birds are rescued and treated by the company. Shairu Gems encourages the use of solar plants for which they have been rated by IGBC as the world’s first green diamond factory building. Cleanliness camps are done regularly. The company has also minimized the use of freshwater, and there is extensive work done in waste reduction.

Humanitarian

Shairu Gems oganizes regular health check up and blood donation camps. They organize tobacco seminars for general awareness. As a humantarian activity, workshops on character building are also held. Organ donation and acupuncture awareness programmes and camps are held at regular intervals.

Education

Since the last ten years, Shairu Gems has adopted the Surat Municipal Corporation School. They are prime donors in Girls’ High School, Ambaji, Gujarat. They hold character building workshops for children and also provide scholarships to potential students.

Offering medical help: Among other projects, they organize annual blood donation camps and are a prime benefactor to a cardiac hospital in India that provides medical treatments at affordable costs and dedicates a significant amount of resources to help the disadvantaged people of the country.

Supporting schools: Shairu Gems also subsidizes the running of two public schools and have financed the construction of a girl’s school in the rural parts of India as women in traditional Indian society are the most affected by illiteracy.

Encouraging tree plantation: Additionally, in order to balance India’s urbanization, Shairu Gems encourages tree plantation every year by donating saplings to municipalities, individuals, schools or real estate projects.

Shairu Gems Becomes India’s First Carbonneutral Diamond Manufacturer: Shairu Gems Group is India’s first carbon-neutral diamond manufacturer by compensating for emissions through carbon offsets. The company worked with Natural Capital Partners, the leading experts on carbon neutrality and climate finance, to achieve the CarbonNeutral® certification.

Siddharth Mehta, Director, Shairu Gems, said; “Being an environmentally friendly business has always been a key pillar of our corporate philosophy. We built the world’s first LEED* (Gold) diamond factory in 2014 and today we have achieved carbon neutrality across our global operations. I am very proud of this achievement, which has been recognised by Natural Capital Partners.” An independent assessment calculated all emissions associated with the global operations of Shairu’s business, including third-party transporters and distributors as well as business travel and employee commuting. To meet its carbon-neutral goal, the firm invested in emission reduction projects, supporting the transition to a low carbon global economy.

“We increasingly see luxury consumers assessing the social and environmental impact of their purchase decisions. Our pursuit for positive climate action will only benefit our retail partners in meeting their luxury consumers’ needs,” Mehta added. Rebecca Fay, Chief Marketing Officer from Natural Capital Partners, stated: “We are pleased to be working with Shairu Gems Group, who are showing the importance of carbon neutrality in driving forward climate action and taking a lead in their sector.”

Holding a tree plantation drive
An exhibition by mentally disabled children
Distributing food to the poor and needy

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