Pandora, one of the world’s biggest jewelry brands, announced Tuesday it is ditching mined diamonds for lab-made gems. 

The Denmark-based company said it’s aiming to transform the market for diamond jewelry “with affordable, sustainably created products.” Consumer demand and environmental concerns are driving the switch, Pandora said.

Lab-grown diamonds “are as much a symbol of innovation and progress as they are of enduring beauty and stand as a testament to our ongoing and ambitious sustainability agenda,” Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik said. “Diamonds are not only forever, but for everyone.”

The Pandora Brilliance lab-made collection, which includes rings, bangles, necklaces and earrings, is initially being launched in the United Kingdom and will extend worldwide in 2022. 

The man-made diamonds are identical to mined stones, with the same optical, chemical, thermal and physical characteristics, the company said. They are graded on the same standard known as the four C’s — cut, color, clarity and carat — as traditional diamonds. 

The gemstones are created by heating a hydrocarbon gas mixture to 1,472 degrees Fahrenheit, which causes carbon atoms to be deposited on a small seed diamond and grown into crystals layer by layer.

Pandora said the diamonds are manufactured using 60% renewable energy — a number the company expects to hit 100% next year — and greenhouse gas emissions from non-renewable energy are being offset by supporting carbon finance projects to meet CarbonNeutral certification standards.

The diamonds are also more affordable, making them more accessible to customers who had previously been priced out of the market. Lacik told BBC that lab diamonds can be made for "a third of what it is for something that we've dug up from the ground."

Although Pandora’s announcement Tuesday did not touch on them, the diamond industry has been plagued by ethical concerns for years, including reports of human rights abuses at mines and factories and so-called “blood diamonds” that have helped fund conflicts, although improvements have been made.

The annual diamond industry report by Bain & Co. this year said that the market for lab-created stones is seeing double-digit growth because they are more affordable and younger customers and investors value sustainability, transparency and social welfare. The report, however, noted that many people still view lab-made diamonds as artificial. 

Last year, Pandora announced it was discontinuing use of newly mined gold and silver. The company, whose products are sold in more than 100 countries, made 85 million pieces of jewelry last year and sold 50,000 diamonds.