World Pearl Assured - Just a Wee Bit Gimmicky

This morning I found an interesting press release in my inbox. The title is what drew my attention, CarbonNeutral pearls available from World Pearl.

What the hell is a carbon-neutral pearl, right? Anyone who has seen the carnage some pearl farms cause (primarily in China) would have a difficult time claiming freshwater pearls are carbon neutral. It is a slow week in pearl news, so I read on.

The pearls this company sells are of a new collection touted as the world’s first carbon neutral pearls. And all them are World Pearl Assured. Huh?! Yeah, that got my attention. Apparently in order for pearls to be World Pearl Assured, they must be real (made by mollusks, ya know), and they must be carbon neutral, which according to the release means that the pearls are not dyed.

So what does carbon neutrality have to do with natural color? Coloring pearls is one of the only post-harvest treatments that is done with organic substances – organic dyes! The Web site connected to the release, JerseyPearl.com, does sell freshwater pearls. So they are not dyed, but they are bleached, and I’m sure a lot of other treatments have been done to them too.

Whatever, right? A gimmick. No big deal. But what is World Pearl Assured? Damn, that sounds official! With the help of Google I found the site. Digging in, I *believe* they are claiming carbon neutrality by supporting groups and organizations that offset the carbon footprint left by pearls. Digging a bit further, WPA is actually owned by Jersey Pearl. Big surprise there.

I certainly hope they are making some hefty donations if they really are trying to make up for China’s footprint. Last year in Hubei, it got so bad that the government had to step in to ban new pearl farm developments.