I have to start this off by admitting that I’ve never been much for fancy jewelry; I’m just as happy with cheap costume stuff, in general, as I am with something expensive. Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but this girl has an easier time wearing something I don’t have to freak out about losing or whatever.

But there’s a lot of talk in eco-circles about the environmental (and humanitarian) impact of things like diamonds. The “green” thing to do is buy lab-grown diamonds, or recycle existing ones. Reading about this makes me feel somewhat smug, because my wedding band belonged to my great-grandmother. Here I thought I was being cheap sentimental in wearing her band, but it turns out, actually I was recycling the diamonds!

This trend is, of course, opening up the market for companies like Green ORO to step in with jewelry made from conflict-free diamonds and recycled metals, which is very cool.

And then there’s also things like designer Linda Loudermilk’s “Water is a Human Right” line, wherein you can pick up this quirky water necklace and know that a portion of your proceeds goes to the YEW Foundation to support clean water initiatives. If that’s not jewelry with a greener purpose, I don’t know what is.

This stuff certainly makes me think about greening my (occasional) jewelry purchases, that’s for sure.