Willy Wonka diamonds and 100 new Ecotricity jobs in Stroud

The Skydiamond factory could be built at Eco Park, near Stonehouse, creating up to 100 new jobs, the Ecotricity founder revealed.

The first Skydiamonds, worth one carat each, and a tour of the existing factory will be won by ten customers who buy his book, Manifesto, from Stroud Bookshop or the Forest Green Rovers and Ecotricity websites.

Commenting on the Eco Park proposal, Mr Vince said: “We want to build something really big there, the diamond market is enormous and we want to have more than a dent in that, we want to put a hole in it.” 

The existing Stroud facility can make 200 carats a month but is built to scale production up to 1000 carats.

Skydiamonds, formed by capturing carbon dioxide from the air, are a carbon-negative alternative to traditional diamond mining, which produces a large amount of CO2.

The project features in the epilogue of Mr Vince’s new book, which tells his life story and sets out a zero-carbon plan for the UK.

“We need to see the climate crisis for what it is: an existential threat orders of magnitude bigger than the virus crisis,” he said.

“There’s no vaccine for it and no social distancing will save us from it.”

Mr Vince pointed to the difference in government funding provided to fight the coronavirus and climate change.

On Wednesday, Boris Johnson pledged £12bn for a ‘green industrial revolution.’

 
“The amount of money that’s been committed to this is pathetic,” Mr Vince said.

“It amounts to a pile of nothing. What I think it is, is a box ticking exercise for a government that needs a bit of good PR and thinks that green is a popular cause.”

Attitudes have changed and business has changed, he said, but politics remains a missing link in the fight for a greener future.

“I think politics might be something that I might want to get involved in next,” said Mr Vince. 

Manifesto will be available for purchase on November 26.