Pandora vows to ditch mined silver and gold for its jewellery by 2025

Pandora, the world's largest jewellery maker by volume, has today announced it will phase out mined silver and gold from its jewellery line by 2025.

The Copenhagen-based company said the move to recycled sources will slash the company's carbon emissions and water usage, given it will allow the company to minimise its reliance on the resource-intensive mining process.

Recycled silver has one third of the carbon emissions of mined silver, according to the company, while recycled gold has emissions 600 times lower than newly-mined gold.

The company has less than five years to get the percentage of recycled silver and gold used in its jewellery up from 70 per cent today to 100 per cent. Today's goal will apply to all silver and gold pieces, grains, and semi-finished items such as chains manufactured by Pandora, but also parts provided by suppliers, the firm explained.

Chief executive Alexander Lacik said the "significant commitment" would allow the company to do its part to build a more circular economy. "Silver and gold are beautiful jewellery materials that can be recycled forever without losing their quality," Lacik noted. "Metals mined centuries ago are just as good as new. They will never tarnish or decay. We wish to help develop a more responsible way of crafting affordable luxury like our jewellery, and prevent that these fine metals end up in landfills."

Silver is the most used material in Pandora jewellery, accounting for over half of all purchased product materials measured by weight. As such, the firm said it intends to meet its goal by working with stakeholders across the supply chain to plot ways to increase the availability and production of high quality recycled silver, which currently makes up just 15 per cent of the market.

More than half of recycled silver in circulation comes from industry, where the metal is used in chemical production, electronics and for other purposes, Pandora said.

"The need for sustainable business practices is only becoming more important, and companies must do their part in response to the climate crisis and the depletion of natural resources," Lacik said. "For many years, Pandora has used recycled metals in our designs. Now we are ready to take the next step and stop using mined silver and gold altogether."

The new commitments will help the firm, which employs 28,000 people worldwide, move towards its recently announced target to achieve carbon neutrality across its operations by 2025. 

The firm is also a member of the corporate climate action group Science Based Targets initiative and is set to publish a plan next year that outlines how it intends to reduce carbon emissions across its full value chain in line with the Paris Agreement. And by the end of the year, it intends to transition its two manufacturing facilities in Thailand to renewable power.

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• Topics
• Procurement
• Supply chain
• Management
• Sustainable jewellery
• Pandora
• jewellery
• Silver
• gold
• Mining