Jewelry designer and retailer Pandora announced today that it is now sourcing only recycled silver and gold for all its jewelry, in a move the company said will avoid 58,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

The announcement marks the early achievement of Pandora’s goal, set in 2020, to adjust its supply chain to source 100% recycled gold and silver by 2025. Pandora’s value chain makes up more than 80% of the company’s GHG footprint, and the company has set a target to reduce its Scope 3 emissions, emanating from areas including raw materials, packaging, transportation, franchise stores, by 42% by 2030.

According to Pandora, shifting to recycled metals avoids significant greenhouse gas emissions, as mining requires more energy and resources than recycling, with the carbon footprint of recycled silver at one-third of mined silver, and the recycling of gold emitting less than 1% of the carbon emissions from mining new gold.

In order to achieve its goal, Pandora said that all suppliers had to switch their operations to only source materials that are certified recycled according to the Responsible Jewellery Council Chain of Custody, requiring many to introduce new processes and equipment to ensure complete segregation of mined and recycled metals across the entire supply chain including sorting, melting, and manufacturing. The company added that more than 100 Pandora employees have been involved in the transition work.

Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik said:

“Precious metals can be recycled forever without any loss of quality. Silver originally mined centuries ago is just as good as new, and improved recycling can significantly reduce the climate footprint of the jewelry industry.” 

Allowing time for the depletion of existing inventory of metals, Pandora expects that it will craft all new jewelry with 100% recycled silver and gold from the second half of 2024.