Sustainable shimmer? Brands from Pandora to Tiffany & Co. are switching to recycled gold and silver, while Boucheron and Pomellato are using upcycled materials

Gold jewellery and charms from Pandora's current Summer collection. The world's biggest jewellery brand (by products sold) declared in January that it will only use recycled gold and silver going forward

• The world's largest jewellery brand, Pandora, announced that it will only use recycled gold and silver, and is partnering with Pamela Anderson and Precious Lee for its sustainable jewellery campaign
• Boucheron has a capsule collection centred on Cofalit - a material produced by recycling a by-product of asbestos - while Pomellato is using an ancient Japanese technique to upcycle damaged stones

Famous for its hand-finished charm bracelets, fashion jeweller Pandora sells more than 100 million pieces in more than 100 countries annually. This makes the Danish chain the world's biggest jewellery brand by products sold: a spectacular feat that renders even the most historic houses green with envy.

So when Pandora declared in January that it will now only use recycled gold and silver - in a bid to reduce its carbon footprint and address other environmental concerns related to mining - the announcement quickly became the talk of Place VendOme.

Pandora has smashed its initial target, set in 2020, to limit its supply chain to recycled gold and silver by 2025. However, the journey to success hasn't been without difficulty. The jeweller's suppliers had to introduce new equipment and different manufacturing practices to ensure complete segregation of mined and recycled materials.

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Without them, Pandora couldn't guarantee the provenance of its metals nor meet the chain of custody standards set by the Responsible Jewellery Council, which promotes ethical social and environmental practices by inspecting the credentials of jewellery supply chains. For Pandora's CEO, Alexander Lacik, these challenges are nothing in comparison to those facing our planet.

"Recycling can significantly reduce the climate footprint of the jewellery industry," he said, estimating that the company's shift to 100 per cent recycled gold and silver will slash its supply chain CO2 emissions by a quarter. This amounts to 58,000 tonnes annually, which according to the brand, "is similar to the emissions from the annual electricity use of 11,000 homes, or driving 6,000 cars around the world".

How is this possible? Well, recycling requires less energy and fewer resources than mining. Recycling gold emits less than 1 per cent of the carbon emissions from mining gold, and recycling silver emits one third of the carbon emissions from mined silver.

According to Lacik, recycled metals don't compromise the quality of Pandora's pieces. "Precious metals can be recycled forever without any loss of quality," he said. "Silver originally mined centuries ago is just as good as new."

Pandora isn't the only brand working with salvaged metals. Fine jeweller Lylie, and demi-fine jewellers Missoma and Monica Vinader, have ditched the mining of gold and silver in favour of their recycled counterparts.

"We only use 100 per cent recycled silver and gold, and over half of our gemstone styles have been traced back to their mined origin, leaving no doubt about where they came from," stated founder Monica Vinader. "Our business is growing, but we've got a plan to reduce our emissions - and we're bringing our suppliers and partners on the journey."

In keeping with this strategy, the brand operates an attractive buy-back scheme for customers, and promises that her company will recycle gold and silver from any brand to ensure it gets another life. Donors receive a voucher worth about HK$200 to go towards their next purchase. "We believe that a circular economy and recycling is one of the key pillars of sustainability," said Vinader. "Limit waste, keep materials in use for as long as possible, and regenerate natural products."

Currently, less than 20 per cent of the world's silver comes from recycled supplies - and non-profit Pure Earth continues to report that, for every piece of jewellery made, 95 per cent of carbon emissions come from the mining and production of metals. There's a reason for this: organised criminals have infiltrated recycling plants in various countries, resulting in multimillion-dollar thefts in some cases. In the UK alone, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Metal, Stone and Heritage Crime claims a recent surge in metal theft cost the country's economy half a billion pounds (US$625 million) last year.

Such developments are driven by the widespread availability of valuable scrap metals, and the ease with which stolen gold and silver can be traded anonymously. Tracing the provenance of jewellery has become increasingly problematic - an issue some designers interested in environmentally friendly alternatives to mining are choosing to sidestep.

Boucheron, for example, has unveiled a capsule collection centred on a material produced from asbestos waste. Cofalit, derived from recycling an industrial by-product, is manufactured in a way that renders the notoriously hazardous substance safe.

"Cofalit is the complete opposite of what is considered precious in the collective imagination. I took inspiration from the fact that this material is deemed to have no further utility," said Boucheron's creative director, Claire Choisne.

The maison's parent company, Kering, reaffirmed its commitment to energy-efficient initiatives in its latest impact report. "Luxury and sustainability are one and the same," Kering chairman and CEO Francois-Henri Pinault is reported to have said.

"We are redesigning our business to continue to thrive and prosper sustainably into the future, while at the same time helping to transform the luxury sector, and contributing to meeting the significant social and environmental challenges of our generation."

Italian fashion fine jeweller Pomellato hopes to spur a broader shift by turning to a traditional Japanese mending technique called kintsugi to upcycle damaged stones, while Tiffany & Co. has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2040, a decade earlier than stipulated by the Paris Agreement. The heritage American retailer has already outstripped expectations by achieving a 33 per cent reduction in its carbon footprint - and has additionally pledged to follow Pandora's example by switching to 100 per cent recycled silver, gold and even platinum.

High off Pandora's accomplishments, Lacik has gone one step further by championing lab-grown diamonds as an environmentally friendly alternative to their mined counterparts, collaborating with a supplier that uses 100 per cent renewable energy to produce synthetic gemstones. Identical to their mined counterparts in every way except for their origin, lab-grown diamonds comprise around 10 per cent of all diamond sales - however, the market is expected to double by 2031 to be worth US$55.5 billion. To boost awareness, Pandora is partnering with Pamela Anderson, Precious Lee and other public figures who share the brand's desire for more sustainable jewellery.

Fast-tracking one of the world's most historic industries - while maintaining its heritage and deep-rooted values - is no easy task. Jewellers have historically been resistant to change and slow to adapt to the tastes of today's shoppers.

However, research shows that sustainability is an increasingly important factor to consumers - so more power to the eco-conscious jewellers elevating their collections by challenging the status quo.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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