Pandora opens $150 million Vietnam precious jewelry factory powered by renewable resource

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam– Danish precious jewelry business Pandora has actually opened the world’s biggest fine-jewelry crafting center in Vietnam, a $150 million factory powered totally by eco-friendly electrical energy and utilizing 100% recycled gold and silver.

The growth highlights a more comprehensive obstacle for the fashion jewelry market: minimizing the ecological footprint of rare-earth elements while fulfilling growing need for fashion jewelry. Utilizing recycled gold and silver can decrease the requirement for freshly mined metals, however specialists state making that shift needs reputable supply chains and higher openness

The brand-new center in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam will produce approximately 60 million pieces of fashion jewelry a year, increasing the business’s production capability by 50% while cutting its carbon footprint by 17%, CEO Berta de Pablos-Barbier informed The Associated Press.

“We are blazing a trail and we truly hope that the rest follow,” she stated.

After 37 years in Thailand, Pandora wished to broaden its production base to increase versatility and enhance supply-chain strength, Pablos-Barbier stated.

She stated that it selected Vietnam for its experienced craftsmens who can satisfy Pandora’s requirements for workmanship, its organization environment and its strong facilities.

Access to renewable resource facilities to power factories is progressively an “important factor” for Pandora and other Danish business, Lina Gandløse Hansen, Denmark’s ambassador to Vietnam, stated.

Pandora’s Vietnam center, with 7,000 employees, will be powered completely by sustainable electrical power from the sun and wind, with photovoltaic panels set up on its roofs and strategies to deal with regional solar farms, the business stated.

It is likewise throughout the roadway from the $1 billion factory that toymaker Lego opened in 2025, where it states it makes toys without including planet-warming gases to the environment.

Vietnam has actually quickly broadened renewable resource and had Southeast Asia’s biggest set up solar and wind capability at the end of 2024. The nation still relies greatly on coal to power its fast-growing economy, making it crucial for makers to move towards cleaner electrical energy as Vietnam works towards net-zero emissions by 2050.

Production comprises a fifth of Vietnam’s GDP and takes in half the energy it utilizes. There are strategies to phase out its coal power plants by 2040.

Pandora’s dedication to utilizing recycled gold and silver was a “huge offer,” said Saleem H. Ali, who leads the program on critical minerals and inclusive energy transitions at the United Nations University.

He said gold is especially easy to recycle and unlike metals such as copper, it does not break down or rust. Silver can also be recycled, although it can tarnish and needs to be cleaned.

“That is why it is so valuable. We still have gold from the ancient Egyptians, in pretty good shape,” he said.

The Danish company switched to using 100% recycled silver and gold for new jewelry in August 2024.

Its factories receive small grains of refined metal from recyclers in Europe and Asia, sourced from items ranging from medical equipment to old cutlery, said Pandora’s chief sustainability officer Mads Twomey-Madsen.

It likewise suggests finding providers, smelters or refiners that utilize just recycled product. There’s likewise a danger that some might include recently mined product into the mix, Ali stated. “That includes a great deal of auditing.”

Pandora started altering its broader supply chain 5 years earlier by embracing requirements set by the Responsible Jewellery Council, a market group that promotes accountable practices consisting of on human rights, employees’ rights and ecological effects, Twomey-Madsen stated. The business utilizes independent auditors, he stated.

He stated the supreme objective is for the whole supply chain, consisting of the energy-intensive procedure of heating and separating metals from other products to get rid of pollutants, to be powered by tidy energy.

Recuperating important metals from disposed of items and other waste is an obstacle, Twomey-Madsen stated.

The world is producing more e-waste than ever — 62 million metric heaps in 2022, predicted to grow to 82 million metric heaps by 2030, according to a report by the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union and research study arm UNITAR. Much of this is processed informally, where employees can be exposed to hazardous compounds while recuperating important metals such as gold and silver.

More than 1,000 damaging compounds have actually been discovered in e-waste or produced when it is incorrectly recycled, consisting of lead, mercury, cadmium and other hazardous chemicals, according to the World Health Organization.

Ali, the vital minerals professional, stated that artisanal gold mining– when people or little groups extract gold utilizing easy tools– was now the biggest reason for mercury contamination worldwide. Miners in bad nations might utilize the hazardous metal to different gold from other products, hurting individuals and the environment.

He stated there have actually been efforts to enhance gold sourcing, however tracing gold stays hard. South Asia, in specific, has high need for gold and precious jewelry sellers typically do not ask where their gold originates from.

“Once it gets melted, it’s extremely difficult to track it,” he stated.

Twomey-Madsen stated that the business hopes its dedication to purchasing recycled metals will reveal providers that there is a growing market for the products. He included that Pandora at first paid a premium for recycled gold and silver, soaking up the greater expense and investing with providers to develop a more dependable supply chain for the products.

Making fashion jewelry is far less emissions-intensive than sectors such as air travel or cement. He stated a switch by the whole market changing to recycled gold and silver might avoid about 58 million metric lots (63.9 million U.S. heaps) of carbon dioxide from going into the environment each year.

“That is equivalent to the whole emissions of New York City,” he stated.

___

Ghosal reported from Hanoi, Vietnam

___

The Associated Press’ environment and ecological protection gets financial backing from several personal structures. AP is exclusively accountable for all material. Discover AP’s requirements for dealing with philanthropies, a list of advocates and moneyed protection locations at AP.org